R44 MRE's (factory) story is the shortest alongside R6 MRE's (more on that later). She debuted on the 1998 Acropolis Rally, driven by Richard Burns. Tactics were heavily involved during the event, and that meant Burns had to sweep the road on the second day. He was catching back the time he lost on the third, but the suspension couldn't bear the heavy punishment, and the crew had to retire.
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| After leading on the first day, everything went wrong (Mitsubishi) |
As I got to know now, the car was transferred to Ralliart Germany for Uwe Nittel's remaining programme of 1998. Their first event together was the ADAC Deutschland Rallye, where they finished 2nd, 4 seconds behind Matthias Kahle's Corolla WRC.
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| ADAC Rallye Deutschland 1998 (MKTV PL) |
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| ADAC Rallye Deutschland 1998 (MKTV PL) |
Next up was the AvD Hunsrück Rallye. This one ended pretty fast, as Nittel cut a corner, a stone hit the suspension and they had to retire.
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| AvD Hunsrück Rallye 1998 (Misi S) |
Next up was the Mänttä 200 Ralli, a then-popular rally that was used as a test by many works teams as preparation before the big one - Rally Finland. Nittel and the team took part in 1998, with an unknown result.
Her final recorded event was the Rally Finland. They started the rally well, lurking around the top10 with a new car in bad conditions, but disaster struck on SS7 Kuohu, as they crashed and had to retire.
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| Neste Rally Finland 1998 (Petr Fitz / ewrc.cz) |
Whereabouts
And that was it, the plate R44 MRE was never used again (at least I don't know about it). Depending on how badly crashed the car was and if it was brought back to Rugby, this car can very well be alive still today... just with some upgrades.
Track record (not complete)
Starts: 5
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Retirements: 3
- 1998 Rally Finland - accident
- 1998 AvD Hunsrück Rallye - puncture/suspension
- 1998 Acropolis Rally -
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