How the Pajero Became a Dakar Specialist

Hero photograph: The 1985 Dakar-winning Pajero on display at the Mitsubishi Auto Gallery, photographed March 25, 2017. Archival museum photograph, not an image taken during the rally. Photo: M.rJirapat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Original photograph; no crop or content edits.

The Pajero name ties together some very different Dakar machines. Mitsubishi began with a production-class entry in 1983, won outright with a prototype in 1985 and eventually built the low, wide Evolution racers associated with its later victories. Between those landmarks, the rules also pulled the factory back toward production-based machinery.

A road-car foundation, tested early

In Mitsubishi’s May 15, 2026 retrospective, Hiroshi Masuoka recalls the first-generation Pajero as an unusually controllable off-road vehicle. Its ladder frame was paired with independent double-wishbone front suspension, combining a durable structure with an effort to improve road manners. Masuoka and his colleagues entered domestic off-road races from 1982, exposing damage from hard landings and heavy loads on suspension parts. Mitsubishi describes those failures feeding improvements back into production.

The 1983 Dakar campaign put that production connection in public view. Mitsubishi entered the category allowing only limited changes to standard vehicles. Andrew Cowan finished 11th overall and won the non-modified production category, also taking the Marathon class, which restricted replacement of major components. Those were class victories, an important distinction from the outright win that followed two years later.

For 1984, Cowan moved the Pajero onto the overall podium in third while winning the modified production class. The factory was progressing through different regulatory opportunities, rather than running an unchanged vehicle against increasingly quick opposition.

The first overall winner was already a prototype

Mitsubishi’s 1985 history explicitly identifies its new contender as a prototype. It retained production-derived ladder-frame and body architecture, but the engineering changes were substantial. Moving the front axle forward lengthened the wheelbase and altered weight distribution. Carbon-Kevlar-reinforced plastic body panels helped cut more than 200 kilograms compared with the previous year’s machine.

At the rear, a three-link suspension replaced the leaf-spring arrangement. The turbocharged, intercooled 2.6-liter 4G54 engine produced a quoted 225 PS. Patrick Zaniroli won, with Cowan second. The familiar upright shape therefore needs careful interpretation: Mitsubishi’s first outright Dakar winner still showed its production ancestry, but its competition specification had already moved beyond the earlier class cars.

The following season illustrates why development involved more than engine output. Mitsubishi revised the body for aerodynamics and extended the wheelbase again. Its historical account identifies transmission torque capacity, using reinforced production-derived components, as a constraint on further power increases. The next gain had to respect what the rest of the drivetrain could survive.

The rules brought production back into focus

In 1997, manufacturers could no longer enter T3 prototypes, and gasoline turbo engines were prohibited. Mitsubishi responded with a T2 Pajero based on the second-generation short-wheelbase production model. Its rear suspension had to retain the prescribed layout, so development worked within the rigid-axle arrangement. Kenjiro Shinozuka won overall with this different interpretation of the Pajero.

The 1998 campaign then used the Pajero Evolution road model, introduced in 1997, as the competition car’s basis. Wider tracks, independent rear suspension and a 3.5-liter MIVEC V6 were central features. Jean-Pierre Fontenay won. This Evolution belongs to the production-based chapter; the later racer bearing the same name was a separate development.

A new frame for a new kind of Evolution

For 2003, Mitsubishi introduced the MPR10, a newly developed Super Production Pajero Evolution. It used a lightweight tubular frame, with a lower overall profile and reduced frontal area. The engine moved lower and rearward to improve the center of gravity and front-to-rear balance. Independent suspension at all four wheels and a six-speed sequential gearbox completed a very different package from the early ladder-frame cars.

Masuoka won his second consecutive Dakar in the new machine. The name and visual identity connected it to the road-going Pajero, while its structure and component placement reflected a dedicated competition design.

By 2007, the MPR13 brought another redesigned multi-tubular frame and lower placement of the fuel tank and spare wheels. Stéphane Peterhansel’s victory delivered Mitsubishi’s seventh consecutive Dakar win and its twelfth overall. Across that span, the lasting thread was adaptation: production-based durability, purpose-built prototypes and fresh responses to the rulebook all contributed to the Pajero record.

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