For years, the Pajero has been the weapon of choice for the explorer clubs.

You’ve seen them climbing mountains and serving UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. So the first thing that comes to your mind on seeing a Pajero is its reliability and the ability to take whatever you throw at it.

You see, we at TG are completely in love with the Pajero SFX, the second-generation model that first appeared in 1997. Despite its wheezy but ultra-reliable 2.8-litre 108bhp oil burner, the Pajero didn’t wet itself at the thought of going off tarmac. The kind of engineering that has gone into the Pajero thanks to the famous Dakar rallies clearly shows.

The SFX is a legend but quite long in the tooth now. Which brings us to the Pajero Sport. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s finally here. Can it match the off-road prowess of its iconic predecessor and more importantly, should the Toyota Fortuner be afraid? We decided to raid the hills around Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, to find out.