I think the Japs need motorsport a lot more than ford do. Where would subaru be if it wasn;t for the rally bred impreza? Ford's cars are all curretly pretty much class leaders and sell in massive numbers - fiesta, focus - mondeo (new one out shortly)

So ford can easily do without specialist cars. They can still comptet at top level rallying with the WRC cars. If group A was around, they would have no choice but to build a turbo charged 4wd focus for the road.

Every single RS apart from the fiesta was designed to compete in motorsport. That just isn't needed now.