View attachment 810072
Hi.
and (just a a year after the end of the Typhoon, the genesis of performance crossovers, the Mitsubishi RVR Super & Hyper Sports Gear)
View attachment 810074
None of these 3 were designed to go around corners. Arguably not much in this class was until the 00’s, since the early AMG’s weren’t known for their handling prowess either.
If you ignore that the LM002 isn't an SUV, but rather a Sport Utility Truck, it's still not really a performance vehicle. It weighs nearly three tons, takes eight seconds to hit 60, and will fall over if you go around a corner. It's also built with off-road in mind instead of street performance. Really it has more in common with the Hummer than anything since it's a military vehicle adapted for civilian use. Also, if the LM002 was the genesis for anything it's probably the luxury truck that led the way to things like the Cadillac Escalade EXT.
As for other performance SUV, the Americans built them throughout the decade. Jeep, in typical Chrysler fashion, stuffed a big engine in the Grand Cherokee and Ford had a Mustang powered Explorer. Weirdly, Saleen made its own versions of the Explorer too called the XP6 and XP8, which has a unique story behind it (which you could see on a future episode of the Wednesday Want). Shelby built some strange SUVs too with probably the most known being the Durango. There are probably others I'm forgetting and I'm sure the likes of Toyota and Nissan had something similar, I just can't think of them right now.