KX53 BKY

KX53 BKY -alongside KX53 BKV- had the pleasure to debut the string of Mitsubishi's new, unique-looking and heavily modified WRCars on the 2004 edition of the Rallye Monte Carlo. And her driver was also a big sensation: after a decade, Gilles Panizzi left Peugeot for a full-time ride in a Lancer WRC. We must note that the cars were still at the early stages of development, thus having a H-pattern gearbox (yes, that's true! The last time that configuration was used by a manufactirer team was 1999...), and no active diffs. Contrary to that, Panizzi led the very green car to a 6th place finish. Not bad for a debut!

This car didn't look like any of the road going Lancers... (Mitsubishi)

Her next event was a new one, Rallye Mexico, but again with Panizzi. It is no secret that there were very few (Loeb, Bugalski, Delecour) who were on the level of Gilles' tarmac driving, but on gravel he wasn't at home at all. Despite that and a new car, he salvaged an 8th place finish, the only problem was the time difference: over 11 minutes behind the winner...

The new event surprised many teams and competitors,
but the Panizzis held their ground (Mitsubishi)

Next up was the roughest rally of the calendar, the Cyprus Rally, with Kristian Sohlberg. The car was still in an erly developmental state, and that had its effects: Sohlberg opened with an 8th time on the first stage, but after a lost sumpguard and a slipping clutch cost him time. He didn't have a chance on the second day, as an ALS-related problem killed the engine.

The gravel roads in Cyprus proved to be too rough for the new car (Mitsubishi)

Her next event was Rally Turkey with the italian daredevil, Gigi Galli (that usually didn't mean too good of a treatment for the cars, as Gigi usually crashed them). This time, it wasn't his fault that a watersplash (that caused half the manufacturer cars to retire or lose a lot of time) damaged the turbo and the radiator's ventillators. After losing 10 minutes, he managed to stay in the rally, and eventually climbed back to 10th place to score manufacturer points.

This time the watersplash was stronger... (ewrc.cz)

Her final WRC event as a fully works car was the 2004 Rally Finland. Her driver was Sohlberg again, but this pairing wasn't deemed to be successful: after some very promising stage times on the morning of the 2nd day, he pushed too hard and crashed out.

The car finally showed some promise, 2004 Finland (Mitsubishi)

She didn't appear anywhere after 2004 Finland, and since Mitsubishi pulled out, many suspected that she was scrapped. However, that is not the case, as she returned with Ivars Vasaraudzis on the Kurzeme Rally in 2007, and immediately bagged a win!

En route to her first win, 2007 Rally Kurzeme (Janis Asaris)

This was her final event, contrary to the popular belief that Kai Kuistila ran this car on the Neste Rally Finland in 2007; that car was KX53 BKV, and the mistake comes from the fact that on the british numberplates the letters 'Y' and 'V' look a lot alike...

Whereabouts
Since she survived Ralliart UK's transformation into MML, and was even converted to 2005 specification, I think she is still with MML, just haven't been used since there are a lot less worn chassis in their workshop.

Track record
Starts: 6
Wins: 1 (2007 Rally Kurzeme)
Podiums: 1
Retirements: 2 (2004 Cyprus Rally & Rally Finland)