Mitsubishi Pajero second generation

The story

Mitsubishi built the Pajero's reputation in public, winning its class on its Dakar debut in 1983 and eventually taking 12 outright victories. The second generation, launched in 1991, carried that pedigree into a wider, roomier family 4x4 in short- and long-wheelbase forms, with a separate frame, torsion-bar front suspension and a coil-sprung live rear axle. Its party piece was Super Select: a single lever offering rear drive, full-time four-wheel drive that is happy on dry pavement, and locked high and low ranges, with 2H-to-4H shifts allowed at up to 62 mph. Up on the dash, 3 gauges reported tilt, altitude and heading.

On pavement it is tall and slow; Car and Driver's 1992 Montero SR weighed 1,995 kg (4,399 lb), made 151 hp and needed 12.2 seconds to reach 60 mph. Off pavement the story flips. The low range is short, the view out superb, and the side-hinged rear door with its built-in tool kit makes loading on a slope easy. It became a fixture at Japanese ski resorts, spawned the wild Pajero Evolution, and handed the name to successors that ran until 2021.