There are some cars that stick in the memory as though they’ve been branded on your brain with a hot iron – never more so than when it’s a three-diamond-shaped iron.

Of the interesting cars to bear the three-diamond Mitsubishi badge, if you had to single one out that showed the Japanese car maker at its dizzying best, it would unquestionably be the Lancer Evolution VI Tommi Makinen Edition.

The Tommi Makinen Edition, or TME to its fans, marked a breakthrough for Mitsubishi. Its UK importer had been watching on helplessly as the Japanese company threw its efforts behind competing in the World Rally Championship, but the Lancer Evolution that its WRC contender was based on wasn’t homologated to be sold in Europe, leading exasperated fans to take matters into their own hands and source ‘Evos’ through specialist car importers.

In 1998, legislation in the UK changed allowing small batches of vehicles to be imported under new Single Vehicle Approval (SVA) rules. Britain’s Mitsubishi importer soon set to work, and on 11 July, 2000, the first Lancer Evolution VI was registered here.

It was a Tommi Makinen Edition, built to commemorate the Finnish driver’s four World Rally Championships, all notched up back-to-back at the wheel of an Evo, from 1996. The rest, as they say, is history. The Lancer Evo VI TME is one of the most dazzling driving machines to emerge from the land of the rising sun.

So let’s take a look at what made the TME tick beneath the surface, revisit what sort of driving experience it delivers, and peer into our crystal ball as we try to guess whether this rally-bred hot shot is set to become one of the most coveted collector cars to emerge from Japan.

Rally-bred: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition

For its time, the Evo VI was a technological tour de force, building on the success of the Evo III, IV and V models that powered Makinen to his WRC championship titles, and like those, it handed the flying Finn another victory.

Along the way, the Lancer Evolution battled and beat the Subaru Impreza Turbo, Ford Escort Cosworth and Toyota Celica GT-Four, which called for celebration. To commemorate this remarkable run of form, Mitsubishi devised the Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition.

The key ingredients were a more responsive titanium turbocharger, peak torque generated 250rpm lower in the rev range (275Ib ft at 2750rpm), uprated and lowered suspension tuned to give improved initial response on Tarmac surfaces, a quicker steering rack, a different exhaust, a new ECU, beefed-up transfer case internals, a redesigned front bumper for better cooling and WRC-authentic 17-inch WRC Enkei alloy wheels.

While the official data from Mitsubishi quoted a peak power figure of 276bhp, those who drove it – myself included – were quick to conclude it felt as though there were a few more horses tugging at the reins. The performance upgrades saw the 0-60mph sprint dashed off in 4.4 seconds while the top speed was 150 mph. But it was the manner in which everything was delivered that made it truly remarkable…

As if that lot weren’t enough to have you pulling on your Ralliart anorak and heading straight to Rugby, in Warwickshire, to place an order with Mitsubishi’s works WRC partner, there were more signature features inside and outside the TME. The cabin gained embossed Recaro seats, a Momo steering wheel and red stitching. Widely regarded as the finest Lancer to wear the Evolution badge, it was offered in five colours, with Passion Red and Canal Blue joining Scotia White, Pyrenean Black and Satellite Silver.

Sold through Ralliart, the first batch of 250 Mitsubishi Evos were specially prepared for the UK market with extra corrosion protection, UK instrumentation, additional security features, plus essentials such as an integrated rear fog lamp and a UK owner’s manual. The cost? Just £32,995 (that’s £61,465 today, adjusted for inflation). Little wonder all 250 sold out within weeks.

There was a choice of five colours and it’s believed that of the UK’s allocation, only 50 examples were in Passion Red. It was these Passion Red cars that automatically received a special set of rallying decals, known as a ‘Special Colour Package’, meaning these cars were factory-fitted with black door handles so as to not break the line of the long profile decal. In the world of Evo aficionados, these tend to be the most sought-after.

Driving the Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition

I’ll not go into great detail here, partly because all you need to know is that the Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition is one of the most memorable machines you could hope to experience, and partly because its on-road abilities are well documented elsewhere.

That said, when I tested the car back in the day, I vividly remember heading toward Bedfordshire and the infamous B660 – a cracking that our colleagues at Performance Car and evo never stopped raving about – and there was complete and utter shock at the realisation that the TME required total recalibration of your inputs, so switch-like were the reactions of this ultra-responsive rally renegade.

Instead of a certain progression as you leaned into the steering or pushed into the throttle, those inputs would translate into instant reactions from the almost hyperactive chassis and slightly coarse but always fizzing, turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Finding its limits took courage, partly because the suspension was so unfazed by whatever the road’s surface and undulations could throw at it, and partly because it would cling to corners with unreal commitment through every stage – from turning in to settling to powering out. Everything happened in a blur of short-geared hyperactivity, and at speeds that were hard to comprehend at the time.  

The only cars to come close to that sense of being so free from inertia and so poised and ready to respond would have been a Caterham Seven or Lotus Elise, but even they couldn’t compare to the feeling of the Evo as its four-wheel drive hardware and active yaw control shuffled power around so that the Evo VI TME exited almost every corner with just the right sniff of power-induced oversteer.

Market values of the Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition

As worldwide demand for Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) cars continues to grow at a pace, there are a few things to bear in mind about the Evo VI TME. First and foremost, no matter what the value is today or has been previously, or what it might climb to, the TME will always deliver one of the truly unique and memorable driving experiences. And that alone means it is a hugely appealing car to own.

The very best concours examples are six-figure cars all day long. The Hagerty price guide values those at £130,000. Below that, excellent examples are coming in at just over £70,000. The gap suggests collectors and now willing to pay a substantial premium for the most original, perfectly preserved low-mileage examples. The highest auction sale price reported by The Classic Valuer is £147,000 (in 2022) while the sell-through rate at auction is a solid 83 per cent.

However, there are still TMEs in the classifieds and auctions that are more affordable, but you know what we’re going to say: they don’t hang about for long.

As Generation X flex their financial muscle, and even Millennials get in on the action, their attention is drawn to the poster cars of their youth – and the one that powered Tommi Makinen to four World Rally Championships, and starred in the Tommi Makinen Rally game on Playstation, is a heck of a bucket-list car to own. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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