Foraging. I know what that is about. For the better part of the last two decades, I have been foraging for rarer and rarer cameras - not necessarily expensive collectible cameras - but cameras that were less known. Of course, that is all now water under the bridge as my focus has shifted from cameras to cars. And having satisfied my fill of must have cars, I’ve been left foraging online for something less known, which I found a week ago.

I have been looking for a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V for quite some time. The Evo V is the sweet spot between weight and performance. It is lighter than the Evo VI and less expensive. However, the production numbers of the Evo V is lower than the Evo VI. As a result, I haven’t been able to find one that meets my requirements. So, I have been searching beyond Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States by sifting through online car selling sites in the UK, Switzerland, and in Europe.

Unsurprisingly, I found a few listings of Evo V’s in Italy, and a few listings of Evo VI’s in Switzerland. And of course, I started to inspect the listings. But after a while, I started to notice something very odd. In the twelve listings that I found, one was a right hand drive Evo V, one was a left hand drive conversion Evo VI, but the rest were all left hand drive without any disclosure of any conversion. Well, naturally, that peaked my curiosity. Was it possible that all European Evo V and VI’s were mandated to convert from right hand drive to left hand drive?

LHD EUDM 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI RS2 Tommi Makinen Edition

Obviously, that doesn’t make sense. Right hand drive cars from the UK are allowed to drive on continental European soil. Then perhaps it’s an issue of titling? Perhaps cars registered in continental Europe are required by regulation to be left hand drive? But then, how would that explain the many “old timer cars” in continental Europe that are right hand driver? Something isn’t making sense.

Logically, if European registered cars can be right-hand drive, but the majority of Evo V and VI's are overwhelmingly right-hand drive around the world, it must mean that Europe receives factory-built left-hand drive Evo V and VI's. The thought of that possibility, as an American car enthusiast, was astonishing to me. I was gobsmacked. But how do I prove it?

Naturally, in the era of AI, I asked Copilot. Unfortunately, Copilot’s responded by stating that the Evo V and VI only came right hand drive from factory. Undeterred and unsatisfied by the response, I persisted to pester Copilot by rephrasing my queries. To make a long story short, Copilot wasn’t able to confirm or dispute the existence of left hand drive Evo V and VI’s. Unhappy with the results, albeit armed with more knowledge in what to ask, I crossed the aisle to Gemini for a second opinion. The response was much more encouraging.

According to Gemini, a limited number of left-hand-drive Evo V and VI's were produced by Mitsubishi Motors for European markets. These vehicles were then officially imported and homologated for rally racing in Europe by Ralliart, Mitsubishi's high-performance and motorsports division. Finally, some evidence supporting my initial hypothesis!

After that, I came upon a source informing me that there was a separate manufacturer’s model number for left hand drive Evo VI’s. Think E46 for 3 Series BMW, and you will get the picture. Thus, Left hand drive Evo VI Tommi Makinen RS2’s have the model number SNGFL and right hand drive have the model number SNGFR, and left hand drive Evo VI Tommi Makinen' RS’s have the model number SNDFL and right hand drive have the model number SNDFR. Now, that cannot be a coincidence - that is to say - for the fifth digit of the model number, left hand drive variants had an L, right hand drive variants had an R, and there weren’t any other variants from the alphabet for the fifth digit. Coincidence? I think not! It is also worth noting that left hand drive European domestic market Evo VI’s VIN numbers are not the same as Japanese RHD VIN numbers (although it is worth noting that UK Evo V and VI’s do have Japanese VINs.

Then I found a source, aptly named the TME Registry, that has all the VIN number of both right hand drive and left hand drive Tommi Makinen Evo VI’s. Given the availability of this resource, I used it to check for the VIN number of the Evo VI I was interested in acquiring - and lo and behold - there was an exact match of it down to the exterior color and notable options. If that wasn’t the smoking gun, then I don’t know what is. Still, this online registry isn’t exactly official documentation from Mitsubishi.

In any event, armed with greater confidence, I inquired further about the Evo VI (that I was interested in acquiring) for more documentation. I was hoping for the build sheet or invoice of the vehicle. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any. However, what it did have was proof on the title (vehicle registration document) that it was an unmodified car, or at the very least, unmodified in Switzerland. The title states that the vehicle has a “Swiss Type Approval Code” of “1MK3 73”. For the Evo VI, that meant that this car has never been modified. Had it been modified, it would have had the placeholder “X” as the approval code.

Of course, there is also the possibility that this Evo VI was converted from right-hand drive to left-hand drive before being shipped to Europe. However, the timeline makes this highly improbable. The Tommi Makinen edition was released in early 2000, and my specific Evo VI was first registered in Switzerland in October of the same year. Factoring the build time in between, this leaves very little time for Ralliart or any other third party entity to perform a complex conversion for the purpose of rally homologation. Moreover, this argument is further debunked by a verbal confirmation from Mitsubishi of Switzerland, which verified that the vehicle was imported by them as a factory left hand drive model.

With reasonable comfort that this vehicle was indeed a factory left hand drive European domestic market Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI RS2 Tommi Makinen edition, I made the decision to acquire it. By the way, I selected the Evo VI over the Evo V because there weren’t any Evo V’s for sale in Switzerland, and I didn’t feel like importing it into Switzerland from the EU, which would involve duties. Plus, this specific Evo VI is close to where I reside in Switzerland. On top of that, I couldn’t find as much information that would help me verify the authenticity and provenance of LHD Evo V’s. So getting the Evo VI would be a safer bet.

It should be noted that factory left hand drive Evo VI’s are rare. In terms of online documentation, 1/6 of Evo VI Tommi Makinen’s (at 730 examples) are LHD. As a result, they generally command a 50% premium to the more common Japanese domestic market right hand drive variants imported by American car enthusiasts. And including the horrible USD/CHF or USD/EUR rate of 2025, there will be an additional 10% premium as compared to historical F/X rates. Plus, there is a 17.5% U.S. duty rate for all cars made in Japan, regardless of age or place of transaction, versus the historical rate of 2.5%, as of August 2025.

That said, is there a price for American car enthusiasts wanting to drive an Evo V or VI that can go to drive through windows, parking ticket booths, and highway toll plazas? Plus, there is also that rarity and oddity factor for American car enthusiasts. It would definitely be a hit at cars and coffee.

Still, the Evo VI RS2 Tommi Makinen is not strictly speaking the hero car — that being the Passion Red right hand drive GSR variant. That is why I selected this silver example. Unlike the red hero car that I will acquire one day (which is more abundant and more expensive than this silver example), I intend to replace my MKIII Ford Focus RS with this Evo VI as my daily driver — I mean, why else pay the premium for a left hand drive variant?

By the way, Swiss domestic market cars are generally 10% to 20% more expensive than European domestic market cars, which is a factor you should consider, if you intend to purchase cars for US import. Plus, there is also the issue of tariffs, which I still cannot make out. That said, Swiss cars are generally better maintained than European cars, hence the premium. This isn’t necessarily true, regarding the maintenance, but it is usually the case.

Last, why is it that American car enthusiasts do not know about the left hand drive Evo V and VI’s? Frankly, most English language content about the Evo V and VI are made by automotive content creators from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand where cars are right hand drive, or content creators from the US who have imported the more common right hand drive version from Japan. The only way most American car enthusiasts would have known about the factory left hand drive variants is if they viewed non-English language content. Case in point is the one video made by an Italian content creator by the name of Davide Cironi. Please check out his video.

Factory LHD EUDM Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V and VI

Finding my Old E46 BMW M3