All comments on Mitsu's 1st rally of 2004 MERGED
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Joined: Jul 2001
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From: Irvine, CA USA
Guys, get psyched for this! Mitsi is returning to the world stage after a year off to redesign the car, revamp the team. Now with two new sets of driver/co-pilots, and the new WRC04, (which is a crazy looking beast that looks like its a child of lots of wind tunnel time), are about to hit Monte Carlo. Competition starts tomorrow. Check out WRC's website to follow along:
http://www.wrc.com/en_GB/default.htm
I just took a rally driving for beginners corse at a great facility in western PA called BeaveRun. I'm actually cutting a promotional video for them, but more about that later. For now, check out the site and lets support our guys and our car.
http://www.wrc.com/en_GB/default.htm
I just took a rally driving for beginners corse at a great facility in western PA called BeaveRun. I'm actually cutting a promotional video for them, but more about that later. For now, check out the site and lets support our guys and our car.
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I just checked out speed channels web site, and they have a listing under they FIA World Rally section saying:
Monte Carlo Sun, Jan 25 9pm
I'm assuming this is a brodcast summing up the whole event?
Monte Carlo Sun, Jan 25 9pm
I'm assuming this is a brodcast summing up the whole event?
Evo struggles on first round of WRC (Monte Carlo)
Courtesy of WRC.com:
While we all know it is a new car, you have to take into account that the brand new 307, and Marcus Gronholm, was in 1st up until the last stage of the day. Panizzi also suffered a broken hand brake on the first stage of the day (actually the 2nd as the 1st was cancelled) and was 1m17s off the pace. Galli went off the road on the 5th stage and is out of the rally. I really think Mitsubishi could have selected different drivers this year and I don't believe Panizzi is going to be the saving grace they had hoped for. Only time will tell I guess.
It's been an up and-down first morning for the comeback Mitsubishi squad, returning to the World Rally Championship trail after a year's sabbatical.
Young Italian Gigi Galli set a brilliant fourth best stage time on SS3, but otherwise he and, in particular, Gilles Panizzi have struggled with the new Lancer WRC04.
Team manager Derek Dauncey explained the trouble: "It's a small handling problem, which isn't giving the drivers much confidence. That's difficult when they are going from ice to tarmac and back all the time."
At the service halt after SS4, big changes were made to the cars, including a steering rack swap to try to give the drivers a bit more feeling.
Still at this stage, the team is not disheartened and is concentrating on its main aim, which Dauncey says is to: "gather as much data as possible from both cars."
After SS4 the cars are lying in eighth (Galli) and 14th (Panizzi) places overall.
Young Italian Gigi Galli set a brilliant fourth best stage time on SS3, but otherwise he and, in particular, Gilles Panizzi have struggled with the new Lancer WRC04.
Team manager Derek Dauncey explained the trouble: "It's a small handling problem, which isn't giving the drivers much confidence. That's difficult when they are going from ice to tarmac and back all the time."
At the service halt after SS4, big changes were made to the cars, including a steering rack swap to try to give the drivers a bit more feeling.
Still at this stage, the team is not disheartened and is concentrating on its main aim, which Dauncey says is to: "gather as much data as possible from both cars."
After SS4 the cars are lying in eighth (Galli) and 14th (Panizzi) places overall.
Last edited by UFO; Jan 23, 2004 at 07:53 AM.
Panizzi had his chance back in 2002 and blew it when he broke his arm changing that light bulb. Last year he was much more mediocre except for his performances at Catalunya and San Remo. Which one was the one where he had the really hard charge in the rain? Catalunya right?
We'll see how Mitsu does. You have to remember that the 307 has been in development for over a year and they can rely on the experience they've gained with the 206 over the last few years. Mitsu has been out for a year and did pretty poorly in 2002 with their new WRC. So they have a much weaker foundation to build upon, and much weaker drivers IMHO (Panizzi now, Alister McRae a few years back).
We'll see how it pans out. It's like the Fabia's introduction last year. It was really hyped up and then was pretty much a letdown. That's when you hear the excuses like "it's a development year" start to come out and you see teams drop out of the WRC.
We'll see how Mitsu does. You have to remember that the 307 has been in development for over a year and they can rely on the experience they've gained with the 206 over the last few years. Mitsu has been out for a year and did pretty poorly in 2002 with their new WRC. So they have a much weaker foundation to build upon, and much weaker drivers IMHO (Panizzi now, Alister McRae a few years back).
We'll see how it pans out. It's like the Fabia's introduction last year. It was really hyped up and then was pretty much a letdown. That's when you hear the excuses like "it's a development year" start to come out and you see teams drop out of the WRC.
Sunday night at 9pm eastern I believe. Don't know if they're doing Rally XS and Rally XTra this year or not. I don't recall anything showing up in my TiVo yet, and it should catch the WRC stuff.
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 65
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From: Penn State University
yea it's really a shame, everything that's going on with mistu in the wrc...they definitely could have done better concerning drivers and stuff, and hopefully the excuses of "development" won't be too long lasting, as we all know they're a far cry from the days of consistently winning rallies
Evolving Member
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 141
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From: Austin, TX
Rally-Mexico is mid-March... Living in Texas, that's the closest rally we'll ever get to the US for a good long while... Personally I have rather low expectations for the Mitsubishi race-team. Nobody does very well their first year out...