The Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution was both a road-going model and the base for a Dakar competition car. Mitsubishi says it went on sale in 1997 in response to tighter technical regulations. Its Dakar story is often blurred with the Pajero program’s broader record, so the distinction matters: Kenjiro Shinozuka’s 1997 overall win was in a T2-specification Pajero/Montero, while Jean-Pierre Fontenay won the 1998 rally in the Evolution era.
What made the Pajero Evolution different?
Mitsubishi developed and sold the Pajero/Montero Evolution as a base model for its competition car after Dakar’s technical rules changed. The road model’s distinctive engineering also served the rally program: Mitsubishi lists wider front and rear track, more front wheel travel, double-wishbone independent rear suspension, overfenders, an aluminum hood with an air scoop, and a 3.5-liter 6G74 MIVEC engine.
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The changes were functional rather than merely visual. Wider track and revised suspension addressed the demands of competition, while the overfenders accommodated the wider stance. The hood scoop and dedicated engine were part of the model’s sporting specification. Mitsubishi’s official model history also identifies a dedicated 3.5-liter engine and aluminum hood as features of the Evolution’s 1997 debut: Mitsubishi Motors company history.
Did the Pajero Evolution win Dakar in 1997 or 1998?
The useful dividing line is between the 1997 T2 Pajero/Montero result and the 1998 Evolution-era result. Mitsubishi’s account says Shinozuka won the 1997 rally in a T2-specification Pajero/Montero, and the team took the first four overall places. Mitsubishi dates the Evolution base model’s sale to 1997, but that does not make the earlier winner an Evolution competition car. See the company’s 1997 Dakar account.
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In its 1998 Dakar retrospective, Mitsubishi credits Jean-Pierre Fontenay with first overall, followed by Shinozuka and Bruno Saby. The company says its four team cars won 15 of the rally’s 16 special stages. The event covered 10,593 km in total, including 5,219 km of competitive stages. Mitsubishi describes the result as its fifth overall Dakar victory and second consecutive overall top-four sweep.
How the 1998 competition car differed from the road model
Road-car and race-car figures should not be mixed. Mitsubishi’s 1998 retrospective describes the competition Evolution’s newly designed 3.5-liter 6G74 gasoline engine with MIVEC variable valve timing. In the competition car’s rule context, a 32 mm air restrictor reduced stated output from 300 PS to 260 PS, while maximum torque increased from 34 kg-m to 36 kg-m. These are competition-car figures, not universal road-model specifications.
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Mitsubishi’s separate 1997 T2 specification table lists a 6G74 V6 DOHC with 3,496 cc displacement, 270 PS maximum output, 34.0 kg-m maximum torque and a 350-liter fuel tank. Those figures describe the 1997 T2 entry, not the later Evolution competition car or every road-going Pajero Evolution.
The 1998 account attributes the competition car’s changes to more restrictive regulations, including wider front and rear track, rear double-wishbone independent suspension and revised front suspension with increased wheel travel, alongside the overfenders and aluminum hood with scoop. The road Evolution provided the base, but the event car’s specification reflected its own competition class and rules.
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How to read the FIA homologation record
The FIA Historic Database has a separate record for the Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution V55: homologation 1094, Group T1, 3,947 cc, with validity dates from 2 January 1998 to 1 January 2006. That record is not interchangeable with Mitsubishi’s description of its 1998 Dakar event cars as T2 specification. The available records describe different contexts and do not establish that the FIA entry is the exact configuration of the cars in Mitsubishi’s 1998 account. The FIA also warns that its online forms are consultation copies, not valid documents for an event: FIA Historic Database.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How dominant was Mitsubishi at Dakar?
The 1998 top-three finish and 15 stage wins show the strength of that year’s team, but the larger victory total belongs to Mitsubishi’s Pajero/Dakar program, not to the road-going Evolution alone. Mitsubishi Motors Canada retrospectively credits the company with 12 overall victories from 1985 to 2007, including seven consecutive wins. That manufacturer-reported tally spans the program’s history; it is not an Evolution-only record: Mitsubishi Motors Canada’s Dakar history.
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Mitsubishi says the Pajero first won the Paris–Dakar overall in 1985. The model line’s long life extended well beyond the Evolution: Japanese-market production ended in 2019 and overseas production in 2021. The company says approximately three million Pajeros were produced since 1982; that total covers the full Pajero line, not the Evolution alone. See Mitsubishi Motors company history.
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