Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Mitsubishi plans WRC comeback in 2008 with Evo X based car

Isao Torii

After months of worry about the future of the Mitsubishi World Rally Championship team following the head office decision prematurely to end their world championship programme, MMSP Chief Isao Torii has explained the company's thoughts about the future. "Future rally competition plans will be based on the new Lancer Evolution X model, which will first be promoted in America, then elsewhere. "We are thinking about 2008, because by then the Lancer X will have been produced in the necessary 25,000 examples which will allow us to consider other projects, such as a future World Rally Car. No decision beyond the development of Group N cars has been made, except that should a future WRCar be considered, it will be based visually close to the production Evo X design."

Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05

Mitsubishi is studying the Super 2000 developments but have no plans to design a car for this formula. "For us, competition is still centred on Group N designs, which will be financially more acceptable to customers than Super 2000 designs."

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