K7 MRE

K7 started her competition life in 1993, on the Acropolis Rally, alongside K6 MRE, with Armin Schwarz piloting her. They had a very strong debut event, as they finished 3rd, recording a stage win and five 2nd fastest times along the way.

Acropolis Rally 1993 (Olivier Delhez / ewrc.cz)

1994

She only returned on the 1994 Acropolis Rally, again with Schwarz, now as an Evo II specification car. They had a great rally again, winning 5 stages and finishing 2nd on 9 stages! They received a 2min penalty after the last stage, but they still had enough gap to Kankkunen to finish 2nd.

Acropolis Rally 1994 (rallyazores.blogspot.com)

1995

She began the season as a test car for the Monte Carlo Rally.

Pre-event test, 1995 Rallye Monte Carlo (youtube.com)

Next up was the Swedish Rally, where she was paired with Mäkinen. They had a good fight with their team-mate Eriksson, and ultimately had to hand over the victory to them after team orders.

Rally Sweden 1995 (McKlein / www.dirtfish.com)

Her next event was the Tour de Corse, this time with Andrea Aghini, and now as an Evo III. Ralliart had high hopes for Aghini, and he delivered: after one stagewin, five 2nd places and a big battle with Sainz throughout the event, they finished 3rd overall!

Tour de Corse 1995 (rallymemory.blogspot.com)

Also during the season, she was also used again as a test car:

During testing, 1995 (facebook)

Whereabouts

She did not compete as K7 MRE again, although that doesn't mean that she was not used again with a different numberplate or for testing.

Track record

Starts: 4

Wins: 0

Podiums: 4

• 1993 Acropolis Rally: 3rd (Schwarz-Grist)
  
• 1994 Acropolis Rally: 2nd (Schwarz-Wicha)
  
• 1995 Rally Sweden: 2nd (Mäkinen-Harjanne)
  
• 1995 Tour de Corse: 3rd (Aghini-Farnocchia)
  

Retirements: 0

M6 MRE

M6 MRE -alongside sister M5- started her career as an Evo II on 1995 Rallye Monte-Carlo, being piloted by Andrea Aghini. Just like team-mate Mäkinen they finished in the points, coming home in 6th place.

Rallye Monte-Carlo 1995 (pinterest)

Her next event was the Rally Catalunya, again with Aghini. They put up a good fight, and ended the event 5th overall after the Toyota exclusion.

Rallye Catalunya 1995 (web-rally.blogspot.com)

1996
Her first 1996 appearance was on the Acropolis Rally, now with Mäkinen. The Subarus -particularly McRae's- was far ahead of the field, but Mäkinen managed to come home in 2nd, keeping his championship lead.

Acropolis Rally 1996 (Leszek Kusmirek / ewrc-results.com)

Acropolis Rally 1996 (Leszek Kusmirek / ewrc-results.com)

Whereabouts
The car is currently owned by Jari Latvala, Jari-Matti's father. It was formerly used by the Ralliart works team as a Safari Rally recce car. Later it found its way back to Europe, and Jari refurbished it with the help of MML and X-Trac. They also built a replica car based on this. The below pictures were taken by Latvala Motorsport. If you want to check their car and services out, you can do so at www.latvalamotorsport.com.

With the replica car in Latvala Motorsport's HQ (www.latvalamotorsport.com)

Track record
Starts: 3
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1 - 1996 Acropolis Rally (2nd)
Retirements: 0

M5 MRE

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.

Rallye Monte-Carlo 1995 (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo I to X book)

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!

1995 Tour de Corse (video cutout)

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.

1995 Ypres Rally (diecastintherough.blogspot.com)

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!

1996 Rally Sweden (juwra.com)

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.

1996 1000 Lakes Rally (juwra.com)

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.

Sanremo Rallye 1996 (facebook)

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.

1996 Catalunya Rally

1996 Catalunya Rally (panoramio.com)

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!

As a show car

2013 Rally Finland (static.blogs.sudinfo.be)

2013 Rally Finland (Getty Images)

2013 Rally Finland - Tommi and Seppo posing with the car

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.

Rally Finland 2021, Harju city stage (Ilkka Rytkönen)

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

• 1996 Rally Sweden
• 1996 1000 Lakes Rally

Podiums: 2
Retirements: 2

• 1995 Catalunya Rally (accident)
• 1996 Sanremo Rally (accident)