"In October 2003 we announced our team's three-year turn-around program, namely that in 2004 we would come back to the series with the Lancer and then target podium positions in 2005. For 2006, our aim is to claim the world title again; I feel those objectives are on track," said Isao Torii, President of Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports.

Strong driver line-up to challenge the 16-round World Championship in 2005

For 2005, the Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports driver line-up includes Finland's Harri Rovanpera, Frenchman Gilles Panizzi - who has been instrumental in the development of the Lancer World Rally Car this year - and Italy's "Gigi" Galli.

Thirty-eight-year-old Rovanpera will contest all 16 rounds of the championship, the Finn providing the team with valuable knowledge of all events in the series; in particular the gravel rounds the Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports team missed during the 2004 season.

"The championship is more and more dominated by gravel rallies and we need a driver who knows all these events very well," said Isao Torii. "Harri Rovanpera is a good loose surface driver, especially on the high-speed events. We feel fortunate that he is joining the team and expect some good performances. He drives consistently and finishes rallies; we will be very reliant on him."

Team-mate Gilles Panizzi, whose dedication to test and development work this year has been invaluable to the team,

will compete in selective rounds of the series,

notably the sealed-surface events where Mitsubishi has high expectations of the Frenchman being a potential winner.

"Gilles has been incredibly supportive of the team and has contributed enormous amounts to our development program," added Torii. "We did not give him the car to challenge, but next year we have big expectations and see him as a potential winner on Tarmac, especially in the second half of the season."

Gigi Galli's commitment impressed the team from the outset and the Italian's fine sixth overall in Mitsubishi's Group N machinery in Sardinia, and seventh in Spain in the Lancer WRC04, has secured him a place as the team's third driver. He will share the second Lancer WRC05 with Panizzi, although a third car may be entered on some European events.
"Gigi has made very good progress and although it was very difficult to compare the results of our three young drivers this year, his performances in Sardinia and Spain are what made us decide to retain him in 2005," Torii concluded.

New Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 development in progress

"We have concentrated very seriously on development of the Lancer WRC since August this year and that strategy paid off in Spain, where the progress we made saw two cars finish in the top seven," said Isao Torii, President of Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports. "We still have more development work to do. An active differential system and modified semi-automatic gearshift will be the main targets in the development program and our primary focus for the first half of the season.

But we intend to get back on the podium in the second half of next year; Rally Japan, in particular, being our target."

The Mitsubishi Motors assault on the 2005 FIA World Rally Championship will kick-off in January with the famous Rallye Monte-Carlo (January 20-23), one of the most unpredictable and treacherous events in the series.

2005 FIA World Rally Championship
THE MITSUBISHI LANCER WRC05

Tokyo, December 7, 2004 — The Mitsubishi Lancer World Rally Car has undergone months of intense development work and the team's latest challenger for the FIA World Rally Championship - the Lancer WRC05 - will break cover at the 2005 Rallye Monte-Carlo, January's season-opening event.

The FIA World Rally Championship regulations have changed in a number of areas for 2005 and the Mitsubishi Motor Sports team has seized this chance to further enhance key areas of the Lancer WRC05. One of the most notable changes permits manufactures to increase the width of the car body shell by 30mm, from 1770mm to 1800mm. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Lancer WRC05 now has re-designed front and rear wings, rear quarters and bumpers, making subtle visual changes but aiding stability.

In tandem with this, longer suspension links and drive-shafts are required and uprights have been modified to optimize the suspension geometry. In short, there has been a complete review of the suspension and, while the Tarmac-specification dampers used in the 2004 Rallye Catalunya-Rally de Espana were designed to comply with the new wider body shell of the WRC05, specific changes have been made to adapt the uprights and dampers to the new geometry on the gravel specification Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05. While retaining a light-weight form, these will improve stiffness and be used from Rally Mexico onwards. Further modifications to the internal components are also then planned, affording greater freedom and finer tuning.

Improvements to the engine include new waste gate and anti-lag valves, both of which will be run from Rallye Monte-Carlo. These parts, working with an improved engine control, will give a significant performance improvement and more accurate tuning possibilities.

"In particular, this means we can get much closer to the limits acceptable to the engine in all conditions," commented the team's Technical Director, Mario Fornaris. "The final fine-tuning can now be on the absolute limit."

Improvements to the turbo-charger have also been investigated, although assessment of the increase in efficiency is still on-going and will be included in the WRC homologation in December if proved to be effective.

The Lancer WRC05s automatic clutch and gearshift have already proved successful during testing and this system will see 'paddles' adopted on the steering wheel for changing gear, an active gearshift system that negates the need to use the clutch.

Development work is on-going with the center differential and although the aim is to have this ready for Monte-Carlo, the most likely date for the new component is Rally Mexico, in March. Active front and rear differential prototypes have yet to undergo testing and, according to development results in the first quarter of the year, may or may not be implemented into the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05, especially as this active system will be banned in 2006.

In 2004, it was ascertained that gear ratios needed to be improved and longer ratios will be adopted for first, third and fourth gears, anticipated from Rally New Zealand onwards.

"Our target is to finish all the development work for the Lancer WRC05 within the first six months of the season," stated Fornaris. "Then we can really focus on results, podium finishes and our championship aspirations for 2006."

One of the other most significant changes to the Mitsubishi Lancer World Rally Car will be that it will run on Pirelli tires for the first time.

"We have started testing with Pirelli and are very impressed with their professional approach and the facilities it is putting at our disposal," added Mario Fornaris. "We are in the process of learning the tire range and adapting the Lancer WRC05 to optimize their performance, but from the first results I believe there is big potential with our new partner. We will take advantage of Pirelli's strong points and, in the spirit of our technical partnership, will help Pirelli to improve its tires feeding them with our car data. Working together on the tire development is very important for us."

"GIGI" GALLI

Born:	January 13th, 1973
Nationality:	Italian
Family:	Single
Resides:	Livigno (I)

Career Highlights:

1994:	Rally debut
1998:	6th Production Car World Rally Championship * (Group N winner Rallye San Remo-Rallye d'Italia)
1999:	7th Production Car World Rally Championship * (Group N winner Rallye San Remo-Rallye d'Italia)
2000:	7th Production Car World Rally Championship * (Group N winner Rallye San Remo-Rallye d'Italia)
2002:	9th FIA Junior World Rally Championship
2004:	1st Group N Rally Finland * 1st Group N (6th overall) Rallye d'Italia-Sardinia * 7 Rally Catalunya-Rally de Espana (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC04)

* Driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (Group N)

GUIDO D'AMORE

Born:	December 24th, 1971
Nationality:	Italian
Family:	Single
Resides:	Costa d'Ognelia

Career Highlights:

1991:	Rally debut
1998:	6th Production Car World Rally Championship * (Group N winner Rallye San Remo/Rallye d'Italia)
1999:	7th Production Car World Rally Championship * (Group N winner Rallye San Remo/Rallye d'Italia)
2000:	7th Production Car World Rally Championship * (Group N winner Rallye San Remo/Rallye d'Italia)
2002:	9th FIA Junior World Rally Championship *
2004:	1st Group N Rally Finland * 1st Group N (6th overall) Rallye d'Italia-Sardinia * 7 Rally Catalunya-Rally de Espana (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC04)

* Co-driver to "Gigi" Galli

HARRI ROVANPERA

Born:	April 8th, 1966
Nationality:	Finnish
Family:	Married to Tiina with one child, Kalle
Resides:	Jyvaskyla

Career Highlights:

1989:	Rally debut
1993:	Finnish Rally Championship - 1st Group N
1995:	Finnish Rally Champion
1996:	World 2-Liter Champion (for Makes)
1997:	World 2-Liter Champion
1998:	World 2-Liter Champion; 5th overall Safari Rally; 6th overall Rally GB
1999:	7th Rallye Monte-Carlo; 6th Safari Rally; 5th Rally Finland; 5th China Rally; 3rd Rally GB
2000:	4th Rally of Portugal; 3rd Rally Finland
2001:	5th World Rally Championship (1st Rally Sweden; 3rd Acropolis Rally; 2nd Safari Rally; 4th Rally Finland; 3rd Rally New Zealand; 6th Rally Australia; 2nd Rally GB)
2002:	7th World Rally Championship (2nd Rally Sweden; 4th Cyprus Rally; 4th Acropolis Rally; 2nd Safari Rally; 2nd Rally New Zealand; 2nd Rally Australia)
2003:	7th World Rally Championship (4th Rally Argentina; 6th Acropolis Rally; 2nd Cyprus Rally)
2004:	8th World Rally Championship (5th Rally New Zealand; 3rd Acropolis Rally; 5th Rally Argentina; 6th Rally Japan; 6th Rally GB; 2nd Rally Australia)

RISTO PIETILAINEN

Born:	July 25, 1963
Nationality:	Finnish
Family:	Married to Jaana with three children (Pia, Elli, Samuel)
Resides:	Jyvaskyla

Career Highlights:

1998:	Rally debut with Harri Rovanpera (Rally of Portugal) 1st W2L Acropolis Rally; 1st W2L Rally New Zealand; 6th overall Rally GB
1999:	7th Rallye Monte-Carlo; 6th Safari Rally; 5th Rally Finland; 5th China Rally; 3rd Rally GB
2000:	4th Rally of Portugal; 3rd Rally Finland
2001:	5th World Rally Championship (1st Rally Sweden; 3rd Acropolis Rally; 2nd Safari Rally; 4th Rally Finland; 3rd Rally New Zealand; 6th Rally Australia; 2nd Rally GB)
2002:	2nd Rally Sweden; 4th Cyprus Rally; 4th Acropolis Rally; 2nd Safari Rally
2003:	7th World Rally Championship (4th Rally Argentina; 6th Acropolis Rally; 2nd Cyprus Rally)
2004:	8th World Rally Championship (5th Rally New Zealand; 3rd Acropolis Rally; 5th Rally Argentina; 6th Rally Japan; 6th Rally GB; 2nd Rally Australia)

GILLES PANIZZI

Born:	September 19th, 1965
Nationality:	French
Family:	Married to Michele, daughther Salome
Resides:	Monaco (MC)

Career Highlights *:

1988:	Rally debut
1989:	Voted "Young driver of the year" in France
1992:	1st Peugeot 309 GTi Cup France
1995:	3rd French F2-Championship
1996:	French Rally Champion
1997:	French Rally Champion
1999:	2nd Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia
2000:	7th World Rally Championship (1st Rallye de France-Tour de Corse and Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia)
2001:	8th World Rally Championship (1st Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia)
2002:	6th World Rally Championship (1st Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia, Rallye de France-Tour de Corse and Rally Catalunya-Costa Brava)
2003:	10th World Rally Championship (1st Rally Catalunya-Costa Brava)
2004:	6th Rallye Monte-Carlo; 7th Rally Argentina (limited program)

* All results co-driven by brother Herve Panizzi

HERVE PANIZZI

Born:	July 13th, 1967
Nationality:	French
Family:	Married, one daughter
Resides:	Cap Martin (F)

Career Highlights *:

1988:	Rally debut
1992:	1st Peugeot 309 GTi Cup France
1995:	3rd French F2-Championship
1996:	1st French Rally Championship
1997:	1st French Rally Championship
1999:	2nd Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia
2000:	1st Rallye de France-Tour de Corse and Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia
2001:	1st Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia
2002:	1st Rallye Sanremo-Rallye d'Italia, Rallye de France-Tour de Corse and Rally Catalunya-Costa Brava
2003:	1st Rally Catalunya-Costa Brava
2004:	6th Rallye Monte-Carlo, 7th Rally Argentina (limited program)

* All results with brother Gilles Panizzi

MITSUBISHI MOTORS A GLORIOUS HERITAGE IN MOTOR SPORT

Tokyo, December 7, 2004 — Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) first competed in world motor sport more than 40 years ago when it entered the Mitsubishi 500 in the 1962 Macau Grand Prix. Since then, the Japanese manufacturer has focused its activities on rally and cross-country competition and has been dominant in the motor sport categories that have the most direct impact on its business and the motoring public.

Mitsubishi Motors won four world Drivers' titles with Tommi Makinen (1996-1999) and claimed the world Manufacturers' title in 1998 in the FIA World Rally Championship. In total, Mitsubishi won 34 world rallies between 1974 and 2002, making it the sixth most successful of the 20 manufacturers in the series since records began in 1973.

In the world Group N Production Car category, Mitsubishi's record is unmatched; seven consecutive titles from 1995 to 2001 with the Lancer Evolution. And this says nothing about its success in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, where five titles have been won by Mitsubishi drivers. In 2004, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution drivers also had an impressive run in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship, winning six of the seven rounds of the series.

The roll of honor in Cross-Country Rallies and the world-famous Dakar Rally is equally impressive. Mitsubishi Motors has won the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies on four occasions, three times consecutively (1998-2000), and again in 2003, and is one of the most successful manufacturers in the history of The Dakar with nine victories. In January 2005, it will be bidding for its fifth consecutive win with the Pajero / Montero Evolution.

After contesting the Macau Grand Prix, Mitsubishi's Colt 1100 Fastback entry into Australia's Southern Cross Rally in 1967 marked its first entry into the world of international rallying. Its first international victory however was not until 1972, when Andrew Cowan won the same event in a Galant. Mitsubishi then chose the 1973 Southern Cross event to debut the Lancer 1600 GSR and it was a success from the beginning, winning the event three consecutive years (1973-1975), again in the hands of Cowan. Mitsubishi's first outing in the Safari Rally in 1974 also reaped rewards and the Lancer took victory with Kenyan Joginder Singh. The team also took a clean-sweep of the Safari Rally leaderboard in 1976, Singh, Robin Ulyate and Andrew Cowan claiming an impressive one-two-three for Mitsubishi.

Like many manufacturers, Mitsubishi's motor sport programme was severely cut during the world oil crisis, but it returned to the World Rally Championship in 1981 with the new Lancer EX2000 Turbo, a model that competed successfully for three years. In 1983 however, it was replaced by the Starion Turbo model and then by the Galant VR-4, which went on to win three Asia-Pacific titles in the hands of Kenjiro Shinozuka (1988) and Ross Dunkerton (1991 and 1992).

In 1983 Andrew Cowan, a leading driver with the team, established Ralliart Europe as the European competition base for Mitsubishi Motors, while in Australia Doug Stewart - Cowan's team-mate in 1975 and 1976 - set-up Ralliart in Australia. Both men were involved in Mitsubishi's future successes in the World and Asia-Pacific Rally Championships. 1993 saw the revival of the Lancer Evolution for the first time in ten years, marking the start of a celebrated career in world rallying for the car. The Evolution III claimed both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' titles in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in 1995 and also went on to win the opening round of the 1996 World Rally Championship in Sweden. In the hands of Finland's Tommi Makinen and Britain's Richard Burns, the car won five other events in 1996, including the Safari Rally in Kenya and events in Argentina, New Zealand, Finland and Australia. Makinen claimed the title that year, marking the start of his four-year domination of the series with Lancer Evolutions.

In 1997 FIA regulations changed and World Rally Cars were introduced, however Mitsubishi elected to stay with its Group A machinery. Tommi Makinen remained quick, the Finn taking victories in four events (Portugal, Spain, Argentina and Finland) to claim his second World title.

More changes took place in 1998, the introduction of split-second timing confirming the level of competition in the FIA World Rally Championship. The new Lancer Evolution V made its debut competitive outing in Rallye Catalunya in April and was on the podium immediately, with Makinen third and Burns finishing fourth. Visually the car was wider, taking advantage of the new maximum width allowed under world rally car regulations, and had an improved aerodynamic package. A more powerful electronic management capability and changes to the suspension all improved the car's asphalt performance. Makinen's five victories secured his third title, and two wins by Richard Burns settled the Manufacturers' Championship in Mitsubishi's favour for the first time.

The team secured its fifth consecutive World Rally win in Monte-Carlo in January 1999 and added to the record by winning the next event in Sweden too with the revised Lancer Evolution VI, a variant on the previous model and classed, for the first time by the FIA, as a World Rally Car. In total, Mitsubishi drivers Makinen and Burns won seven of the season's 14 events ensuring Makinen claimed a record-breaking fourth world title, while Burns finished just seven points behind in second position.

The development of the original World Rally Car, known by many as the 'Evo 6.5' continued in 2000, gradually lightened in the early part of the season until the new car was launched in Finland. After victory in Monte Carlo, the season got tougher for the team, yet 2001 started well when the FIA agreed to modification of the Evolution VI's rear bodywork and flywheel. The car won Rallye Monte Carlo in its debut outing. The team continued with this evolution until Rallye Sanremo, when Mitsubishi launched its first true World Rally Car. Makinen claimed four victories throughout the year, but competition was tough and former team-mate Richard Burns won the Drivers' title in his new Subaru. The Finn and Mitsubishi finished third in the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships, temporarily ending the Japanese company's years of domination.

2002 proved to be a difficult year for Mitsubishi and ultimately led to its withdrawal from the 2003 World Rally Championship. A year of re-structuring followed, including the formation of Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports (MMSP), a new organization responsible for global motor sport operations and strategy. Based in Trebur, near Frankfurt, MMSP is responsible for the design, development and running of both the World Rally Championship and World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies programmes, with the operational teams based in Rugby, England, and Pont de Vaux, central France, respectively.

2004 proved to be another challenging year in the FIA World Rally Championship, and ultimately led to the team withdrawing after Rallye Deutschland in August. Months of intense test and development work followed with the Lancer WRC04 and when the team entered Gilles Panizzi, "Dani" Sola and "Gigi" Galli in the Rally Catalunya-Rally de Espana, it was rewarded with sixth and seventh positions respectively with Sola and Galli.

The 2005 season kicks off with the awesome Dakar Rally, which starts in Barcelona on January 1st. Mitsubishi Motors will be bidding for a tenth victory and fifth consecutive win with a strong five-car team. Its return to the FIA World Rally Championship starts the same month in Monte-Carlo and the team is firmly focused on securing podium positions during its 2005 WRC campaign.