Year after year, SEMA (for Specialty Equipment Market Association) brings out the wildest from even the most humble carmakers. Toyota, among others, never shies away from having a bit of fun at the event. While most of the concept vehicles presented there never actually see the light of day, we have seen some TRD accessories hit the market thanks to their popularity at SEMA.
I’m fairly certain Toyota isn’t thinking of releasing a Dakar-ready RAV4 anytime soon. Sure, the RAV4’s all-wheel drive system works well enough to get you out of trouble. And as I discovered during my review of the Canadian-spec Trail model, these things come with enough capability to take part in some fun, light-duty offroading.
But, at the end of the day, the RAV4 is aimed at being a sensible, run-of-the-mill compact crossover ready to undertake rince-and-repeat school runs and spend its weekends loading up its cargo area full of Costco orders. But what if Toyota went racing with it? What we’d end up with would be this: the Toyota RAV-X concept.
Related
Why The 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Should Be On The Top Of Your New-Car List
If any hybrids are on your radar, they should include some Toyotas. And, if it had to come down to one, it should be the RAV4 Hybrid.
Toyota RAV-X Concept Is Based On A Plug-In Hybrid RAV4
Built by the Toyota Service Parts and Accessories Development (SPAD) department, the RAV-X concept is the real-life manifestation of what a RAV4 would look like if it were to be transformed to participate in the legendary Dakar Rally. Through accessorizing, SPAD focused on creating a vehicle that would be ready to take on the event’s most grueling conditions.
The vision behind the RAV-X was to create a halo vehicle concept for the RAV4 lineup. By leveraging the knowledge and capability from years of high-performance off-road vehicle development, the engineers created a concept that is true to the off-road enthusiast. – Jakin Wilson, senior engineering manager at Toyota Service Parts and Accessories.
The foundation for the RAV-X concept is a RAV4 PHEV (formerly called Prime). Toyota didn’t change anything to that drivetrain since it considers that the plug-in-hybrid’s total combined output of 302 horsepower is more than enough for the build. But Toyota did add a ram air intake for improved breathing.
Aside from the pixel-themed livery, the RAV-X gets completely redesigned front and rear bumpers for improved ground clearance, but also breathing through what Toyota calls, a Dakar-inspired front bumper with integrated cooling ducts and front-wheel ventilation. There’s an aggressive duckbill rear spoiler with TOYOTA lettering, a high-clearance dual-exhaust system, front and rear skid plates and raised rocker panels. Wheels are 17×8.5-inch forged aluminum sets wrapped around 265/65R17 off-road rubber.
Improved Suspension Components With A Wider Track
The meat of the upgrades happen underneath the vehicle, more particularly in the suspension and chassis department. For starters, the RAV-X’s track width was widened by a whopping 6.3 inches versus a standard RAV4. This explains why the concept was fitted with large fender flares.
The RAV4 PHEV’s front and rear shock absorbers were replaced by Fox 2.5-inch internal bypass units, while the vehicle’s total height was raised by two inches. The shocks themselves are fitted with Dual Speed Compression adjustments, allowing for a smoother ride, while improving overall handling and control. These shocks are equipped with external reservoirs too, while a rear piggyback reservoir was added to keep shock oil temperatures in check. Furthermore, SPAD engineers developed forged aluminum front lower control arms and forged aluminum rear upper supports for increased rigidity when driving the RAV-X over the really gritty stuff.
There are currently no talks about bringing the RAV4 to such extremes of offroading, but a next-generation model is just around the corner. Since offroading and ruggedness are all the hype these days, concepts like this RAV-X could give us a glimpse of a tougher, more capable RAV4.