Hello, and welcome to Car Retrospective, where today we’ll be dissecting the other side
of a rivalry I’ve already looked at, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.
Let’s av a look.
The Lancer itself can trace its roots way back to the early seventies.
Mitsubishi were manufacturing a number of cars.
Two of which were the miniscule Minica and the mid-sized Gallant.
However, Mitsubishi knew there was a gap in the market between the two that they had not
yet filled.
So, the design team set to work creating a suitable subcompact car to bare the Mitsubishi
badge.
And what they came up with was the Lancer.
This was the first gen, also known as the A70.
It was offered as either a two or four door sedan, a two door coupe or a five door estate
car, and was offered with 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 litre powerhouses.
The car itself was pretty, how do we put it, beige.
However, Mitsubishi, wanting to improve their image in motorsport, specifically rally, unleashed
the 1600 GSR, which made 171hp from the 1.6 litre, as the name implies.
Mitsubishi then sent their little workhorse of to both Australia and Kenya.
The car won the Southern Cross Rally each year consecutively from 1972 to 1977, and
then went on to prove itself in the Safari Rally, which, at the time, was recognised
as the most difficult event on the rallying calender.
The 1600 formed the blueprints for what was to come for the Lancer.
As time went on, however, Mitsubishi had their eyes set on bigger fish.
By the mid eighties, they were well into the development of another rally-suited version
of one of their cars, this time their newly introduced Starion.
The Starion’s engine was sourced directly from the Lancer 2000 turbo, which, in of itself,
was a racer developed for rally prior to Group B’s inauguration, and the car also sourced
the 4 wheel drive system from the Mitsubishi Pajero.
The car’s 2.9L engine made 350hp.
Then, as you all know, Group B was axed, and so Mitsubishi, like many other manufacturers,
was left with a horse without a saddle.
However, being the adaptable team that they were, they simply took the drivetrain from
the Starion, and put it into the Gallant, which was a much heavier and larger car.
And so, the VR-4 was born.
It racked up 6 event wins from 1989 through 1992, which was pretty good.
However, there was a growing trend in the WRC, which was replacing older, larger vehicles
with newer, smaller vehicles to be better suited to the narrow, windy roads and tracks
that made up a majority of the circuits on the European events.
A prime example would be Mitsubishi’s soon to be rival, Subaru, who replaced their sluggish
Legacy with the nimble little Impreza.
It just so happened that Mitsubishi had just the car to do this with.
The Lancer.
The compact car was now on its third generation.
Once again, they took the drivetrain and engine from the Galant and delivered it to the Lancer.
This new form of the Lancer, rightfully named the Lancer Evo, had a 2.0L turbocharged inline
4 making 244hp.
As well as this, it featured a bunch of other upgrades (or downgrades depending on how you
look at it), with no power windows, no rear wiper, no anti lock breaks and had specially
built steel wheels for further weight reduction.
Almost 20 years after the 1600 GSR had debuted, the Lancer Evo was ready to take to the stage.
In order to be successfully homologated into the Group A championship, 2500 units of the
car had to be produced and sold to the public market, and this began happening in 1992.
When introduced for the 1993 season, it didn’t fare two well, only seeing two podium finishes
throughout the year.
1993, however, also brought the Lancer Evo 2.
This only featured minor upgrades such as better swaybars, an altered wheelbase and
an added 8 horsepower.
This variant was introduced for the 1994 wrc season, with an improved 3 podium finishes.
The car saw its first win with a 1,2 result at the 1995 Swedish Rally, with Kenneth Eriksson
and Tommi Makinen claiming victory.
In early 1995, the Evo 3 was launched, featuring some fairly radical changes, such as improved
moulding on the front for better ventilation, bigger side skirts and a larger wing, with
18 glorious horsepower being added.
It was introduced halfway through the 1995 season and left its foot in the door with
a win in Rally Australia, and the team came second in the constructors’ championship
after Toyota were disqualified for being naughty with their turbo restrictors.
Again, the Mitsubishi knew there were improvements to be made, and in August of 1996 revealed
the Evo 4, the most radical change to the model yet.
The regular Lancer itself had seen a lot of changes and this reflected in the Evo.
The engine and transaxle were rotated 180 degrees to balance the weight more effectively
and reduce torque steer, a brand new active yaw system was installed, which essentially
monitored driver input to balance the torque being delivered to the rear wheels, and some
very good design changes, such as the now iconic bulging fog lights being added to the
front and the taillights being redesigned into the lovely triangular shape.
You may also remember that when designing the first evo, the team neglected to include
things like electric windows and anti lock breaking, because, y’know, they’re dumb,
but for the Evo 4 they were brought back in the name of driver comfort.
This meant the 4 was much heavier than previous evos, so, to balance it out, it was fitted
with a more powerful engine.
By now, the Evo has become incredibly popular.
And this popularity was only accelerated by the Evo current efforts in rallying.
The Evo 3 saw 5 wins in the 1996 WRC, and for four straight years until 1999, Tommi
Makinen won the driver’s championship.
1997 saw a huge change to the WRC.
Manufacturers were now not obliged to build road going version of the homologated racers,
and this new ruleset created what is known as “World Rally Cars”.
Most manufacturers jumped over to WRC, but Mitsubishi remained in Group A in order to
maintain a strong link to the Evo as both a rally car and a road going car.
1998 would see the entire team’s work pay off, as Mitsubishi finally took the constructor’s
title as well as Makinen taking his third consecutive Driver’s title.
1998 also saw the introduction of the Evo 5, but not much was changed, most notably
an improved turbo charger was fitted and the engine now sat at a comfortable 276hp.
Then, early in the next year Mitsubishi quickly released the Evo 6, once again not sporting
many changes, most notably improvements to engine cooling and improved aerodynamics on
the front bumper.
Sadly, the iconic bulbous foglights were reduced to pitiful shells of themselves, a terrible
side effect of quote unquote “aerodynamic efficiency”.
December of 1999, however, did see a cool introduction, the Tommi Makinen edition, of
course introduced to celebrate his fourth driver’s title in the wrc.
The car was affectionately dubbed the Evo 6.5, and featured Makinen branded seats, a
sleek new bumper design and momo a branded steering wheel and gear stick.
Crossing over the millennial barrier into 2000, Makinen’s reign in the WRC had come
to an end.
The team, racing with their new Evo 6, struggled against the fierce competition, not only against
old rivals like ford and subaru, but against the new European powers such as Peugeot, Skoda
and Seat.
Makinen only managed to place fifth in the driver’s championship and the team slumped
down to fourth in the constructor’s championship.
2001 introduced two notable things- firstly was the switch from Group A rules to the recently
introduced World Rally Car rules.
Mitsubishi didn’t actually make this choice themselves, rather the FIA sort of y’know,
forced them.
This led to, the second thing, the Evo 7.
Because the wrc cars now didn’t have to be homologated, the Evo 7 chose to be based
on the brand new Lancer Cedia chassis.
This made the 7 considerable heavier than previous Evos.
More things, like an active centre diff and the first ever automatic gearbox to be fitted
to an Evo, were also made present.
Aerodynamic improvements were also made.
Then, it was business as usual, the team did moderately well in the 2001 wrc, with third
overall, but in 2002 had dropped to sixth with just 9 points.
The Evo 8 was introduced in 2003, and proved to be one of the most influential Evos of
the lot.
It didn’t introduce much to the table itself, apart from some improved suspension and a
carbon fibre rear spoiler, and admittedly, the incredibly cool FQ edition, with a raised
power output of over 400hp, and was proven by Top Gear to easily be able to keep up with
a Lamborghini Murcielago (and yes, that’s how I pronounce the word, not mercellago).
More importantly was the fact that it was the first Evo sold in the U.S.
After seeing the immense popularity of the Impreza WRX’s introduction there in 2002,
Mitsubishi were spurred on to ship it over the pacific.
These yankee Evos did lack some internal components of the international variants, but it was
fair to say that it had a huge popularity spike upon its arrival.
The WRC was not going well for Mitsubishi however.
After Makinen left the team in 2002 for Subaru, Ralliart scrambled to fill the gap to no avail,
and the team were unable to match the heights they had reached in 1998.
By 2007, Mitsubishi left the WRC for good, after almost 20 years in the business.
However, they did continue to compete in Group N with the Evo.
Elsewhere, in 2005, the Evo 9 saw its birth.
This was the first Evo to see power exceed 276hp, which had been the standard in every
edition since the Evo 4, now making 287hp.
Mitsubishi released a number of experimental editions of the 9, such as improved rally
versions and even an estate build for a Japan only market, and only 2500 were produced.
Then there’s the Evo 10.
Fittingly, this was the final Evo, and saw some major changes both appearance wise and
mechanically.
Appearance-wise, it actually looked quite cool, and was a good, well, evolution to the
evo, although some would comment that it was a little chunky for an Evo.
Mechanically, it wasn’t such a smooth story.
Mitsubishi replaced the 4G63 engine with a new 4B11 engine.
The 4G63 engine had been used in all 9 previous Evos, and while the 4B was supposedly more
efficient and made more power, many people thought that the Evo had lost its literal
soul.
Power ranged across regions, with model in the Uk supposedly exceeding 300hp, and the
UK Police even used Evo 10s for a while.
The launch of the Evo coincided with the financial troubles the company was experiencing at the
time, and Mitsubishi had to have an emergency buyout to stay afloat.
From 2007 to 2016, the Evo 10 saw next to no alterations, and is by far the longest
lasting evo in the lineup.
To commemorate the over 30 year history, Mitsubishi launched the Final Edition to mark the end
of an era.
Currently, there are no plans to bring it back.
The apparent lack of demand for a sports sedan means it simply isn’t viable.
After the near bankruptcy in the mid 2000’s Mitsubishi would be stupid to try and relaunch
such a thing right now.
Even Toyota, one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, had to partner up with BMW in
order to bring the Supra back to the market.
The Evo is long gone.
The Evo is a mixed bag.
Some love it, some hate it, I like it, especially the earlier editions.
The Evo was born to rally and when that dream came to an end, I think a lot of what made
the Evo, the Evo, was lost.
Not to mention questionable decisions and harsh economical environments taking their
toll on the Evo too.
Mitsubishi took the Lancer of the early nineties and slowly but surely built up a true icon
over the succeeding years, and if the economical climate shifts and Mitsubishi finds themselves
in a better place, who knows, the Evo might just have to make a comeback.
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