Mitsubishi's Dakar team ready to go

The Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Dakar rally team has completed its shakedown sessions and is ready to advance to the pre-race scrutineering and documentation on January 4-5. The race itself kicks off from Lisbon on January 6, and will mark the competition debut of the new Mitsubishi MPR13 rally cars, which are based on the newly-restyled Pajero SUV.

While we love the look of the new gull-winged Pajero rally raider, we're just as enthused to see the first action photos of the team's support car, a rally-prepped Mitsubishi Delica D:5 minivan. We count the Delica D:5 as one of our favorite JDM Vehicles That We Can't Have, and seeing the blocky van in full Repsol/Ralliart livery brings a smile to our faces. The Dakar Rally is a great event and involves a wide variety of vehicles, from bikes to pickups to SUVs to...well...Unimogs. Throw in the new Mitsu minivan and you have a veritable Star Wars cantina of race and support vehicles.

That's a good thing, and we'll try to follow Dakar '07 as closely as possible. (That pesky NAIAS is gonna get in the way for the first few days, though...)

Click here for a gallery of the Repsol/Ralliart Pajero and Delica.

[Source: Ralliart]