K5 MRE -alongside sister car K4 MRE- made her debut on the 1993 Rallye Monte-Carlo with Armin Schwarz and Nicky Grist (for a little story on the cars' livery, take a look at
K4 MRE's story). They were doing quite well, but transmission problems cost them a lot of time, but they eventually rallied back to 6th position.
She returned to action in Portugal, again with Schwarz. They had a disastrous first day with losing a wheel, and an accident on the road section before SS13 put them out of their miserable rally.
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| Rally de Portugal 1993 (Pinterest) |
Her next event was the 1000 Lakes Rally, this time with Kenneth Eriksson. The cars were a step behind the competition (mainly caused by the centre differential, which was switching torque between the front and rear axles whilst airborne, making the car unstable after landing), made apparent by the fact that Eriksson managed to win only one stage out of 35. They finished in 5th position though, earning precious points for Mitsubishi and themselves as well.
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| 1000 Lakes Rally 1993 (Olivier Delhez / ewrc.cz) |
Her final event of the season was the RAC Rally. Held in trecherous conditions that year (snow in Wales, ice in Kielder, etc.), the stages took their toll. Still piloted by Eriksson, they fell back initially, but fought their way back to 2nd by the end of the rally. It was quite a good result considering the lost time on the first day.
1994
It was not until the Sanremo Rally that K5 MRE returned to the WRC as an Evo II (in the meantime, she could have been used on some APRC events, like Malaysia or Indonesia, as there are little to none info on them events), and back with her was Armin Schwarz. Their reunion didn't end well, as they had to retire due to a fire. Before that, they won two stages.
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| Sanremo Rally 1994 (facebook) |
Update: before the event, a car with K5 MRE numberplates was used for testing. It would surprise me of this was the actual car they used was the same as this, but maybe yes, who knows...
1995
During the next season, she was back again - albeit only for the final event, the RAC. Mitsubishi was in a (bit hopeless) fight with Subaru for the championship, and K5 had a new driver (and Evo III specification), namely Tommi Mäkinen. Mitsubishi's title hopes collapsed when Mäkinen was forced to retire on SS9 with transmission problems, ending any chance of defeating Subaru.
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| NetworkQ RAC Rally 1995 (instagram) |
Whereabouts
Quite a difficult question, just like with K4 MRE. Andrew Cowan has an Evo II supposedly from 1994, which was driven (supposedly) by Eriksson, more than likely in tarmac specification. This all but rules out K5, although it is possible it exists somewhere, as many of the old Evo IIIs have found their way into private collections.
Track record
Starts: 6
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Retirements:
- 1995 NetworkQ RAC Rally - transmission
- 1994 Sanremo Rally - fire
- 1993 Rally de Portugal - road accident
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