The Mitsubishi Montero will get all of the fanfare round right here for good cause. Among different issues, it might go on to grow to be the unimaginable Mitsubishi Pajero Evo. But the Montero’s cousin, the Montero and Pajero Sport, comes from one other forgotten Mitsubishi that deserves one other search for having polarizing design that rocks: the fourth-generation L200.
I’m uncertain why the lesser identified Pajero Sport and L200, which is the truck the SUV relies on, have been missed. I’ve seen my justifiable share of each on the Texas border as a result of the small truck and SUV had been offered on the Mexican market and I’m…obsessed.
I can’t cease desirous about the lengthy standing fourth technology of the L200, which might be phased out in 2015 after a couple of decade. It simply strikes me because the hardest truck to ever rip off-road and look so pleasant doing it.
Part of the explanation individuals seemingly dismiss the Pajero Sport is a few generations had been anecdotally horrible. We within the U.S. can recall tales of the first-gen Montero Sport being really terrible, and the Mitsubishi Endeavor that succeeded it had extra in frequent with the Eclipse and Galant. In different phrases, the Montero/Pajero Sport sucked, and its substitute strayed removed from its roots because the ladder-frame Triton pickup.
In different markets — together with Mexico and Brazil — the L200 and Pajero Sport stored on within the custom of Mitsubishi’s vans, which have competed in Dakar and even helped Mitsubishi take a handful of victories all through the aughts both as help automobiles or precise rivals within the well-known desert occasion.
Hell, there’s even an L200 and Pajero Sport Dakar, which nod to Mitsubishis’ former glory on the earth of off-road racing. The firm is slowly clawing its means again because of the the newest Mitsubishi Triton, however I nonetheless assume the design of the fourth technology L200 is daring and distinctive. Visionary, even.
It’s one of many the cutest ugly automobiles I’ve ever seen, and it’s about time we acknowledge the L200 as a fearless truck that wasn’t afraid to be small and lithe. It jogs my memory of the beloved Isuzu Vehicross: each have quirky design that went in its personal course, not being afraid to forged apart traditions of boxy, robust truck designs.
The fourth-gen L200 seems to be virtually like a coupe-ute, in that it appears to be primarily based on a automobile design at first however by no means loses sight of its origins as a truck, which was powered by just a few variations of turbodiesel inline-4 engines making as much as 200 hp, paired with guide transmissions and generally accessible with 4WD.
A trucky truck, in different phrases. And but take a look at its little face, like an early Audi TT that’s been lifted after which compelled to toughen up within the grime. A seasoned and grizzled vet of Dakar, some of the grueling off-road races ever. But it could’t cease smiling. I like this truck.
Source: jalopnik.com