VX @ Dakar Fact Check

I was trolling eBay this morning and came across a nifty 1994 Dakar Rally emblem from a Trooper and thought, "Hey I wonder if there's anything out there from the 98 Dakar that the VX won?" Searched for 98 Dakar and found tons of Mitsubishi Pajero stuff on eBay, so I checked the official Dakar website and found it was won by a Pajero, not a VX. I then did a search here and found this thread which I had never read before:

http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...ighlight=Dakar

If you search for 98 Dakar Vehicross in Google you get tons of hits, all of which seem to use the exact same phrasing as our Wikipedia page, so I guess maybe that's where it started. I just updated it to say "Stage 2 and 4 Class Winner" to be more accurate.

Searching now for evidence of the 99 Australian Rally win... found a website that probably has the info but I need a username/password to access it. :mado:

Btw here's the emblem I mentioned:

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/ISUZU-TROOPER...MZ!~~60_12.JPG

Here's the ad: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISUZU-TROOPE...p2047675.l2557

But these VX factory competitors had manual shift gear boxes...neat trick eh?

over @ the Planet...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...vcxNvYcS5w8PYA

and eHow...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...sLDJ6S023m2SjQ

and some more, scroll down...http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...d8DMt4eY8rSsRw

pretty much a reprint of above link...http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...8KUaWRNCGGQSAg

eHow is wrong (looks like a straight-up copy/paste of Wikipedia) but the other links look legit.

Not to pirate this thread but of similar interest might be the fact that the VX won Japan Car of the Year honors for 97/98. Now that's a solid victory in a car-crazy country.