Historic review

Pajero evo was introduced as a concept car in 2001 with the following form. It was designed by the -then- newcomer at Mitsubishi, Olivier Boule



After about a year, in 2002, a slightly altered version appeared. This was a drivable prototype and was featured in rolling photos in many magazines. Mitsubishi hinted about a production version beside the current Pajero or its next model. The prototype had a V8 sticker in the fender indicating a similar production model.



The racing version won the 2003 Dakar with Hiroshi Masuoka. This was a bespoke prototype and essentially the same design and mechanical layout with the current version that won in 2007. Masuoka had won the previous year also (2002) with a racing Pajero also in T2 class. However that one was based in the commercial 3door Pajero with a many modifications of course.



After Masuoka's win in 2003 Stephan Peterhansel won two times in a row (2004,2005) and Luc Alphand followed in 2006.



The main difference between the 2003 and the 2004-06 models is the replacement of the rear wing with a small spoiler.



The 2007 version while retaining the basic structure and mechanical parts introduced in 2003 it is a step away from Olivier Boule's concepts and tries to be similarly looking with the revised production Pajero of 2006.



In the rear end there is now no spoiler because the elevated rear has the same aero-effect and renders it useless.



Epilogue

The people from Mitsubishi in Japan and from the German Ralliart have managed to make a simple and quite conventional (as rules dictate) racecar which became the most successful Dakar rally car ever with 5 consecutive wins from, surpassing Citroen's ZX which had 4 wins. This year VW with the Tuareg Tdi T2 was very competitive although it still lags behind Mitsubishi. Maybe next year VW could succeed where Nissan failed previously, to win over Mitsubishi.