Mitsubishi Motors is embarking on a new and exciting chapter in its motorsports history by creating its first World Rally Car. Known as the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC, it will make its first FIA World Rally Championship appearance on Italy’s Sanremo Rally (5-7 October). It is designed to be the most advanced, most sophisticated competition car that Mitsubishi has yet produced.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart

The new car is based on a rich motorsport heritage. Unusually, Mitsubishi entered motorsport outside its homeland, because there was little motorsport in Japan at the time. After an initial foray into rallying, Mitsubishi turned its attention to Formula 2 single seaters, winning its class in the Japanese Grand Prix. These cars proved Mitsubishi’s ability to produce advanced machinery, but with the launch of the Galant in 1970, Mitsubishi headed in a new direction in order to penetrate worldwide markets.

After a review of its competition programme, it came to the conclusion that concentrating on rallying would produce the most direct engineering link between its achievements in the sport and the cars used by its customers. Since then Mitsubishi has positioned its rally activities as an advanced technological development programme, an idea which still continues today. The clearest example of this concept has been the Lancer Evolution model. It is a policy that has served Mitsubishi well. Since it unveiled the first Group A Lancer Evolution in 1992, it has won no fewer than 26 World Championship rallies. Finland’s Tommi Makinen became World Champion four years running and Mitsubishi won the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers in 1998. Every Evolution model has benefitted from the most reliable components and put through to the test in Mitsubishi’s rallying activities. The Lancer’s achievements are also evident in its unprecedented winning streak in the Group N production class.

However, there was a link between the purpose-built single-seaters and the hugely successful 1970s Lancer rally cars that echoes Mitsubishi’s new approach for the 21st century. The twin-cam engine technology for the racing cars was adapted for the Lancer’s SOHC engine, which triumphed everywhere from Kenya’s Safari Rally to the Ivory Coast and Australia.

Switching to the World Rally Car regulations from the established Group A category represents a major change of policy for Mitsubishi Motors. The Group A rules allow significantly fewer modifications to the standard road car, a characteristic that Mitsubishi has welcomed, because it has cherished the direct link between the cars it sells in the showroom and the cars with which it competes around the world long after all other manufacturers decided to produce highly specialised cars purely for rallying. The team feels obliged to adopt a new approach, as Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe Chief Engineer Bernard Lindauer explained.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart

"Now we have reached the point where the imbalance between Group A and World Rally Car regulations, and the resulting increased performance of World Rally Cars, puts Mitsubishi in the situation where we could not have all the development facilities available. The only way for us to improve performance and to gain more post-development benefit on the standard car was to follow World Rally Car rules", he said.

The Mitsubishi Lancer WRC is closely based on the Lancer four-door saloon, but it can exploit the extra freedom offered by the World Rally Car rules in a number of key areas. Mitsubishi Ralliart engineers have been able to change the suspension, some elements of the bodywork and the weight distribution. It will however retain many components from the existing World Championship-leading Lancer Evolution and it is therefore an exciting blend of new and well-proven technology.

The Lancer Evolution WRC was tested for the first time on Tuesday 24 July, by Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart’s Belgian driver Freddy Loix, at the Millbrook Proving Ground north of London in Britain. The test went according to plan, the car showing immediate promise.

"It’s exciting to be involved in the World Rally Car project and was great to drive the car for the first time", commented Freddy. "The regulations allow us greater flexibility in certain areas and I think this, combined with elements of our current car, mean we can look forward to a really competitive package. Tommi won in Africa last week - the toughest event in the Championship - so we know what we are already using is good, strong and reliable. Combine the two, and hopefully it should be fantastic.

Mitsubishi Carisma GT WRC Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart