It didn't keep the dust from covering everything in the bed, but that was really just wishful thinking in the desert. The bed on the Santa Cruz is small but mighty, and the retractable tonneau cover was handy for keeping our gear from flying out of the back. Lastly, we equipped our Santa Cruz with a set of gold-colored Gear Off Road wheels and Falken tires. A Truxxx 1-inch lift kit was added to compensate for the ground clearance lost by the addition of the skid plate and to help clear low-lying obstacles along the way. We were a little surprised it was that capable, to be honest, and it didn't skip a beat while yanking the much bigger Wrangler from the dirt. The second was a new front bumper fabricated by Rally Innovations with a light bar with exposed recovery points in case we needed to be winched out of a sticky situation or to help another team.ĭuring a training session in April of this year, our Santa Cruz was hitched up to a Jeep Wrangler and we pulled it from the sand to practice just such a maneuver. The first was a skid plate to protect the underbelly during the rally it kept tall, stiff shrubbery from yanking out the Santa Cruz's internal organs. While there is a Bone Stock category for trucks and SUVs straight from the factory, we opted for a few key modifications. The torque proved itself to be particularly handy while powering down rock-strewn mountain trails and following a Ram truck on a path we didn't expect to tackle - but we went for it anyway and found the little trucklet could capably lay tracks right behind the bigger vehicle. We chose this quirky little truck for its handy truck bed and comfortable seats after all, bopping along for 10 hours a day is more enjoyable when creature comforts like heated and ventilated seats come alongside the vehicle's turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine making 281 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque. We climbed steep hills, tiptoed across rocky mountainside paths, and slalomed atop ridges punctuated by deep ruts in the dirt.Ībout our plucky little Hyundai Santa Cruz Not only did we achieve those goals, the offbeat Santa Cruz surpassed our expectations with its toughness in a variety of terrain situations. Our goals: to finish and to bring the vehicle back in one piece. Our team (Team Brute Squad, named after a line from a particularly iconic 1987 movie) approached the Korean brand to request a Santa Cruz for the grueling competition late last year, and thankfully the automaker obliged. Hyundai, however, hadn't entered a vehicle until this year.

Team Cullinan took a class win, by the way. Rolls-Royce even allowed a team to pilot a brand-new $400,000 Cullinan SUV (and get it extremely dirty) in the crossover class in 2019. Kia entered a Telluride three years ago and a pair of fresh-off-the-line Sorento PHEVs last year that took first and second place. At first, the eight-day, 1,500-mile off-road competition for women in motorsports was dominated by Jeep Wranglers, eventually expanding to include other capable 4x4s like Toyota's Tacoma and 4Runner and the new Ford Bronco. For the last seven years, the Rebelle Rally has been a proving ground for manufacturers interested in finding out what kind of off-roading punishment their vehicles can take.

2022 hyundai santa cruz off road