Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV Rally Catalunya 1997

[ng_nmda]

Hello again! While still working on the Impreza 555, I’ve decided to build another WRC machine that raced in Rally Catalunya. It’s the Lancer Evolution IV from the 1997 WRC season, the car that allowed both Mitsubishi and Tommi Makinen to score their first ever win on tarmac.


(Photo from Mitsubishi Motorsports website)

Similar to ny2000’s build posted quite a while ago, I’ll be using the body from Hasegawa’s Evo IV kit, plus the chassis and other parts from Tamiya’s Evo V. Surprisingly both kits seem to have the same wheelbase so the conversion wasn’t too difficult.

First of all, I shaved both sides of the chassis to fit the narrower Evo IV body.
Before:



After:



No too much fitment problems.



Then I opened up all the vents and drilled all the necessary holes on the body.





For the first few races of that season, Mitsu used a tailor-made cap to cover up the fog light areas, as shown in this photo:



I tried to replicate the bolting points using styrene plates:



Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

[potsie]

Nice start. I had not though about swapping the Hasegawa body to Tamiya chassis. I am intending to swap the EVO IV body for a Hasegawa EVO V tarmac chassis for a Monte EVO IV. I will watch your with interest.

Cheers,
Grant.

[ng_nmda]

Thanks for your comments potsie! The reason I chose to swap chassis with Tamiya's Evo is because it offers much more underside detail (plus more accurate suspension) than Hasegawa's, and the conversion wasn't too difficult.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that Hasegawa used the same old chassis from Evo 1 for all of their Evo models (Evo 1 - 6)? Can't wait to see progress on you Monte Evo IV!

Cheers,

[SCORPIONFB]

Very nice job. I was working in the same project using Hasegawa Mitsubishi Lancer GSR evolution IV and Evo V WRC From Tamiya, but I stopped on 2006. Good luck with your beautiful project.

Regards,

[potatochief]

Hey! ive always wanted an evo 4 body! where did you get that!

[ng_nmda]

Thanks for the replies!

Scorpionfb: Would you mind sharing why you stopped working on the Evo 4 project? Is it because there are too many fitment problems with the conversion?

potatochief: The Evo 4 is by Hasegawa. They used to make Evo 4 road cars and rally cars back in the 90s, but they are now discontinued. They still show up once in a while on ebay though.

Updates for the Evo 4:

Managed to find Studio 27’s decal set from Monte 1998. Some of the decals are more accurate in size than Hasegawa’s. I’ll use the larger decals from this sheet.



Finished painting the body, now moving on to decaling.









Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

[SCORPIONFB]

Hi ng_nmda. Well, it wasn't because all the modifications that I have to do. It was just losing the interest on it because I didn't have enough information about the interior.....especially the dashboard. If you allow me, I can post a couple pictures of my work.

Regards,

[endac]

Progress looks good so far, nice work

[ng_nmda]

Thanks guys!

Scorpionfb: Yes by all means please post some of your progress pics as I'm very interested in how you do the conversion. Oh I may have a photo or two of Evo 4's dashboard. I'll send them to you.

Cheers,

[SCORPIONFB]

Thank you ng_nmda. I'll be waiting for those pictures . Now, I remember that I had to do some small modifications to the rollcage, because when I placed the crystal parts, it did not allow me to close the body correctly with the chasis so I had to cut a little bit the left and right side of the bars and after that it closed just right. I am not sure about the suspensions but I believe it needs some adjustment because the body from Hasegawa is narrow .

Regards,

[ng_nmda]

Finally, some more progress on the Evo 4:

Finished decaling and clearcoating the body. Unfortunately the old decals didn't respond to clear coat too well during the first thick coat so I had to put another thick coat on. Hopefully it will appear less thick after some sanding and polishing.











Sorry for the crappy pics. Will take better pics for the next update.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

[stevenoble]

Nice to see some progress and the car is looking great with the decals applied..!!

[rollin80s]

looks great with the decals. keep up the great work.

[Vladamor]

Hi ng!!!

So you started the Evo IV huh?? Surely you were very desperate to start that beast. Did you painted the stripes and red figures??
Like I said before, I'm glad that the pics will help you, and so others do! My Evo VI it's on hold right now. Now I'm building the '95 Sard Supra. I will post a thread soon, but now I'm looking for interior pics. Rollcage, dashboard, fuel cell and those things... But it's impossible to find anything. Only low resolution exterior pics, and a very low resolution Youtube video. I will post it in the "main room". Maybe someone can help.

I'm looking forward to that build. I was trying to get one of those Evo IV, but looks impossible ti find. Only on ebay.

GREETINGS!!

[ng_nmda]

Hello Everyone:

The project isn’t shelved; only progress has been on and off for quite a while. Finally, some updates after more than half a year.

The completed underchasis. Note I did not shorten the suspension arms to create the narrower track seen on the Evo 4; I just bent the trailing arms at the back to accommodate the wheels.





Instead, I used thinner brake discs by Hobby Design (310mm at the front, 250mm at the rear) to replace the kit-supplied discs.



Here’s how they looked afterwards:







For the intercooler at the front, I shaved the pipes on the side and moved it as far back as possible.



Last but not least, the dashboard. The passenger side is completely different from the Evo 5, so modifications need to be made.



Added toggle switches on the right side. Here’s the completed dashboard:







Completed interior:



More updates very soon. Thanks for looking!

Cheers,