Onboard rally video of the day - Rovanpera sr with Mitsubishi Lancer WRC at Rally Japan
Hi, friends!
I miss Mitsubish motorsport program because after they left Dakar Rally program, they are not running any type of motorsports. That's said for me because they are the brand with motorsport heritage.
I follow them from the early nineties, when Armin Schwarz drove for them (I think that it was 1993) but I didn't take them seriously because that Lancer of them was just too big and heavy in my opinion.
That was the way of my thinking until Tommi Makinen didn't start to drive for them. Flying Finn changed the things dramatically. The big thing was their test driver Lasse Lampi who knew exactly wht Makinen needs so he knew what kind of set-up he must do for Makinen.
There is a true legend around the World Rally Championship sport that before Swedish event (in the middle nineties) Makinen didn't sit in the car to test at all. Whole job was done by Lampi who made perfect set-up for Makinen who started the rally - and won. Can you believe how good was that relationship between drivers - they knew by every point of the car what they needed from each other.
Makinen won four straight WRC titles with Mitsubishi. But that was with Group A machinery. When they built WRC car in 2001, they were nowhere. They didn't have the speed and it became worse and worse.
Makinen signed for Subaru at the end of 2001 and Mitsu took fresh blood in Francois Delecour and alister McRae. They scored only a few points during the whole 2002. In 2003 they took sabbatical to come srtronger in 2004 with the time part program and the large number of drivers (led by Gilles Panizzi).
In 2005 they had full WRC program again but they hired a gravel specialist Hari Rovanpera but they still couldn't win. The car was better but not good enough.
At the end of that 2005 they quit their WRC activities. That was the end of their rally activities with the small cars. They turned to the Dakar series where they scored numerous wins with Peterhansel and some other guys.
Today I brought you an onboard from one of the latest rallies in WRC with Rovanpera sr and Lancer WR. The rally is Japanese event. Enjoy...
Credit for photos and videos to WRC and Youtube
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