Mitsubishi Motors Motorsport (yes, although a little retarded, that is the full name) or MMSP to its friends have confirmed that they will return to the WRC in 2007.

They are entering as a "Manufacturer Team" which, under the new rules (from 2007 on) mean they do not have to compete in every round of the championship.

They will compete on the 12 rounds in Europe and skip the 4 long-haul rounds which are Japan, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand iirc.

Drivers will be Toni Gardemeister and Middle East rally champion Khalid Al Qassimi.

They probably don't have too much hope. The drivers will start the season with 2005-spec machines and then moving on to 2007 cars during the season.

MMSP expect to return in 2008.

Well, at least they're still there.... I wonder what car they will enter for 2008...

 

cool, can't wait.

 

You have to wonder their strategy???

What ever happened to Gigi?

 

^I think they're probably on an economy mode. Perhaps keeping staff employed and occupied rather than risk losing them (well, what's left anyway) to another team.

I would not be too surprised if one of those drivers is actually a paying driver. Gigi probably wants to be paid, and rightly so.

 

So what's a WRC ride go for these days?

 

Even if its just a partial return, thats better then nothing. The WRC staff did at least manage to (almost) run off quite a few manufacturers, even those who make a lot of money, so maybe these new "class" rules will make it so they can gather the necessary data to build a competitive car a few years down the road.

But then, thats what they said the last time.

 

ok as far as the manufature team is concerned i think thats wrong if i remeber correctly their entering the 07 season as a private team which allows them to race single rounds... the MMSP will enter the 08 season (atleast thats what they are claiming) but the reason they are skipping the 07 season is the direction the company is moving in with their flagship rally car "the evo"... with such a drastically changed car (mainly not a 2.0 liter engine) the team has to revaluate their position and race the mitsu colt which was the wrc car for the 05 season which did not do so well... gigi galli who was the 3rd driver in 05 has already signed a contract with pegaut if i am not mistaken so he wont be joining the team especially since his popularity is rising fast and is looking for a full season contract and not just a few races... as far as price goes for a WRCcar if i were to guess i would say somewhere in the 300 to 500 thousand range per assembled car (not considering all the spare parts needed to fix them up )

 

When he said ride, he meant how much does the job as wRC driver pay, not the cost of the car.

 

oh i knew that ;P