Preparing a Toyota Tacoma for the Rebelle Rally

For eight days in October, Elizabeth and Allison Williams took their 2021 Toyota Tacoma more than 2,500 miles across the wild Nevada and California desert as competitors in the Rebelle Rally—a journey that began at Beaverton Toyota. The women-only driving and navigation event, in its sixth year, stands as the longest off-road rally in North America. The duo, who named themselves Team Get Lost, took months to prepare for the week-long rally.

Driver Elizabeth Williams, a communications manager for an automotive company and lives in the Portland area, knew what she wanted for an off-road vehicle. She arrived at Beaverton Toyota in January with her 2021 Toyota Tacoma 4×4 Off-Road, specifically one with an extended cab and long bed—ideal for the gear necessary for a long adventure. She had purchased her truck—which she promptly named Angie—and immediately set to planning modifications with the help of the team at CLEAR Customs. Knowing how capable the Tacoma is on its own, she carefully selected upgrades that would elevate Angie the truck into a vehicle that could go anywhere with ease.

The Rebelle Rally has its roots in legendary international rallies like the Dakar and the Gazelle, competitions in which a driver and navigator find their way through unfamiliar off-road terrain. The Rebelle is not a race for speed but rather a test of precision driving and navigation, with teams earning points for finding checkpoints along long routes that cross mountain ranges, desert valleys, and whole counties. Oh, and no GPS or computerized navigation tools are allowed—the Rebelle is all done by map and compass.

Elizabeth knew only one thing about the 2021 Rebelle course going in, and that was that it could contain anything: rocks, sand, thick brush, ruts worn into sticky mud. To be ready for anything, she worked with CLEAR Customs at Beaverton Toyota, experts in off-road modification. Together they selected an Ironman 4×4 Suspension System for the truck, leaving it able to absorb the many bumps and jolts of the rally. The race-bred suspension includes Foam Cell Pro shock absorbers, the largest twin-tube 4×4 shock absorber made. It didn’t take long for the team to experience the radical power of the sophisticated system.

Navigator Allison Williams, a journalist from Seattle, spent the rally in the passenger seat with maps on her lap, using rulers and a compass to plot their exact route. The Toyota’s upgraded suspension handled the jostling of rough, rocky roads so well that the team didn’t have to stop for her to do calculations. She measured distance as Elizabeth threaded their Toyota through slot canyons in Death Valley National Park and moved swiftly over jagged rock in Nevada’s remote Amargosa Valley.

Though Team Get Lost was a rookie team, they took quickly to the competition and regularly placed in the top 10 of teams each day. As entrants in the 4×4 category alongside 41 other teams, they took their truck on the roughest terrain the rally offers. Rebelle points are scored by hitting green (easy), blue (moderate), and black (difficult) checkpoints, with the highest points sometimes only available on the hardest routes. Using skills honed during formal training sessions and her own off-the-grid adventuring, Elizabeth was able to move the truck through the entire course (and even a few extra detours, like when the pair accidentally explored the wrong canyon in the wide Nevada desert near Area 51).

The mountainous and remote trails used by the Rebelle Rally don’t have easy spots to turn around, and Team Get Lost knew that their Toyota would need protection from the many natural elements it would encounter. The CLEAR Customs team installed Metal Tech 4×4 bumpers, equipment produced by doing a 3D laser scan of their exact vehicle. The piece was manufactured by the Metal Tech welding team based in Oregon, giving the Team Get Lost vehicle the highest quality of bespoke modification.

Metal Tech 4×4 heavy-duty rock sliders flanked the truck, providing protection as the vehicle squeezed between boulders—and provided easy in-and-out access for navigator Allison, who had to hop out of the truck at every checkpoint to mark their location and earn the team points. After eight stages of off-road driving, Team Get Lost’s vehicle emerged with almost no sign of its grueling undertaking outside of the heavy layer of dirt. At every base camp, the team had access to Rebelle’s top-end mechanics team, so skilled that they welded axels and unbent skid plates on the fly throughout the event. But thanks to careful driving and a well-protected vehicle, Team Get Lost never needed their handiwork.

The Rebelle’s final day of competition takes place in the famed Imperial Sand Dunes of Southern California, a stretch of undulating desert that reaches more than 40 miles long, all the way to the Mexican border. By the time Elizabeth and Allison reached the last day, they had solidified their place as one of the top rookie teams in the rally, eventually earning the number 12 spot overall. With a bright orange whip flag firmly mounted behind the cab, their long Toyota managed the same dunes as tiny Jeeps, climbing shifting, soft sand with ease.

A successful rookie rally is only the start for Angie the truck, a vehicle whose modifications make it adept at off-road travel in every type of terrain. Elizabeth will continue to take the truck into the rough, barely-there trails of Oregon and California, and is already eying next year’s Rebelle Rally. With 2,500 of one of the world’s most intense endurance competitions behind them, the team has yet to find their limits.

Tags: CLEAR Customs, Rebelle Rally, Toyota Tacoma
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