The 2022 FIFA World Cup… and the best cars made by every competing nation

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is in full swing and while footballing powerhouse nations like Brazil, Argentina, France, England and dare we dream, Australia, are shaping up as contenders to win the Silvio Gazzaniga-designed trophy, it's a different story when it comes to the art of making cars.

Surprisingly, despite the rich diaspora of nations contesting the World Cup finals, all bar one of the 32 competing nations has, soon will have, or has had in the past an automotive industry.

Here then, are our picks for the 2022 World Cup of Cars, in order of the competing nations' FIFA ranking.

With a Chevy-sourced 4.2-litre inline six fed by three carburettors, the Brasinca 4200GT could complete the sprint from standstill to 100km/h in 10.4 seconds along the way to a top speed in excess of 200km/h. Just 77 were made between 1964 and 1966. And if you think it looks similar to a Jensen Interceptor, then consider that the British GT was released in 1966, the same year 4200GT production ended.

Belgium was a pioneering giant of automotive, and between the years 1900-1914, was considered the largest producer of cars in in the world with some 200 brands calling Belgium home. But, Belgium's automotive history stretches back to 1672 when Jesuit priest, Father Ferdinand Verbiest, designed and built what is widely regarded as the first working "auto-mobile", a steam-powered trolley that could, in Verbiest's own words, with one filling of coal, move for more than one hour.

Measuring in at only 65cm long, Verbiest's coal-fired and steam-powered trolley was never intended to carry passengers or goods, serving instead as a gift for Chinese emperor Kangxi. While not a 'car' in the modern sense of the word, Verbiest's creation holds the distinction of being the first ever vehicle that could move under its own power.

Combining American engineering and European styling, the IKA Torino was basically an American Motors Corporation (AMC) Rambler underneath with a redesigned grille, rear end and interior courtesy of Italian styling house, Pininfarina. Production ran from 1966-81 with almost 100,000 Torinos leaving IKA's Santa Isabel factory.

France's Beetle. Over four million produced between 1948 and 1990. Most of them still going strong today. Enough said.

English cars are a bit like the English football team's performance on the world stage – flashy, strong but ultimately, unreliable.

A one-off from 1938, the Dubonnet Xenia was designed by coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik and featured an 8.0-litre straight-six making 119kW. It was mated to a four-speed manual transmission sending drive to the rear wheels. With its sleek aerodynamic shape, the Hispano-Suiza could reach a top speed of 177km/h, plenty quick for back in the day.

The Donkervoort D8 GTO by the numbers: 695kg weight, 283kW, 475Nm, 2.8-seconds 0-100km/h, 8.6-seconds 0-200km/h, 270km/h top speed, circa $265,000 price before taxes.

Portuguese metal factory, União Metalo-Mecânica (UMM), enjoyed a brief dalliance from the 1970s to 1990s building off-road vehicles, primarily for military use. But its most prestigious vehicle is undoubtedly the UMM 'Popemobile' created for Pope John Paul II's visit to the Iberian nation in 1992.

Based on the UMM Alter II, the 'Popemobile' featured a 40mm armoured glass box – air-conditioned, of course – at rear with a sumptuous chair for the Pontiff. The 'Popemobile' was also fitted with a microphone and speakers to allow the Pope to speak to the people as he passed through the streets of Lisbon on his official visit.

The Zenvo ST1's face looks about as angry as a Danish football supporter following the Scandinavian nation's defeat at the hands of Australia in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the loss sending the Danes packing home to Copenhagen.

When not lamenting the recent loss on the biggest stage in world football, Danish workers build the Zenvo ST1 entirely by hand. With 812kW and 1430Nm on tap from the LS7 V8, the ST1 can complete the sprint from standstill to 100km/h in just three seconds. Only 15 cars will ever be built, each with a price tag in excess of $AUD1,000,000.

One car above all others says 'Germany'. Meet the Porsche 911, the benchmark sports car against which all others are measured.

The fastest electric car in the world. With a combined 1427kW and 2360Nm from its four electric motors, the Nevera can hit 100km/h from standstill in 2.0s and reach a top speed of 412km/h. The Nevera features a driving range of 547km. Production models started leaving the Sveta Nedelja factory earlier this year with 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg taking delivery of car number 1 of 150.

Mexico, in response to the popularity of the iconic VW, started manufacturing the Beetle on 23 October, 1967. By 1978, the rest of the world had stopped making Beetles. Not Mexico, which continued to churn out the little air-cooled wonders in astonishing numbers. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and on 30 July, 2003 the 21,529,464th and last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the Puebla production line.

Despite the massive numbers, the Beetle is not even Volkswagen best-selling model. Aside from VW's popular sausage, the German brand's biggest-selling car is the Golf, which passed the Beetle's 21 million tally back in 2003.

Effa Motors was founded in 2006 by the eponymous Eduardo Effa. Headquartered in the Uruguayan city of San Jose de Mayo, the company produces a number of vehicles sourced in Complete Knock-down form (CKD) from various Chinese carmakers for the Uruguayan domestic market. Effa also exports to Brazil, perhaps as revenge for Brazil's 38-20 win-loss record against Uruguay in international football matches.

The Swiss company produces mainly replicas of famous cars – Ford GT40, BMW 328, Ferrari P4 and Bugatti Royale are highlights – but is perhaps best-known for the outrageously-styled one-off show cars it rolls each year at the Geneva Motor Show. Like the Sbarro Monster G8 which featured a 6.4-litre Mercedes V8, a body made entirely of Kevlar, and 20-inch wheels sourced from a Boeing 747. It debuted at Geneva in 1987.

Is there a more recognisable American car?

Senegal doesn't make cars. But at least one enterprising Senegalese engineer hasn't let the lack of a local automotive industry stop him. Having studied, lived and worked in France for 15 years, Baïla Ndiaye returned to his native Senegal and started tinkering with parts sourced from car scrapyards in 2011. The result is the Syndiely, named after Syndiely Wade, the daughter of Abdoulaye Wade, the former president of Senegal.

A real Franken-car, the Syndiely is built entirely out of recycled and repurposed materials. Power comes from a BMW K75 motorcycle engine driving the Mercedes-sourced rear axle. The front axle has been borrowed from a Peugeot 205. Ndiaye estimates the Syndiely has a top speed of 180km/h.

"To build it, I went to ask people if they had the parts that I needed," Ndiaye told France 24 back in 2015. "At the beginning, they made fun of me and thought it was just a pipe dream. That's the reason why I worked alone on the project at the time. In the end, I finally managed to salvage all the materials I needed."

Respect!

What do a Welsh butcher and a German Prison of War have in common? Easy. They both started Gilbern, the only car maker to ever come from Wales.

Gilbern was started by butcher Giles Smith and German engineer Bernard Friese in 1959. The company name was formed from the first letters of each of their names - 'Gil' from Giles and 'Bern' from Bernard.

The Gilbern Genie wasn't the first car from the pair's workshop, but it was arguably the prettiest. Powered by a Ford Essex V6 engine, the coupe enjoyed a three-year production run from 1966-69.

A lightweight fibreglass body sat over a steel chassis while most of the Genie's other parts were sourced from any number of British carmakers, including MG, Austin-Healey and Ford. A total of 197 Genies were produced, helping to ensure Gilbern entered the record books as the most successful carmaker in Welsh history, a spot guaranteed by its status as the only carmaker in Welsh history.

Iran's thriving car industry produces around 1.3 million cars annually. Of the local manufacturers, Iran Khodro is by far the largest enjoying a market share of over 60 per cent. The company founded in 1962 has long been at the forefront of industry in Iran, and as at 2022 employs 72,000 people making Renault, Peugeot and its own brand of IKCO vehicles.

If you think the Zastava 750 looks like a Fiat 600, then that's because it is. Made under license from Fiat, the Serbian-built Zastava 750 enjoyed an astonishingly long production run, from 1955-1985, remaining largely unchanged throughout its 30 year lifespan. Today, the Zastava 750 has become something of a cult car in its native Serbia, especially among younger Serbs who like its cutesy Italian styling and low fuel consumption.

Morocco is home to a number of European car makers, and produces around 700,000 cars annually. One of the biggest players in the north African state is French giant Renault which accounts for almost half that total, with 303,591 vehicles produced in 2021. But the bulk of those vehicles aren't headed to the streets of Tangier or Casablanca, with 84 per cent of Renault's Moroccan production destined for export.

With global sales annually of over 1.1 million, the Toyota Corolla remains the best-selling car in the world, enjoying 1.6 per cent global market share. The Japanese maker has sold in excess of 50 million Corollas globally since its inception in 1966, the best-selling vehicle in the history of automotive.

Poland lived behind the Iron Curtain for decades and that meant a thriving automotive industry wasn't front and centre of the Politburo. That didn't deter a gang of renegade engineers and designers who in the late 1950s came up with this fibreglass-bodied beauty, the Syrena Sport.

Powered by a 700cc four-stroke, two-cylinder boxer, air-cooled engine making 26kW, the Syrena Sport was never intended for production, but rather served as a test-bed for various engineering technologies. However, after pressure from the Polish public, plans were slowly made to mass produce the pretty little coupe. But, politics behind the Iron Curtain being what they are, the project was binned at, it's said, the insistence of either Polish Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz or the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Władysław Gomułka.

By then, the only prototype Syrena Sport in existence had covered some 29,000km of testing. Sadly, it was purposely destroyed in 1970, the only evidence it had ever existed, a handful of black and white photos. Sad.

Korean giant, Kia, is an official partner of the 2022 FIFA World Cup which is why you'll have seen lots of ads featuring the brand's new flagship electric car, the EV6 GT. With a 0-100km/h sprint time of just 3.5 seconds, the EV6 is the quickest Kia ever made.

Wallyscar, based in the Tunisian city of Ben Arous, was established in 2006 and produces around 600 cars annually. The Wallyscar Iris began production in 2017 and is powered by a Peugeot 1.4-litre petrol engine. It's priced at around 35,000 Tunisian dinar, approximately $AUD15,700.

The Iris one of three models offered by the Tunisian manufacturer. The Wallys 216 is a compact pick-up truck based on the Saipa 151 from Iran. A five-door hatchback, dubbed the Wallys 619, is also sourced from the Iranian manufacturer Saipa. It's based on the small Kia Pride hatchback, known to Australians as the Kia Rio.

Costa Rica doesn't make cars, the closest its come in recent years a scale model prototype of the CambYoCar.

As its inventor, Jesse Blenn told the Tico Times, “Costa Rica doesn’t have the machinery to make a traditional car frame. We want something you can make in a rural area.”

Blenn, an aircraft engineer from Kansas in the USA, used aircraft engineering techniques to create his electric car that's constructed largely of aluminium and balsa wood, the latter because the lightweight timber grows in abundance in Costa Rica.

Sadly, the project never got past the scale model stage, with CambYoCar's official website today a home for Volkswagen Jetta owners.

Solid, unpretentious, and unlike our beloved Socceroos in this World Cup so far, extinct.

Canada makes a lot of cars. For other countries. With all of the American 'Big Three' having outposts inside their northern neighbour, the range of cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks rolling out of the land of the Maple Leaf is long. Arguably the sexiest is the second-generation Ford GT which has been rolling out of Ford's plant in Markham, Ontario exclusively since 2017. Nice work, eh.

Cameroon doesn't have an auto industry, but it is trying to get one off the ground. In recent years, Cameroon has been courting Chinese car makers with a view to establishing local manufacturing bases, facilitating the Asian powerhouse nation at the China-Cameroon Auto Show back in 2017.

But Cameroon's ambition has since stalled and as at 2021, no manufacturing facilities have been established in the African nation. And with car sales on the decline in the developing nation, Cameroonians may be waiting a little while longer before they can buy a home-grown vehicle.

Founded in 1970, Automóviles y Máquinas del Ecuador S.A. (Aymesa) holds the distinction of being the first vehicle manufacturer in Ecuador. Production of largely General Motors vehicles began in 1973, sold locally under the Aymesa brand, including the Aymesa Condor, a reskinned version of the Opel Kadett.

Aymesa became Chevrolet in 1984 and continues to manufacture and assemble vehicles at its Quito plant. The company has also previously assembled Lada Nivas between 2000-2004 and a range of Suzukis from 1990 to 2004.

The host nation has yet to enter the world of car manufacturing although did reveal plans in 2019 to build a 521kW electric car with 1000km of range. Dubbed the Katara, the company behind what is erstwhile Qatar's first locally designed and built car (seen above in poor resolution from the brand's launch) is claiming a recharging time of just 10 minutes. The first car was due to appear in 2022. It hasn't.

A joint venture between Al-Araba Company and Indian car customising company DC Design, the Al Araba 1 is based on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8. And that means a 1.5-litre turbocharged inline four provided power to all four wheels. The Al Araba 1 was revealed at the 2003 Geneva Motor Show with a price tag of $US270,000 ($AUD397,000). Little has been heard of the Al Araba 1 since.

If you think the Kantanka Omama pictured above looks like the Chinese-made Foday Lion, that's because it is. Ghanian company Kantanka, which was started by local entrepreneur and preacher Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, has been assembling cars arriving from China in CKD form since 1994. Lesser known Chinese brands like Foday, Jinbei and Lifan have all provided CKD kits to Kantanka.