Mitsubishi out of Dakar!!!

Mitsubishi Motors to withdraw from Dakar Rally

TOKYO, February 4, 2009 — Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) announced today their decision to withdraw from Cross Country Rallying, starting with the legendary Dakar Rally.

In its 26 entries in this event, Mitsubishi Motors won the rally a total of 12 times, including seven consecutive victories. In addition to this unparalleled record the company also gained 4WD technology that informs its production vehicles, most visible in their durability and off road performance.

The sudden deterioration of the global economy made it necessary for the company to focus its resources more tightly, leading to today's announcement.

VW has with stated they will probally not be back next year too.. They are going to WRC and SCORE

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Permalink Reply by FlyHiFlyLo on February 4, 2009 at 7:11pm

You must not have seen mark Miller's Turdrag Trophy truck with a V-12 TDI.

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Permalink Reply by GrayAntiMatter on February 13, 2009 at 2:16am

I sure didn't see it at Laughlin......was it at Parker for the BITD race?

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Permalink Reply by C2B on February 4, 2009 at 2:51pm

Peterhansel, Sainz and Alphand can bring their sponsors and RGM could have six cars in the rally. Robby could become the Roger Penske of off road racing. He would need more employees, more space for operations, trucks, equipment, and all the things a company needs to grow. The economy would be better off with more teams for RGM. Robby Gordon saves the economy, one rally at a time.

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Permalink Reply by FlyHiFlyLo on February 5, 2009 at 2:09am

Look People... Getting to the race and ready to go is 75% of the challenge.... A win is a win even if people puss out.

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Permalink Reply by GrayAntiMatter on February 13, 2009 at 2:17am

Its actually a BAD thing for Dakar if Mitsubishi and VW both pull out.

Its especially surprising from Mitshubishi since they had basically brand new cars for this years event. The bulk of the investment or engineering for the next few attempts was already paid for.

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Permalink Reply by AZBadseed on February 13, 2009 at 10:48am

Breaking News...German Auto manufacturer Volkswagen is pulling it's support from the 2010 Dakar Rally event to focus all national manpower to increase production capacity and further technological development of SHAM-WOW.