Five Mitsubishis at the Dakar

After the announcement of Mitsubishi?s withdrawal last February, it was unlikely to see the presence of the Lancers at the start of the 2010 edition with Dominique Serieys in the lead. On January 1st, there will be five cars from the Japanese manufacturer at the start of the rally-raid in Buenos Aires.

The operation saw the light of day thanks to the young Marseille driver Nicolas Misslin who bought both the vehicles and the structure of Mitsubishi. The vehicles will run on behalf of the new JMB Stradale team which will be led by Dominique Serieys. “ The work done in November was enormous », indicated Nicolas Misslin just before the vehicles were loaded into the port of Le Havre, “ and we finally have five vehicles, driven by Miguel Barbosa, Guilherme Spinelli, Orlando Terranova, Carlos Sousa and myself. It is already a first satisfaction to have succeeded in this, but we will of course see the final result on January 18: that is where we will have to be there. »

The ?modified? Lancers? will try to do well even if they should have difficulty reaching the level of Volkswagen or BMW. “ We replaced the diesel engine of the Lancer with gasoline, because the operating costs of diesel are too high », continued Nicolas Misslin. “ However, we know that the car will be less efficient than the diesels. So we will have to try to distinguish ourselves on the difficult stages, with a lot of crossings. But to get into the Top 10, there are at least twenty credible cars.”