2013. március 18., hétfő

X2 MMR

2001
Well, the history of this car is quite strange. She was the first of the last couple of Group A cars Mitsubishi ever built, yet she was the very last to debut out of these machines.
She made her first appearance with Tommi Mäkinen at the 2001 Rally Argentina. Around that time it was clear that Mitsubishi's going to have a huge problem later in the season, as Tommi didn't have any chance to catch the leading trio. After an awkward landing, finishing was the main thing, and they did so in 4th place.
2001 Rally Argentina (Mitsubishi)
She made her second and final appearance in the WRC with Freddy Loix in Finland. After some driving errors, they finished 10th overall.
En route to 10th place (Mitsubishi)
Whereabouts
This is the very first time (but not the last!) I have specific info about this car. It is currently located in the Netherlands, owned by Arjen de Koning, and serviced by Piet van Hoof. He and some of his customers have done some rallies with this car. The team has containers filled with ex-works parts, so don't worry, this lucky bee's going to run for a long time. Some photos:
In the Parc Ferme during Shortrally Kasterlee 2010 (Paradigit Rallyteam)
Driven by Arjen de Koning, Kasterlee, 2010 (Paradigit Rallyteam)
In 2007, shortly after her new life began (Juha Bos)
Arjen de Koning, Vechtdal Rally 2008 (Paradigit Rallyteam)
Update: Arjen has made an entry for the Rallylegend in san Marino this year, so the car will be back with full power between 9-12th October, 2014! Infos and hopefully many videos/photos will be taken ;)
2014
Before the Rallylegend, Arjen took part in the Shortrally Kasterlee once again (in 2013, he retired on the first stage). The "test" before the big event went well, he won a couple of stages, and finished 2nd O/A.
Shortrally Kasterlee 2014 (Paradigit Rally Team Facebook)
Shortrally Kasterlee 2014 (www.bvrallypics.be)
As far as the Rallylegend goes, they finished 13th in their class (WRC-Kit Car), but this rally is not about results (although it's great to see e.g. Auriol drive like it was), they achieved what they went for, and that is to showcase a real ex-works Evo 6.5. The fact that many websites didn' even post a picture of them is interesting at least, but whatever... Well done Arjen, Sander and Paradigit Rally Team!
Rallylegend 2014 (Karsten Huber/www.rallye-magazin.de)
Rallylegend 2014 (Nico Meyer/www.rallye-magazin.de)
Rallylegend 2014 (Karsten Huber/www.rallye-magazin.de)
Rallylegend 2014 (Martin Trdla/www.rallye-magazin.de)
Rallylegend 2014 (Nico Meyer/www.rallye-magazin.de)
2015
The 2015 edition of the Rallylegend saw the return of X2 MMR once again. They were setting quite a good pace despite the very rainy and slippery conditions, but unfortunately had to retire a couple of stages from the finish.
Rallylegend 2015 (Luca Zanella / www.ewrc.cz)
2016
She returned to the stages with Arjen on the Short Rally van Kasterlee again. They had a nice run, eventually ending 4th, 1m46.1s behind team-mate Piet van Hoof and his works Lancer Evo IV replica.
Short Rally van Kasterlee 2016 (www.bvrallypics.be)
Short Rally van Kasterlee 2016 (www.bvrallypics.be)
Track record (WRC only)
Starts: 2
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Best result: 4th (Rally Argentina 2001)

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