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Lancer Evolution Rally history

Here below you can find an overview of all Mitsubishi Rally Lancer's that are made. You'll will find the specs of every car and some photo's..

catagory

group-n

evo 8

evo 8 mr

evo 9

group-a

wrc

Mitsubishi is a relative newcomer to the World Rally Championship but the company has already been extremely successful. It took a lot of enthousiasm and effort to bring the Lancer to its current version, the Evolution VII.

The company's first attempt at the WRC title was incarnated by the Mitsubishi Galant with some success in 1991 and 1992. Kenneth Erikson did alot of work for Mitsubishi during winter 1991.

The first Lancer to compete in the WRC appeared back in 1993 at the Monte Carlo Rally. Works drivers were Armin Schwarz and Kenneth Eriksson.

The Evolution II of the Lancer made its debut at the 1994 Monte Carlo Rally. It was clear for everyone which progress Mitsubishi and Ralliart made during it's first year with the lancer. Head of England's Ralliart was Andrew Cowan. The Evolution II was driven by Kenneth Eriksson and Isolde Holderied.

The Lancer Evolution III debuted at the Corsica Rally in 1995, a year and a half after the introduction of the Evolution II. It was run by Andrea Aghini at its debut rally.

By the end of the 1995 season the FIA regulations authorized the WRC class cars to compete. Mitsubishi did not find any particular interest in this formula and continued to produce Group-A rally cars. The company's reply to WRC cars was the Lancer RS Evolution IV. This was an awesome car that contained some of the most bewildering technology ever. The evo IV was introduced at the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally, driven by Tommi Mäkinen and Richard Burns.

After running alongside the WRC cars for almost a year and allowing Tommi Mäkinen to be the World Rally Champion, the Lancer Evolution IV was replaced by the Evolution V at the beginning of 1998. By then it was difficult to differentiate the Lancer Evo V from a WRC car. It had the same width as WRC cars had and some of the modifications applied to the Evo IV, in order to produce the evo V, clearly put the evo V in the WRC class. The Lancer Evo V was still a Group-A class car though which means that at least 2500 Evo V had to be produced in order to comply with the FIA rules.

The Lancer Evolution VI was announced in late 1998 and went in production by early 1999. Mitsubishi apparently insisted on producing Group-A spec cars for the greatest satisfaction of its buyer base. At least 2500 Evolution VI's had to be produced to get the FIA homologation and most mainly sold in Japan. Unfortunately this new version is the last of its breed. Mitsubishi officially announced on September the 21st 2000 that starting from 2001 they will only produce WRC class cars for competition purposes. The new Mitsubishi WRC car is said to appear by October 2000 and its first WRC rally will be the Catalunya 2001. It will NOT be another Lancer Evolution. The Lancer Evolution series will still be produced but will not be the base of the competition models.

The Lancer Evolution VI is the most accomplished road going version of any homologation special car ever produced. Its technical specs are extremely impressive as are its road holding abilities and handling. There has never been, and will most probably never will be, a mass production car able to overtake the Lancer in its realm i.e. twisty mountain roads, gravel or snow. The Lancer has not only a most capable engine but also an extremely rigid and torsion-free chassis combined to a moderate weight. These advantages over similar cars make it feel out of this world in comparison. It seems that, unlike the previous Lancer versions, the Evolution VI will be easier to purchase (until proof of the contrary) in countries other than Japan, especially in Europe where independent companies and official Mitsubishi subsidiaries import samples and get the necessary paperwork done in order to render the cars street legal. The new evolution's specification is strictly the same as the Lancer's Evolution V on the blueprint and can be found here. Below are the details that make the Evolution VI different to the Evolution V.

Not many major changes occur when examining the latest evolution of this already legendary car. Minor aerodynamic modifications in the engine bay include a hot air extractor placed at the front right wing and reminding those of the Ford Escort RS Cosworth and the Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione of old. Additional cooling is provided in the engine bay by ducting and having placed the license plate in a more appropriate location. Other aerodynamic changes include a slightly modified front end, reminding the Evolution IV, and a totally different rear, double-deck, adjustable wing. The latest evolution of the Lancer now sports a unique, titanium turbine wheel in its turbocharger while the compressr wheel is still made of a, more classic, aluminum alloy. The new device is reported to be much more keen to endure high mechanical strains and provide a very high flow rate even at extremely high rotational speeds. New pistons and conrods have also made their way into the 4G63 Mitsubishi engine. Add some more refined electronic engine management and you get more than 52Kgm of torque in rallying spec and 38Kgm in street spec, amazing! Engine output is still reported at 300Bhp for the rallying version but remember that this is the theoretical limit the FIA has fixed so all manufacturers report the same engine output. The street version is reported to have an output of 280Bhp but this time it's the Japanese authorities limit for street legal cars so the real output might be well above the one officially announced. The engine now uses a bigger oil cooler and a new water duct layout in its block to provide additional piston cooling Just like its predecessor the Evolution VI uses an aluminum engine hood.

The suspension went through some finishing touches, when compared to that of the Evolution V. The front and rear arms are now made out of aluminum alloy and the rear suspension's roll center has been lowered. These modifications allow for greater cornering speeds as compared to those on the Evolution V. The Evolution VI inherited the previous version's main drawback its lack of sufficient suspension travel at the rear wheels. This disadvantage, when compared to the WRC class cars, makes the car handle nervously and inefficiently on gravel. The new car still uses Brembo calipers but this time more rigid models are used. Brake calipers use a fixed 4 pot design in the front and a fixed 2 pot design at the rear. No changes occur in the transmission layout and design. The RS version now uses a double plate clutch. The competition version started using a third hydro-electronic differential at the rear as of the rally of San Remo in 1999. Finally Mitsubishi now offers the Evolution VI in a variety of attractive colors and the interior and dashboard use a more appealing design. A new design of OZRacing wheels is used in the Evolution VI but maintains the dimensions used on the previous model.

For the 1999 season the Lancers were driven by the 1998 World Rally Champion Tommi Mäkinen and ex-TTE driver Freddy Loix. Although new contenders were now in the race for the WRC title like Ford with the Focus WRC car and Peugeot with the 206 WRC, Mitsubishi had more than a chance of winning a new World title. A proof of this statement was brought by the Evolution VI winning its first ever official rally entry, the 1999 Monte Carlo rally. Although the Lancer Evolution VI is only a small step away from its predecessor, technically speaking, the fact it won in the first two events it took part in (Monte Carlo and the Rally of Sweden 1999) did more than imply that the quality of its engineering and accomplishment had matured. Well done for both Mitsubishi and RalliArt. It was only in the 2000 season that the Lancer started showing signs of its age. All of Mäkinen's talent was insufficient to produce significant results, it was definitely time for Mitsubishi to start blueprinting a new World Class contender...

All good things come to an end sooner or later. So has the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution series. This is not to say that the latest addition to the series, the Evolution VII, is a bad car but rather that it lost most part of its inherent nature. Previous models were mere excuses to get the FIA homologation in Group-A. Even so more than 150,000 Lancer Evolutions (I through to VI including the 6.5 Tommi Mäkinen edition) were sold from 1992 to 2001. An amazing success given the awkwardness of these cars when used as everyday transport. Most examples were sold in the Asia Pacific region and very few made their way to other countries, most mainly in Europe while none was sold in North America (Emission Control Regulations again). Mitsubishi are now planning to produce more than 30000 examples of the Evolution VII! The latest Mitsubishi representative in the World Rally Championship is now a WRC Class car rather than a Group-A Class one. The move from one class of competition car to the other frees the manufacturer's hands from having to produce the 2500 required cars that must carry the racing car's arsenal even if it is unused/disconnected. So how does that affect the commercial version? Well the influence of the change in homologation class can be both felt and measured in the Evolution VII. For the latter one might note that performance figures are worse than they were in the previous version. Half a second is lost in 0-90km/h times (now 5.6 seconds) and a whole 1.4 seconds in the 1000m from a standing start (now 25,8 seconds). The new figures bring the Evolution VII out of the super-car territory. What has affected performance? The answer is twofold: A significant rise in the car's weight, more than 50kg were added compared to the previous version. The Mitsubishi engineers targeted more the adherence to stringent Emission Control figures and driveability than sheer performance when designing the latest engine version and its electronic management The new Lancer is based on the Mitsubishi Cedia family sedan rather than on the Lancer series. This fact alone has taken away most of its aggressiveness. Some parts of its body (bonnet and front arches) are still made out of aluminum as are most of its suspension components, carried over from the previous version for their majority. This however does not manage to bring the overall weight down to more reasonable levels. The engine is mainly the same save for the hollow camshafts and magnesium camshaft cover. The Lancer Evos carry the same engine code since 1992 i.e. 4G63 whose cutout is pictured below.

The Mitsubishi 4G63 engine

These engines went through several mutations over the years but kept their architecture and extreme output unaltered. The 4G63 engine is a long stroke engine (i.e. bore is smaller than stroke) thus favoring torque over high-rev output. Mitsubishi chose to use a relatively high compression ratio, for a turbocharged engine, 8.8:1, and has therefore limited the maximum boost pressure allowed to a value lower than 1.5 bar in order to avoid detonation. The high compression ratio is an interesting and relatively innovative approach as these engines tend to be more responsive off boost than other turbocharged engines using the more classic 8:1 or lower compression ratio. In racing spec however the compression ratio used is lower than in commercial guise as in this situation off boost performance is not part of the blueprint. In competition the Lancer Evolution VII WRC reaches a maximum turbo pressure of 1.9bar. Note that the turbo inlet (nozzle) area has had its diameter reduced from 105mm in previous versions to 98mm in order to favor low end response rather than high rev output. The turbo compressor wheel diameter is unchanged at 68mm. Overall the engine's output remains unchanged at 280bhp (the Japanese legal limit) while torque gains 1kgm and now reaches 39kgm but a whole 700rpm higher than the previous version.

Mitsubishi states that the Evolution VII chassis is 50% more rigid than that of the Evolution VI. Given the 50kg weight rise that's the least Mitsubishi engineers could do. Chassis rigidity is the number one factor in any car's handling abilities and the Mitsubishi numbers are more than encouraging regarding their latest creation. Previous Evo versions already displayed extremely reinforced and rigid body but this time the increase in the car's size required a redesign of chassis reinforcements and the numerous new welding points are accompanied by partly seam welded steel sheets just like in full works race cars. The new car's transmission is were most of the changes took place. The fully equipped GSR/RS-2 version sports a TorSen front and an Active Yaw Control rear differential as previously but the center differential is now an "active" ACD differential that varies its locking characteristic according to inputs from accelerometers and other sensors. One typical "active" strategy it applies is to stiffen its locking when the car starts negotiating a corner (the braking phase) allowing for maximum deceleration, loosen the locking to negotiate the turn-in phase, stiffen a bit mid-corner allowing more torque to the rear in order to turn more easily and stiffen even more while exiting the corner to provide them maximum grip and acceleration. Note that similar locking characteristic can be reached through purely mechanical differentials such as the TorSen or a more classic disc-based LSD. The gearbox uses new ratios for 1st and 5th gears in the GSR/RS-2 version and super-close ratios in the RS version. The gear material has been improved and so have the gearbox bearings. The new car's brakes remain unchanged as their performance is satisfactory. Tire size went up a bit to 235/45x17" but the steering ratio is still the very quick 2.2 turns from lock to lock. Where significant progress has been achieved, compared to the previous Evo, is in the domain of suspension travel. In this field the Evo VI was suffering from too low figures, 163mm front and 160mm rear suspension travel was insufficient to avoid bottoming the suspension without using stiffer dampers than necessary. The new car has added 45mm front and rear travel to the figures above while its ride height has been lowered. The numbers apply to a Group-N, tarmac spec car. A noteworthy step forward. The competition car is, as already stated, is a WRC Class car. This class' regulations effectively allow extensive modification of the race version that do not have to be present on the commercial vehicle. However the new car's size is almost the biggest among all WRC cars. Only the Skoda Octavia WRC is longer and the Evolution VII has the longest wheelbase of all the contenders. That big a wheelbase, more than 2600mm, is a warrant of high speed stability but renders the car unwilling to engage in corners. Such a character can, of course, be moderated by the use of active differentials and the appropriate suspension geometry and settings but wouldn't it have been better to start from a healthy base rather than trying to correct the inherent faults of the current one through tricks? The Evo VII is still in its early development stages so it has yet to display its real potential and we trust Mitsubishi will do everything possible to make it competitive against other cars of its class. The car will be driven during the 2002 season by the very experienced François Delecour and young Alister McRae. Let's hope that Mitsubishi's financial situation will not undermine the drivers efforts.

As performance figures were bad with the current WRC-version, Mitsubishi introduced during the Nesté Finland Rally 2002 the WRC-step-II, which was forseen with a new gear box and drivetrain.