Meet The Toyota RAV4 You'll Actually Want To Drive

The Toyota RAV4 is an appliance. It fulfills its purpose in getting you from A to B but offers little by way of excitement. And that’s fine, because the mother of two simply wants to make her daily school runs in a safe, comfortable, reliable environment that does its best to drown out the inevitable squabbling deriving from the second row.

But what if you want more?

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.

And that’s brilliant.