GT5 Transcripts/Mitsubishi Pajero Dakar Rally

Only a few athletes can claim hitting a homerun in their first at bat, but Mitsubishi did something similar to that by taking the checkered flag in its first Paris-Dakar Rally in 1983. But before you marvel at the accomplishment, keep in mind that the car Andrew Cowan drove to victory was actually built by Sonauto of France. Five years later, Mitsubishi decided to build their own racer, using a pipe frame and double-wishbone suspension and equipping a turbocharged 2.6-liter inline-4 slightly aft of the front axle. The end result was a scary-fast machine called the Pajero. Kenjiro Shinozuka won the 1990 Rally of Australia in the prototype Pajero's maiden contest, and placed second in the 1991 Dakar Rally. The following year, Mitsubishi occupied all three spots on the podium of the Paris-Cape Town Rally, driving the Pajero.

Mitsubishi's dynasty in off-road rally racing officially began in 1997 when the newly created Pajero Evoution (the Dakar equivalent to the WRC's Lancer Evolution) took not only the championship of that year's Dakar Rally, but the top four places in the T2 class. As an added bonus, Shinozuka became the first Japanese driver ever to win the prestigious race. The Pajero attained equal success when the T2 Class was expanded to include the "super" production cars. The new Pajero Evolution went on to win the overall championships in 2002 and 2003 with Hiroshi Masuoka behind the wheel.