M5 MRE - with her sister car M6 MRE - were the last cars that debuted as Evo IIs on the 1995 Rallye Monte-Carlo. Novelties for the season included improved engine and all-new front and centre active (electromagnetic) differentials. Mäkinen was her first driver, and they were 3rd for most of the event, but the new differentials developped problems, and they slipped back to 4th; a good start nonetheless.
The car returned to competition as an Evo III on the 1995 Tour de Corse, still with Mäkinen. Although he had quite a lot of tarmac training in Italy, he was new to this event, and arriving in the finish in 8th and giving Mitsubishi some points was more than decent driving!
After Corsica, the car was entered to the 24 Hours of Ypres Rally with Andrea Aghini as a test. They were doing well, but they had a pretty bad crash, drove the remainder of the stage with the bonnep open,and lost 10 minutes in the process. They finished 4th after Snijers' exclusion, one spot behind a young Freddy Loix, who was driving a F2 Astra at the time.
They returned on the Rally Catalunya, but this time it was not a good outing, as Mäkinen crashed out pretty early into the event.
1996
The season started in Sweden, and the car returned with Tommi at the wheel again. They made a great pairing on snow, and came home with the win!
She returned on the 1000 Lakes (Rally Finland) with Mäkinen still at command. This was a very close-fought battle with Kankkunen, but in the end, the Mitsubishi crew was victorious.
Next up was the Sanremo Rally, still with Mäkinen. This was his first event as a world champion, and he immediately crashed out on the first stage.
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Sanremo Rallye 1996 (facebook)
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The final event of the season and the Evo III's works car career was the Catalunya Rally. Unfortunately, Mitsubishi had little hope of beating Subaru in the Manufacturers' Championship (unlike in the APRC), and their chances significantly dropped with Auriol's withdrawal (he had no car after Tommi's crash in Italy). Mäkinen was slowed by a stand-in codriver, and eventually finished 5th.
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| 1996 Catalunya Rally |
2013
In 2013, the plate and Tommi returned together for runs on the Killeri SSS during Rally Finland. I, for one, at that time didn't think he will drive one of his Lancers again, but fortunately, I was wrong!
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| As a show car |
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| 2013 Rally Finland (Getty Images) |
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| 2013 Rally Finland - Tommi and Seppo posing with the car |
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| 2013 Rally Finland - in action on Killeri |
2021
After an 8 year break, the car and Tommi have returned to do a demo run through 2021 Rally Finland's opening classic city stage, Harju. The car looked and sounded very nice and sharp, and Tommi seemed to have good fun, even though he had a stall.
Whereabouts
Well, it is rarely the case, but actually the confusing part here is that - theoretically - two cars exist as M5 MRE at the moment! Yet, none of them are 100% confirmed, and both can be M5 MRE! One car is at Andrew Cowan's museum, dressed up as the 1996 Rally Sweden winning car, and the other is Tommi Mäkinen's car, which was at Juha's museum. Now, when I wrote above that Auriol couldn't start in Spain because Mäkinen crashed his car, and he used M5 MRE like nothing happened, it is quite obvious that there were at least two chassis carrying this numberplate. So, both cars might be correct!
Track record
Starts: 8
Wins: 2
Podiums: 2
Retirements: 2
- 1995 Catalunya Rally (accident)
- 1996 Sanremo Rally (accident)
