The World Rally Championship has gained its third committed 2027-regulation constructor, with Spanish rally car builder RMC Motorsport announced at this weekend's Rally Islas Canarias as the latest entrant — and uniquely, the first to arrive with direct backing from an FIA member club.
Based in the northern Spanish town of Villablino and founded by Roberto Mendez in 2004, RMC Motorsport has spent nearly two decades building Group N5 and related rally cars for Spanish, European and privateer programmes. From 2027 it will field an all-new challenger built to the WRC27 technical rulebook, alongside Belgium's Project Rally One and reigning manufacturers' champion Toyota.
What separates RMC from either of its committed rivals is the partnership it unveiled on Thursday at the FIA's Canaries launch event. The Real Federacion Espanola de Automovilismo (RFEDA), the Spanish FIA member club, has signed up as a supporting entity to the programme. It marks the first time an FIA member national sporting authority has formally backed a privately led WRC top-tier entry.
"This project represents the professional culmination of RMC's journey," Mendez said in Gran Canaria, confirming that the first technical details would be shared "very soon" as homologation work progressed.
RFEDA president Manuel Avino framed the tie-up as a strategic move for Spanish motorsport.
"The agreement fulfils several objectives," Avino said. "This is a source of great pride."
The car itself is designed to be fully original rather than a rebadged road-car derivative, in line with the spirit of the 2027 rules that cap build costs at 345,000 euros, mandate a tubular safety cell, require four-wheel drive with a 1.6-litre turbocharged sustainably-fuelled engine, and demand that at least 10 customer examples be produced for sale.
RMC has not yet locked down an engine supplier. Mendez confirmed discussions with existing Rally2 power-unit manufacturers were ongoing, with a decision required well before the car's planned October 2026 rollout.
Former GP2 and World Touring Car Championship racer Javier Villa, 38, has been signed as the development and test driver. RMC says its intent is to enter at least half of the 2027 WRC calendar before expanding to a full season in 2028. A commitment to next January's Rallye Monte Carlo remains undecided.
"Very good drivers are on the table," Mendez said when asked about 2027 line-ups, but explicitly deferred naming any until the car had completed meaningful testing mileage.
The arrival of RMC, following Project Rally One's earlier commitment, leaves the door conspicuously open for Hyundai, Ford M-Sport and Skoda to declare their own plans. Toyota currently remains the only traditional OEM committed to the 2027 ruleset — a situation promoter WRC Events and the FIA view as unsustainable if the category is to be genuinely competitive from day one.
The structure of the announcement is also notable. A federation-backed tuner, rather than a legacy factory, is the one putting the first real financial weight behind the WRC27 cost-capped model. Spanish motorsport insiders privately suggest that the RFEDA-RMC tie-up is intended in part as a signal to other European federations that government-style involvement is both possible and welcome under the new rules.
For the Canaries weekend, the story provides a curious piece of symmetry: a Spanish tuner launching a Spanish-federation-backed WRC project at the championship's first visit to Spanish soil under the revived Rally Islas Canarias banner. The WRC's 2027 grid is starting to take real shape — and not, as many had feared, solely through the badges of the traditional factories.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/rmc-motorsport-wrc-2027-spanish-constructor-rfeda-federation-backed). Visit for full coverage.*
