ANDREW NEWTON | PHOTOS: BRINGATRAILER.COM
MITSUBISHI PAJERO EVOLUTION
A SPORTY JDM TRUCK WITH RACING HERITAGE AND ROOM TO GROW. In these “Future Classics” articles, we’ve talked about modern Japanese classics and vintage trucks/SUVs as two of the most active segments of the collector car market. But we’ve never talked about a vehicle that ticks both of those boxes. Enter the Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, a nifty ‘90s rally racer for the road that’s a little bit obscure and already a little bit expensive. But with the performance, technology, and motorsports bona fides of many of today’s priciest Japanese collector cars, it still has room to grow.
grocery-getter, and it has little in common with the pedestrian versions. Hopped-up Pajeros were the most successful vehicles in one of the most intense motorsport events ever—the Paris-Dakar Rally. A perilous and sometimes-lethal rally, the event started in France and put cars, trucks, and motorcycles through thousands of punishing miles of rocks, boulders, dunes, and rivers throughout Known stateside as the Montero, the Mitsubishi Pajero is one of the North and West Africa. Pajeros won the Dakar most popular big SUVs worldwide, with over 3 million sold over 40 years 12 times, took 41 podium finishes, and swept of production. The Pajero Evolution, or “Evo” for short, is no ordinary
26
UPSHIFT