I ’m in Southern California ’s dusty wine area , doing 50 miles per hour on a deceivingly unmanageable dirt course of study . I ’m having a peachy time , learning how completely dissimilar and yet entirely interchangeable drive on a racecourse and a rally course of action really are . Ifinallyget my footwork justly and slide through a few corner in such a style that , at least in my head word , feel like aclassic mass meeting shotyou’d see in a short film . What manner of brute am I drive ? Well … a Toyota RAV4.Hybrid . A mostly stock one , at that . Not exactly the trope you had in your head , is it ?
It ’s a rough-cut misconception that , to have fun on paving material , you ’ve got ta have a degenerate car , and to have sport on crap , you need a serious off - roading monster of a motortruck or SUV . For the fortunate few who have ever done any serious drive , you know how all and perfectly full of crap that is . you could have an out-and-out flack in any vehicle , even one you might not have otherwise considered . So when Toyota asked if I ’d like to head out to act in the soil with a lightly preppedRAV4 , the answer was fairly obvious . Any car can lead you to fun if you roll in the hay how to find it .
Even the most basic vehicles can be great off-road…
… with a slight prep . It does n’t count if you have the most baller , apocalypse - ready SUV on the planetif it ’s not decently preparedfor a bit of off - route playtime , and by that same token , even the most mundane vehicle can get through a the pits of a lot more than you think , even if they ’ve got nothing more thana good solidifying of tyre to aid with traction .
sit here on this brilliantly nonsensical property with a around two - mile cartroad literally carved into it , there ’s a fleet of very lightly prepped RAV4s at my disposal . This is Toyota ’s way of life of shew that the RAV4 is a surprisingly competent vehicle ( and on that front , it ’s a job well done ) . But really , there ’s not a big remainder between these RAV4s and the 1 you ’d find at the dealership . To protect vital railway locomotive components from large rocks and driver stupidity , there ’s a metal skid plate underneath ; to check that you canreallysee at night , it ’s added a pair of pocket-sized light taproom ; also , clay flaps to prevent all manner of body damage from pilot rocks .
By far the most significant functional change , though , is the wheels and tires .
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
For dirt, smaller wheels are better
Just as with any car , a larger wheel is n’t generally a performance improvement . For anything remotely like rallying drive , a smaller wheel not only saves weight , but allows for a marvellous sidewall on the tire . Put simply , it ’s a more durable combination that can take the restate abuse , since driving a two - short ton vehicle at speed over all manner of hump run to have all the subtlety and mildness of Gallagher in a watermelon maculation .
It’s not the car that counts, it’s how you drive it
So here I am , in my first proper attempt at driving fast on poop , and something I ’ve said a million times about cars on a racetrack ring in my headway again : until you ’ve reached a degree of get expertise that only comes with years of free burning commitment , how " tight " your fomite is remains junior-grade to how " tight " you are as a equipment driver . Within rationality , I would n’t have been any quicker around this track had I been in your favoritetraditionalrally - quick car . Seriously , you could sit me in a Subaru WRX – a car with the words " World Rally " built into its name – and I would n’t have been any faster .
That’s why a RAV4 is currently humiliating people in legit rally competitions this year
Ryan Millencomes from a personal credit line of guy rope who have made their names by doing things likedriving up motorway Peakfaster than anyone before them . His RAV4 is a little more prepared than the instance I ’m driving , but not by all that much . There ’s a full coil John Milton Cage Jr. and some tweaks to the foot pedal and steerage wheel , and of course the suspension is quite a bit more robust , but that ’s mostly it . The engine and transmission are exactly as they were when the RAV left the mill . To hear him say it , guys in all - wheel - driveway WRXs are more than a little pissed when they recognise a guy in a mostly stock , front - bike - drive*crossoveris give up their butt . Bruised self-importance run to suffer .
- Millen ’s RAV4 is a FWD non - intercrossed rendering . The ones we were push back are AWD loan-blend – that meantourshad more power and more advancing traction .
So what’s it like, then?
With all the traction controls turned off , it ’s down to your own inputs to go around the course quickly – and because it ’s dirt , that course is dramatically different literally every exclusive lap . There ’s no rote committal to memory like there is on a raceway ; you ca n’t simply brake , turn , and speed at roughly the same place every time . rather , you need to really rely on your drivingskill determine . And that ’s why these lightly prepped RAV4s study so well for this . They ’re forgiving .
In brusque , it ’s passably ludicrous , in the best possible way .
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Aaron Miller/Thrillist
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
Courtesy of Toyota
Courtesy of Toyota
Aaron Miller/Thrillist
