By Colin Wood
Nov 17, 2020
Even though the Toyota RAV4 may spend most of its time navigating parking lots, that doesn’t mean it can’t hold its own on the rally stage.
See how Toyota used an almost completely stock RAV4 to show just how capable its popular CUV is both off-road and at speed.
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11/17/20 9:34 a.m.
Yeah! Ryan Millen kicked butt in that thing. 2WD championship winner, it's a ridiculous thing. 185hp, stock auto transmission, stock brakes for most of the year, etc. He had a 4WD one built but Toyota pulled out, That one debuted with a different driver last weekend in Washington.
Racer Magazine also had a whole video series with it too.
11/17/20 9:48 a.m.
Very cool. Reminds me of the 1st gen Ridgeline trophy truck. It performed very well, but the factory lost interest. Maybe if they'd kept it up, it wouldn't be seen as a hairdressers truck.
11/17/20 9:55 a.m.
The answer to "What will people race if manufacturers just build lame CUVs?"
11/17/20 10:09 a.m.
*Virtually stock powertrain
The chassis is far from stock, and likely has totally changed suspension geometry and massive amounts of reinforcement. Many other rally competitors also use "stock" powertrains with great results. In many cases the OEM engineered parts are more reliable in this environment for powertrain components.
11/17/20 11:00 a.m.
I have no problem with this. The Rav4 is the 'highest performing' small vehicle Toyota makes. I don't mean just objective measurements, i mean as an overall vehicle doing overall vehicle things, it pushes the farthest of any small Toyota. Most recent one i've driven was a 16 or 17. I liked it fine. Drove a 19 Forester recently and that was fine too, other than the lack of an option that gives you 5.7s 0-60, 40mile electric range, and 40+ mpg on gas. There's literally nothing else in the segment even close.
11/17/20 11:09 a.m.
In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :
I don't know the full details (besides that it's fun to drive in Forza Horizon 4), but I know there's a current-gen Ridgeline being run:
11/17/20 11:11 a.m.
In reply to Vigo (Forum Supporter) :
I 100% agree. After getting to drive a newer hybrid model a little bit ago, everything just made sense. The RAV4 really feels like it can do anything a "normal" person would ever need it to do.
11/17/20 11:52 a.m.
We bought my now ex wife one new in '14, and it was nice and perfect all around daily driver for her. Steering feel was decent and it handled pretty well given it's task. It was a pretty big step up in ride and handling from her previous '03 CRV. It would be an easy button tool for driving to work and hauling crap.
11/17/20 12:24 p.m.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
“You can't make a racehorse out of a pig. But if you work hard enough at it you can make a mighty fast pig.”
11/17/20 12:42 p.m.
I know on good authority, and having seen this car many times myself that the geometry of the suspension was stock. It did have some trick Tien rally dampers, but the pickup points were wholly unchanged. I'm sure they probably skinned some of the control arms for durability. Definitely not a "Stock" vehicle, but surprising how little they actually changed, for performance purposes.
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