Meet The Toyota RAV4 You'll Actually Want To Drive - Yahoo Autos (blog)
The Toyota RAV4 is an appliance. Behold, the RAV4 rally car — an off-road racing variant that proves beige doesn’t have to be boring. Let me address the obvious WTF: Yes, a Toyota RAV4 will be competing in the 2WD class during some of this year’s Rally America events. And yes, a category dominated by rally-prepped Fiestas — some with sequential gearboxes — will now feature a grocery-getting, unibody SUV. This racy RAV4 will be piloted by off-road racing expert and BAJA 1000 winner Ryan Millen. It also rocks eye-catching graphics that make it look like a boy-racer’s dream ride. And yet — like many rally cars — it still features the stock 2. 5-liter four-cylinder engine, pushing just 176 hp and 172 lb. -ft. of torque. So this RAV4 is no monster, but then it doesn’t have to be. I drove a 2009 B-Spec Honda Fit in a Rally America event last year and had the time of life — with just 117 hp. . Like all rally cars, this RAV4 must be street legal for the road sections... But most of all — a prerequisite for any racing machine — it needs to look awesome: This RAV4 most definitely does, something I never thought I’d say about a washing. Source: www.yahoo.com
