OKM64 and Tarmacworks – Mitsubishi vs Subaru – Rally Legends FEATURETTE
They began as bores and ended as legends.
Rarely have cars had such stellar careers as the four-wheel-drive rally cars Subaru Impreza WRC and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. Meanwhile, in a country far to the east, a company with the heavyweight name Fuji Heavy Industries was struggling to make its products famous and sought after beyond the rising sun. But Europe hardly took any notice of the Subaru brand's models, even though they offered clear unique selling points with permanent four-wheel drive and boxer engines.
Because the once similarly Audi brand with its Quattros had made its way onto the big boulevards via rally tracks, the Japanese also entered the World Rally Championship in 1990 with the English Prodrive team. Initially, the Subaru Impreza, introduced in autumn 1992, was a four-door sedan, as there were countless others. Middle class and mediocrity.
The first titles
The story got its big boost in November 1995, when the young McRae crowned himself and the brand the World Rally Champion in Wales. Overnight, Subaru became a cult brand! The regulations allowed an improved evolution version every twelve months, and so the Japanese regularly added new goods. The wild youth of Japan was hungry for them, and so there was money to be made with the riot guns.
No one understood this better than another heavy industry company that also sold cars under the name Mitsubishi and remained largely unnoticed. A Scotsman called Anrew Cowan, after his driving career, founded RALLIART in 1995, which acted as an official works team and landed Finn Tommi Mäkinen in 1995. Mäkinen was the only driver the great McRae respected at the time, and the Finn replaced him as world champion.
Rally victories increase demand!
With the rally victories, demand also increased here. With the first evolutionary stages, Mitsubishi still limited itself to producing the required 5,000 units, but with the Evo V it was already 12,000. The proximity to series production became a sales argument. Every proud owner could say he was driving the same car as Mäkinen. The Finn won the Rally Monte Carlo and the WRC four times. The sixth version, the EVO VI, was also the most successful. With it, Mäkinen brought Mitsubishi the brand title and made himself a monument. What Arnold Schwarzenegger was to action films, Mäkinen was to rallying. Since 1999, he had the official nickname "Tomminator".
600HP? No Problem!
If the Evo and Impreza had ever been allowed to produce as much as they could, 600 hp would have been no problem, but in sport a restrictor sealed off the air, and in series production the Japanese manufacturers have voluntarily limited themselves to a maximum of 280 hp for decades. The Subaru Impreza also had this from 1994 onwards in the last version, the WRX STI. The rally cars were blue back then, not because those were the colours of the company, but those of the sponsor, the cigarette brand 555. Consequently, the rally Impreza was also called 555. Even when Subaru lost the sponsor, the blue remained.
The manufacturer OKM64 brings us several Subaru Impreza WRC models, each from the years 1997, 1998 and 1999. For the Rally du Condroz in Belgium in 1997, the Impreza started in the red and gold design. This was thanks to another cigarette sponsor called Winfield, whose colours were red and gold as well. Incidentally, the Winfield brand was dissolved in 2016.
For the 1999 variant, everything remained the same: With a blue chassis design, Briton Richard Burns drove the Impreza WRC 99 to second place overall. Mäkinen thus won the championship for the fourth time in a row! Tarmacworks released the 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI in the Rally New Zeeland version about 3 years ago - the perfect complement to celebrate the 1999 WRC heroes!
The crowning glory
The Subaru Impreza won three one-make world championships and three drivers' titles (McRae, Burns, Solberg), the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo one one-make world championship and four drivers' titles (Mäkinen). Both won the Production Car World Championship for production-based cars in a total of 18 years. Subaru and Mitsubishi built them: Pure driving machines, no frills and no compromises! Tarmacworks and OKM64, in turn, the true-to-scale version for the showcase: a piece of contemporary history to touch!
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