That’s just what happened with the Volkswagen’s Iltis. From a publicity effort for its new civilian utility vehicle derived from a military spec model came the foundation for a dominant rally car.

Volkswagen is no stranger to rally racing, having won the 1986 Group A championship with a Golf GTI 16V and more recently finding success in the Australian and Finnish Rally Car Championships.

That said, the teams will actually start the season in modified Volkswagen Polo rallycross racers (cars that won the 2013 World Rally Championship), and will switch to the GRC Beetle later in the ...