Mitsubishi
PX33 prototype

Why it matters

The PX33 was Mitsubishi's early four-wheel-drive passenger-vehicle project, built for open battle commanders, and is the ancestor the company cites for its later 4WD tradition. Only four finished vehicles were completed and none survives.

How rare is it?

Six separate kinds of rarity – never combined into one number.

Each kind of rarity is rated separately and never combined.

Production

Every figure says what it counts.

Independent counts (e.g. engine and colour) are never combined into a calculated figure. Surviving examples are never presented as original production.

History

The Japanese Army Automobile School commissioned the project in 1935. The first prototype, the PSF 33, was completed in 1935 with an S6-type engine, and a stage-two prototype with the X-type military engine followed in 1936. Four fully finished vehicles were built in July 1937, but the PX33 never went into mass production.

The original vehicles no longer exist. In 1988 the French company Sonauto built a replica on a Pajero base, which was entered in and finished the 1989 Paris–Dakar Rally.

Technical specifications

Engine

Transmission & drivetrain

Chassis, body & dimensions

Performance

“Not yet verified” means no source has been checked for that value yet. Nothing is estimated to fill a gap.

Identification guide

How to tell an original from a replica or later conversion.

No original PX33 survives according to Mitsubishi. The car shown at events since 1988 is the Sonauto replica built on a Pajero base, not one of the four 1937 vehicles.

Sources

Each number links to the exact facts it supports.

1. 1
   Mitsubishi Motors – Car History Level A

   • 4 fully finished PX33 vehicles built in July 1937

   Accessed 2026-11-12
2. 2
   Car History Level A Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

   • The original vehicle is no longer in existence
   • stage-two prototype used the X-type military engine
   • prototype four-wheel-drive vehicle

   Accessed 2026-11-12