Yahoo News Rebelle Rally in a Lexus LX Was a Welcome Test of Readiness
The big story at this year's Baja 1000 off-road race was Wouter-jan Van Dijk, a Dutch enduro rider from Australia who showed up at the start line in Baja California, Mexico, with a used KTM 500 EXC that he bought off Craigslist, repaired during tech inspection, and then iron-manned to the finish.. Van Dijk had no pit crew, minimal equipment, and at one point, had to navigate using the stars. To say he was unprepared for the difficult Baja race is a gross understatement. But Van Dijk's story did put mine in perspective. Compared to his experience, the three months of prep time and ten cumulative days of off-road training ahead of the 2023 Rebelle Rally was downright luxurious. And I had a compass and a map.
The Rebelle Rally is an eight-day navigational competition that covers more than 1400 miles of varying terrain from rocky high desert to treacherous sand dunes. This year, 2023, marked the eighth annual running of the all-women event, and 65 two-person teams challenged themselves to hit checkpoints and traverse a tricky backwoods course all without cellphones, GPS, or any electronic devices that could give away details to your exact location. Instead, Rebelle competitors use map and compass skills to navigate their way to prescribed locations in order to strategically rack up enough points for a podium finish. Here, success isn't defined by speed but by precise navigation, route planning, and driving.
I’ve known about the Rebelle Rally for several years. Motorsports have piqued my interest for most of my adult life—I’ve done drifting and off-road schools, have autocrossed since college, and I have a decent amount of seat time at the track. I know how to look ahead through corners and read a racing line, but I'd never competed in something quite like the Rebelle Rally. If I was feeling like a newbie, my partner, Mia Lardiere, was even more so. Mia is the emerging platforms director at fellow Hearst brand Cosmopolitan, and she would never, or maybe never previously, have described herself as a car person. She lives in New York. She doesn't drive often and travels mostly via mass transit. So it was a bit of a surprise when Mia wholeheartedly committed to being my navigator for Rebelle, and even more so when our friends at Lexus greeted our cautious proposal with eager support. "We have a 2023 Lexus LX600 F Sport that we can get you guys." Is this real? Are we actually doing this?
The Rebelle Rally rosters from years prior showcased the typical makes and models that you'd run into in any OHV area. Toyotas, Jeeps, and Fords have a history of making up most of the competitor teams with these same manufacturers doing musical chairs on the podium as well. This year saw 16 Toyota, 17 Jeep, and 11 Ford entries. (My friend and colleague at Car and Driver, Elana Scherr, competed in the Rebelle Rally in 2020 in a Bronco Sport.)
Details of the Rebelle Rally
The rally is made up of two classes: 4x4 (vehicles with a two-speed transfer case) and X-Cross (vehicles without). Those classes are further broken into subcategories with Bone Stock, Modified, and Electrified designations. With no changes besides a set of BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO2 tires and removing the running boards for better clearance, our LX600 F Sport would cross eight days of demanding terrain as if it just rolled off the dealership floor. With so many more traditional off-road favorites to choose from, the Lexus LX 600 may have seemed like an odd pick for a long-distance, off-road competition. Many competitors that we met in Rebelle U training—the rally's classroom-style learning sessions that are held throughout the year—were surprised by our affirmation when they asked, "Is that what you two are driving in the rally?"
But when I ran into photographer and off-road enthusiast Larry Chen on Day 4 of the rally, he leaned into my window and asked, "Does everyone here know you have the most capable vehicle out there?" Of course, we knew. In 2021, Car and Driver's Joey Capparella aptly called the LX600 "the luxury Land Cruiser we deserve." That's because underneath the LX's plush fit and finish sits the same mechanical underpinnings of one of Toyota's most well-respected nameplates. It's built on the same platform as the 300-series Land Cruiser that Toyota discontinued in 2021 and houses a 3.4-liter V-6 twin-turbocharged engine making 409 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. The F Sport Handling trim level also comes with a more aggressively tuned suspension, performance dampers, a Torsen limited-slip differential, and a rear stabilizer bar. It has a full-time four-wheel-drive powertrain with low range and a center differential lock that comes in handy in off-the-grid pursuits like this one.
Lexus SUVs Reaching New Heights
There were only four Lexus entries into the rally this year (including ourselves), but in 2019, Rachelle Croft and Taylor Pawley placed first in an OEM-supported Lexus GX460. Even Emily Miller, the founder of Rebelle Rally and a seasoned off-road competitor, drives a Lexus GX460 with reinforced components by Total Chaos Fabrications to pre-run the competition routes. And after the record amounts of rainfall in the California area this year, the rally required an extensive amount of re-running and re-planning even just weeks leading up to its start due to damage in areas that traditionally would be safe to pass.
Car and Driver contributor John Pearley Huffman wrote in 2019 that "Almost overnight, modified GXes are a thing," and here, many overnights later, there’s no denying the overwhelming uptick in popularity of Lexus models in off-roading and overlanding. The Japanese manufacturer has debuted its own specialty builds at SEMA over the years, and its all-new GX that was unveiled in June will have a dedicated Overtrail trim level that will rival Toyota's TRD variants.
Just last year, in partnership with the racing division of SUV parts maker JAOS, Lexus entered an LX600 in the Baja 1000—one of only two entries in the Stock Full Class for production SUVs. The team made their return to this year's race too, where they continued to show that Lexus SUVs can be pushed to new heights.
But on the ground at Rebelle Rally, the LX quite literally hit some snags. By design, its oversized front fascia and dramatic overhang is formidable on the street but makes its approach angle less than ideal when the road gets rough. In some areas, it was impossible for our tires to make contact with a feature before the front bumper. This led to some creative use of zip ties to keep everything held together. It was a minor pain point for our less than fully prepared team, but one that could be easily remedied with an aftermarket front bumper and skid plate. The LX's wheel wells also wrap pretty far around both sides of the tires, which became problematic in the Imperial Sand Dunes of Glamis. The few times we got stuck and had to shovel ourselves out, the sand had a tendency to pool around the tires and pack into the wheel wells, making it increasingly difficult to free them from the soft, hot sand.
Active Height Control Had Its Own Challenges
The LX's Active Height Control was probably one of my favorite features, but it was finicky at times. It has a generous standard clearance of 8.3 inches at Normal ride height and increases to 10.5 inches at Hi1, maxing out at 11.6 inches in Hi2. With the operative word being "active," the LX would drop its ride height over a certain speed to improve aerodynamics, but this was an issue when most of our routes involved quick maneuvers from flatter, dirt roads to tight trails where you couldn’t travel more than 20 mph without ripping off your front bumper. We did a lot of stopping and waiting for the system to catch up and readjust itself to our preferred ride height.
Even with those minor frustrations throughout the week, the LX600's duality made itself apparent when it came to switching from traversing rocky terrain to transiting long stretches of roadway. Using Multi-Terrain Select with Crawl Control was seamless and allowed me to tailor the LX's capability for every type of trail: Dirt, Sand, Mud, and Rock. There's an Auto selection too that uses sensors combined with braking and throttle input to choose the right mode for the terrain beneath.
While there wasn't any snow when we arrived at the start in Mammoth Lakes, the LX offers a mode for Deep Snow as well. And where most teams struggled to maintain speed and control through undulating mountain passes, the SPORT+ mode takes the SUV down in ride height to lower its center of gravity, and its Adaptive Variable Suspension keeps it planted through snaking corners—quickly flipping the script from slower off-road driving to swift performance on pavement.
From Slot Canyons to 8481 Feet
We drove through slot canyons; crawled our way around the Obsidian Dome in Mammoth; camped in Gold Point, Nevada; roostertailed across dry lake beds; and climbed Queen Canyon Mine at 8481 feet—the highest altitude ever mapped on a Rebelle Rally route—which saw us ascending a treacherously narrow mountain pass that dropped off right beside the passenger's-side door. Mia failed to mention her fear of heights beforehand, but she was so cool, I never would have known.
We came to the rally to push ourselves, and clear communication, mutual understanding, and trust went a long way towards curing acrophobia. Mia believed not only in my driving ability and judgment but in the capability of our LX.
Our moments of triumph came with our fair share of heartache too. On Day 1, we were running late to a mandatory green checkpoint when we hit a fork in a road. With no time to stop and take a compass heading we took off in the direction we thought was right and it was not. Not only did our mistake cost us 30 points, but we got lost in the mountainous, pine-shrouded Inyo National Forest for about three hours. We cried, laughed, and then vowed to never make that mistake again.
Stuck in a Labyrinth of Boulders
But on Day 5, we did. Just about two kilometers away from our designated self-camp area, we got turned around in a labyrinth of boulders in the Johnson Valley area. The sun was quickly setting as we saw two sets of headlights in the distance. Fellow Rebelles—surely they must know where they are going, we thought. But all of us were turned around, trying to follow one another through unforgiving terrain that grew even more dangerous as we lost daylight. We were rushing, it was getting harder to see, and that's when you make mistakes. I tried to cross a rock that I thought we could clear, but the LX’s differential wedged itself against it and we were stuck, just barely high-centered, all four wheels spinning freely in the air. One of the veteran teams sprang into action, helping us stack rocks under each wheel to help give traction. I hit the throttle and slid off the top. We all screamed and cheered. It may not have been a points win, but it was a win all the same.
Then on Day 6, it was a long transit to our final base camp. I drove the car as hard as I could to try to make it to our mandatory checkpoint on time. Even taking whoops so fast that I could feel my soul leave my body every time we came crashing down, we missed our check-in time by less than two minutes. I was mad at Mia and I was even more mad at myself. We sat in silence the rest of the ride to base camp until I finally shook it all off. What’s the point in being mad? After all, I was the one who made us wait in line at the Shell station in Coachella Valley so I could get Doritos Locos Tacos. And it was worth it.
We learned to make a plan, but never expect anything to go according to it. I knew this would be an emotional rollercoaster, but I didn't know that rollercoaster would happen in the span of two hours and then over and over again. Those were the moments I begged to get off but somehow found the will to persevere. Again, it was worth it.
While Mia's and my rookie run at Rebelle Rally saw us bringing up the tail end of the pack, we were victorious in other ways. Our LX came out virtually unscathed. We had some damage to the plastic parts of the front end, chipped a taillight, and crossed the finish with plenty of pinstriping, but we didn’t break any axles or sway bars, and we managed to keep all four tires intact (even though we carried two spares for good measure).
As a car enthusiast, it's easy for me to recognize the bond we form with our vehicles. We spent a total of 25 days with our LX, 10 of which we spent camping with it. In a rally, your vehicle becomes your third teammate, offering a home base and a sense of comfort and security. I'm used to that experience, but it was special to see Mia, who saw cars more as occasional transportation, bond with the car like I was.
Being a car enthusiast isn't about gatekeeping but sharing our passion with others, and Rebelle teaches that, along with the lesson that you can never be too prepared, but you can make it through no matter what.
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