When
Group B was cancelled in the mid 1980s due to FIA's growing concerns over the safety record of these rally cars, the eventual replacement/stopgap solution proposed was the introduction of
Group S.
However, in OTL, while there was some development going into Group S (e.g. 4 car prototypes in development), the FIA finally decided in 1988 that it's not worth it and cancelled the category. Group S thus gained the distinction of being one of the few official categories of racing cars (rally or otherwise) to never actually compete in a single racing event or championship.
Group A kept going well into the late 1990s and by the mid 1990s, the FIA added more variety to rallying by introducing the (fairly short-lived) Kit Car group and shortly afterward the World Rally Car group (active to date). The latter in particular was seen as a solution to a missing higher-specs group than the long-lived Group A, a position that Group S was originally supposed to fulfill by replacing the ill-fated Group B.
So, how could or would the world of motorsports have been different if Group S was pursued back in the late 1980s ?
Was there even any realistic chance of Group S not being dropped and FIA going ahead with the plan ?
Would rallying and related sports using the classification take on some different characteristics if Group S was still active today or had been active for at least the majority of the late 1980s and the 1990s ?