Grp. A Works Lancer Evo's - Where are they?

[F1GTRUeno]

I always wondered this, whenever you saw national rally series back in the day, you'd see plenty of Impreza WRC or Focus/Escort WRC's, Cosworths etc. In European series you'd see 206/307, Xsaras and all sorts but nobody ever seemed to have the works Evos.

Did Mitsubishi just keep them and not offer them for sale or did nobody choose them? Considering they won four WRC titles in a row you'd think someone would take a punt on using one?

[Slippydiff]

Ralliart were/are a non-profit making organization. Hence the cars were never made available/sold to the general public.

[F1GTRUeno]

Well that clears that up then.

Are they just in storage or have Mitsubishi got a museum?

Surely Mäkinen has one at least.

[cupofbeans]

Didn't a lot of them get crushed?

[Slippydiff]

F1GTRUeno said:

Well that clears that up then.

Are they just in storage or have Mitsubishi got a museum?

Indeed, there is a rather good collection, but, how can I put this ? It's not open to the public

[Slippydiff]

cupofbeans said:

Didn't a lot of them get crushed?

Many parts were cut up or tossed into the skip. If there were shells that were no longer needed, there's every chance they went to the crusher.

[bloomen]

I remember reading somewhere that they were operated as prototypes.

If you run a prototype it's VAT free as long as it's not sold on.

The majority of the cars were crushed after their use. It's always been very rare to see an ex works Mitsubishi.

[K50 DEL]

If you really want to know the fate of every Mitsi WRC car ever then this site's for you...

http://mitsubishiwrcars.blogspot.ae

A frightening amount of work has gone into that site!

[Cyder]

I mentioned it in the Rally GB thread, but I occasionally help to spanner on a Lancer WRC on BTRDA rounds and in the case of last year Rally GB.
Image below from the website linked to in Del's post.


If I remember correctly it's the only one now competing in this country (I think Tom Cave used another one for a couple of events) and was ex Gigi Galli I believe and even still has a Galli dent in the rear that's been filled!

I believe at the end of the works rally prgram the car was sent to Japan and put on display in Mitsubishi's HQ or museum but when the financial crash happened it was sent back to MML in the UK.

It's a fabulous bit of kit to work on, mostly it is very simple but very well built and some areas are an absolute work of art.
Also the attention the car gets on events is quite something. So much so that on WRGB last year we kept getting visits from the VW, Citroen, MSport and Hyundai mechanics to have a look at the thing, felt quite disconcerting waving the spanners around while being watched by the pro's!

[GravelBen]

One of those Lancer WRCs is down here in NZ too, a bloke has bought it to contest this years NZRC - will be interesting to see how it goes against the home-built specials and upgraded Group N & A cars that make up most of the field.

Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 28th January 01:32