| Mitsubishi Motors
returns to World Rally Championship (WRC) competition in
2004. On November 28, the automaker unveiled the car (above)
in which it will return to a sport where it once reigned
dominant. The car on which the people at Mitsubishi Motors
are pinning their WRC hopes is the newly developed Lancer
WRC04. WRC rules require that the rally cars be based on
mass-production models. And the WRC04 is an ultrahigh-performance
version of the same Lancer available in showrooms worldwide.
Rallying is the most demanding of all motorsports.
Only in rallying does the racing season take the competitors
over snow, ice, sand, gravel, rock, and mud, as well as
asphalt. Rallying is therefore a tremendously challenging
test of automakers' overall technological capabilities.
Mitsubishi Motors, a familiar presence atop
the standings in the legendary Paris-Dakar Rally, also boasts
a proud history of success in WRC competition. After enjoying
spectacular success on the WRC circuit in the 1990s, the
company's team experienced frustration in the 2000 and 2001
seasons. It withdrew temporarily from WRC competition in
2002 to regroup. Now, the company is back in force with
the Lancer WRC04.
The 2004 WRC season kicked off in January with
the Monte Carlo Rally. And in September, Japan will host
a WRC rally for the first time. Altogether, 16 races are
on tap for the 2004 season. |
The Lancer WRC04 (above) is carrying Mitsubishi
Motors back into the heat of WRC competition in 2004.
People at the company are counting on this model to
help restore the winning pattern that racing fans expect
of their vehicles in WRC competition (left).
