What's the news?
Mitsubishi is showing two special L200s at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham. The L200 Barbarian SVP is the first model to appear from the Japanese maker's Special Vehicle Projects department, and is limited to a run of just 250 vehicles.
It's inspired by the wild L200 Desert Warrior, and gets 17-inch wheels, bolt-on wheel arch extensions and a black finish on the front grille and front lights. No, the headlights aren't actually blacked-out, they just have a sort of black tint... Oh, never mind. Blue and black are the available paint colours.
So, what's this L200 Desert Warrior made of then? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Developed in secret with Top Gear magazine and RH engineering under the codename of 'Project Swarm', the pickup takes inspiration from 'Pre-Runners', vehicles used as course cars ahead of the main competitors on off-road rallies such as the Baja 1000.
While Pre-Runners usually don't get much in the way of extra power, their running gear is massively beefed up over standard models to cope with challenging terrain. To that end, the Desert Warrior has been fitted with heavy-duty suspension, oversized wheels with self-inflating tyres, extra LED lights, and an external rollcage. The last item allows the interior to remain relatively comfortable and spacious, with Cobra racing seats helping to keep the occupants secured.
Managing director of Mitsubishi's UK arm, Lance Bradley, commented: "The Mitsubishi L200 is one of the most durable pickups available, but the Desert Warrior takes its toughness to a whole new level. In fact, its purposefulness and ruggedness has provided the inspiration for the Mitsubishi L200 Barbarian SVP, the first limited-edition model to be created by our new Special Vehicle Projects programme."
Anything else?
The Barbarian SVP is available to order in the UK now, although there's no word yet on availability over here. With hints of more SVP vehicles in the pipeline, it will be interesting to see what else Mitsubishi will reveal in the coming months.