We come from France.

This Post is a previous work of mine originally posted on my @Pajeroshouse Instagram account.

I was recently introduced by my buddy Bill to a French motorsport concern named Faster. You can look 'em up on the internet. Most deep dive attempts into legacy motorsport groups in Europe come up short, maybe with an address or a one page website from 2002..Faster was better, their website shows deep involvement in motorsports at the highest level, including Dakar. While nothing pointed directly to work on the Pajero Evolution, they did mention a 25 year relationship with Mitsubishi and also their work on T2 development. I had to know more. 

I chose to go old school and I emailed them a short message to ask, expecting nothing. I enquired about their involvement specifically with the design of the Evo, thinking first that it would have been related to the aero.  A day went by and, unbelievably, my short email was answered thoughtfully with a long one from Mr. Florent Biard who has been working for Faster for 21 years. 

Mr. Biard was very excited to share a story about a collaboration on what became known as Mitsubishi ARMIE ( All Road Multilink Independent suspension for Evolution) and how he suspected that came to be. 

Mitsubishi had been keen to further develop raid trucks and in doing so, hired Mr. Dominique Copin, the founder of Faster, to produce the first independent suspension for 90s Mitsubishi Works Dakar trucks that we often call the MPR (Mitsubishi Pajero Rally) Prototypes, used in the T1 category This was aided by Ligier F1 Engineer Hervé Guilpin who was working for Citroen at the time. 

In the lower right you can see the early dual wishbone ARMIE suspension design by Faster

The suspension went racing in desert and won over and over, when the competition Pajeros went back to Japan, a short time passed and Mitsubishi released the independent suspension on the production Pajero Evo for the first time. Biard points out that the components on the production truck are built differently but the geometry is a direct derivative of the Faster design. 

I'm always deeply interested in collaborations of this type and they seemed more common in the 80s and 90s on this scale. You can imagine the complexity of this arrangement. The Pajero Evolution has always been mysterious, the same stories being regurgitated over and over...it's rare to get a first person look at development and I'm happy to share it here. 

"Remember that Paris Dakar started as a French Thing" - Florent Biard

Why not keep the momentum while we have some here and continue the discussion on how the Mitsubishi dynasty at Dakar started? Many have heard about SonAuto, or seen it on the the side of the early factory-backed Pajeros as they braved the desert. Before getting into too much detail some background- SonAuto was the (first) French Importer of Mitsubishi starting in the 1980s. It was headed by a chap named Ulrich Brehmer who understood the marketing value of competing in the Dakar. Brehmer had a chance meeting with two brothers (Bernard and Christian Maingret and seduced them into testing the Pajero at a nearby track near Lourdes. The three rented the track in the Summer of 1982 and during the test, covered 2500kms.  Ulrich knew that the brothers already had extensive Dakar reputation. Bernard having prepared Range Rovers and Mercedes for the event and Christian, a motorcycle preparateur with similar palmares. (SonAuto was also the Yamaha importer btw so this triple-alliance made perfect sense) 

The test was completed and after a visit from an emerging leader in rally and hotshoe driver, Andrew Cowan from Scotland, the three, Ulrich, Bernard and Andrew created the Ralliart (ACMS)/Mitsubishi, SBM (Societé Bernard Maingret), SonAuto team, which competed for the first time in 1983 with 4 Pajero in the T1 Category at Dakar. They  started work soon after to develop faster prototypes, set to race in 1985. 

This was the very first Pajero to compete at Dakar with Andrew Cowan behind the wheel. If you really squint your eyes and think about the big picture EVERYTHING with Mitsubishi and rally racing started somewhere around here.

Now, back to my new friend M.Biard who has helped put this together in relation to FASTER France. Faster started in 1984 and the relationship between the groups is now clear after a few more emails between us. Let’s rewind a little further.

It's 1983. And the triple alliance I mentioned above has been formed between Mitsubishi France (SonAuto), SBM (the preparation shop owner by Frenchman Maingret) and Mitsubishi sponsored Scottish rally driver, soon to be Ralliart Director (Andrew Cowan) Rally fans, especially Mitsubishi fans need to know and respect where Ralliart began and it was on that track in Lourdes, in a Pajero. 

After the first official factory team outing in 1983 Dakar, business was booming for Mitsubishi France. Pajero demand in France was high and the marketing was working so well that customers were calling with build requests for ‘84 Dakar. SBM and SonAuto didn't have the bandwidth to build privateer cars as they were focused on the factory contract.

The first Faster Built Customer Pajero for Nicole Maitrot and Monique Delannoy

Dominique Copin, who I mentioned earlier and Maurice Sartiaux were the two former F1 engineers, burned out from the high pressure of F1 and looking for something new, perhaps their own company. As fate would have it, the wife of one of their friends was interested in entering the 1984 Dakar with her friend, forming an exciting all-female team. This was the first project for Faster France, preparing the Pajero while winding down their work at Ligier. That team is in the photo above, the Pajero of Nicole Maitrot and Monique Delannoy!

Kalr Illey was head of sales at Son Auto. He had the idea to set up RALLIART customer racing and selling prepared privateer Pajeros.  The all-female team above had such an impressive result in 1984 that Son Auto drove to Faster for a meeting (only 20 miles away) and talks began. Faster became the builder for all of Ralliart's customer trucks until 2008!! Cowan retired his personal ACMS motorsports business name which in 1983, represented Mitsubishi Motorsports activities in Europe and then became head of newly named Ralliart and the rest, as they say, is history.