K4 MRE

K4 MRE -alongside sister car K5 MRE- was the first Lancer Evolution entered by Ralliart Europe in the WRC, making her debut on the 1993 Rallye Monte-Carlo with Kenneth Eriksson and Staffan Parmander. One funny story occured right before the event, after Ralliart failed to secure Coca-Cola sponsorship. But just before the event, the wrong design scheme was faxed to the workshop, that's why the Lancers had Coca-Cola stripes on the sides. They ran the event like that, but the design -sadly- has never been seen since. Anyways, Eriksson did well, and finished 4th, albeit 17 minutes behind the winner.

Rallye Monte-Carlo 1993 (internet)

Rallye Monte-Carlo 1993 (instagram)

Her next event was the Rallye de Portugal, again with Eriksson and Parmander. As said above, the cars were sporting a new look, with a lot of green replacing red and black. They were doing well once again (remember, this was only the second works outing for the Lancers ever!), and finished 5th behind more experienced opposition.

Rallye de Portugal 1993 (F1PAM): this is a great picture, as during the Lancer's design phase,
the Integrale was studied thoroughly by Mitsubishi engineers

Rallye de Portugal 1993 (olhares.sapo.pt)

Between two competitive outings, she (or her numberplates) was used on the team's 1993 Rally Finland pre-event test as well.

1993 1000 Lakes Rally pre-event test (Youtube)

Her final WRC event in 1993 came on the RAC Rally, this time with Schwarz. They had very little experience, and that was worsened by the trecherous conditions that year (snow and ice in Wales, ice in Kielder, etc.), but in the end reached the finish in 8th.

Network Q RAC Rally 1993 (pistech.karoo.net)

1994
Despite the arrival of new chassis, the old cars (or at least their numberplates) were kept around an converted to Evo II. K4 MRE returned on the Sanremo Rally, with the team's new star, Tommi Mäkinen. Their rally didn't end well, as Tommi took a wheel off on SS5 and they retired.

1995
K4 MRE returned to the WRC on the RAC Rally, again with Mäkinen and now as an Evo III. Mitsubishi was in a fight with Subaru for the manufacturers' title, but their plans didn't go too well: Mäkinen retired with transmission failure, and Eriksson crashed out, meaning Mitsubishi finished 2nd behind Subaru.

Network Q RAC Rally 1995 (Shaun Flannery Photography)

Network Q RAC Rally 1995 (Shaun Flannery Photography)

Whereabouts
This is a tough one, as this car was one of the two first Lancer Evos to compete in the WRC, and yet it might now have survived. There's an Evo II in Cowan's collection, but from the pictures it can't be determined which one, and none of the Evo IIIs is likely to be this car.

Track record (might be incomplete)
Starts: 6
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Best result: 4th - Rallye Monte-Carlo 1993
Retirements: 2

• 1995 RAC Rally - transmission
• 1994 RAC Rally - accident