CarGene
Akihiko Nakaya

Akihiko Nakaya

MitsubishiDevelopment team member

Timeline

  1. 1998
    Lancer Evolution V
    Lancer Evolution V

    1998–1999Development team member

    Beating the GT-R not with the GTO but with the Evo

    In the year the Evo IV came out, Nakaya was racing a Mitsubishi GTO in Class 1 of N1 endurance racing against the Nissan Skyline GT-R. Convinced that the GTO was faster in corners, Nakaya asked for a 2.6 L GTO to be released to even out the weight, and for a front LSD to be fitted. But the engine could not be done because of cost, nor the LSD because of space, and a switch of car from the GTO to the Evo came up. What Nakaya was given was the hard question of how to make an Evo that could beat the GT-R.

    An "unreasonable request" that went through

    Nakaya listed improvements for the Evo V and proposed that they be adopted. His biggest demand was two things at odds with each other: a lighter body and a stiffer one. The proposal to make all of the body's steel panels and the side and rear glass thinner came at a time when thinner sheet metal was being considered for fuel economy, and surprisingly went through without resistance; it was adopted on a trial basis on the RS only. Brembo opposed-piston calipers, aluminum arms and other parts, and 225-size tires on a wider track also made it in. The finished Evo V was astonishingly fast from its very first run, and the N1-spec car with AYC won the championship.

    Mitsubishi

  2. 1999
    Lancer Evolution VI
    Lancer Evolution VI

    1999–2001Development team member

    A front bumper from Nakaya's drawing

    With the Evo VI, even more of Nakaya's opinions were taken on board. The novel shape of the front bumper came from a design drawing Nakaya had made. For the Tommi Mäkinen Edition, offered at the very end of the run, Nakaya also handled most of the bumper design and the driving setup. Mitsubishi's works WRC car also raced with a front bumper resembling that of this edition's production car.

  3. 2001
    Lancer Evolution VII
    Lancer Evolution VII

    2001–2003Development team member

    The Evo VII that was not supposed to come

    According to Nakaya's autobiography, the new base car, the Lancer Cedia, was almost the same size as the Galant VR-4, and the Lan-Evo was supposed to end with the VI Tommi Mäkinen Edition. Mitsubishi was also said to be undecided about whether to release a successor. In reality, however, by the time Mitsubishi decided to move to a World Rally Car, development of the Evo VII and the Group A car based on it was already under way.

  4. 2003
    Lancer Evolution VIII
    Lancer Evolution VIII

    2003–2005Development team member

  5. 2005
    Lancer Evolution IX
    Lancer Evolution IX

    2005–2007Development team member

    A Super Taikyu face, and a race car that does not break

    The Evo IX dropped the Mount Fuji-shaped grille that had been unpopular on the Evo VIII and got a face resembling the front bumper of the car Nakaya and Takayuki Kinoshita were racing in Super Taikyu. Even after the hit of the Evo V, when crash safety, durability, fuel economy and everyday usability were also demanded, Nakaya kept making a faster lap time at Tsukuba than the year before his development goal. He rates the Evo VIII and IX MR especially highly: ACD and AYC could now be fitted to race-spec cars too, and durability rose greatly. Not only being fast but being able to finish without breaking was a major step forward for a competition car.

  6. 2007
    Lancer Evolution X
    Lancer Evolution X

    2007–2016Development team member

    Worked with

    The "Lan-Evo XX" that never was

    Nakaya could be directly involved in Lan-Evo development only up to around the early Evo X models. He did not want it to end with the Evo X, and envisioned evolving it a little every year all the way to a "Lan-Evo XX". He meant to refine body stiffness and lightness, the suspension and the four-wheel-drive control, and also to bring back to the production car the "S-Tai control" he had created himself in Super Taikyu. There was also a plan to give the MT cars alone 320 PS, but it was shelved in the downturn brought on by the Lehman shock, and output stayed at 300 PS. With that, the plan for Nakaya to be involved in development came to an end, and the Lan-Evo series ended with the X Final Edition.

Profile

A racing driver and motoring journalist. Closely tied to Mitsubishi Motors, he served as a development driver for the Lancer Evolution from the V onward. An All-Japan F3 champion.

Translated from Japanese sources.

Mitsubishi engineers

All Mitsubishi engineers