Like first official day afterward Rebelle Rally underway in the Lake Tahoe area — The 110 women of the seventh annual event spend the day undergoing a rigorous technical test, then head to the first base located near a ghost town with a population of just eight, the same number producers keep an eye on the teams they’ve been on.
It’s popular for major car manufacturersor OEM for assembly team to compete in Rally. This year, eight automaker-backed teams took part in a 1,600-mile navigation demonstration that spanned a period of time. 10 days and covered the remote sandy regions of California and Nevada.
Emily Miller, who founded Rebelle Rally in 2015, says that including manufacturer-backed teams in the competition has always been part of Rebelle’s mission as it gives these OEMs the opportunity to showcase showcase and test the capabilities of their equity vehicles.
“You have all these manufacturer vehicles, and OEMs have spent a lot of money designing them, developing them, and then testing them,” says Miller. “These cars are part of this amazing and functional piece of art, and that is where we spend a lot of our lives. Now in the seventh year, [we] see manufacturers recognizing the value of Rebelle – not because it’s a women’s car rally and it checks a box, but because they trust the platform for their cars. “
And there are many benefits for OEMs running the rally. In the previous Rebelle years, manufacturers ran pre-production models, such as the Rivian R1T, before they were made available to consumers. The OEMs will then take what they learn at the event and tweak certain settings or settings to make their vehicles more resilient to the punitive courses the Rebelles run.
Last year, after Emme’s Hall and Rebecca Donaghe having difficulty in the sand dunes because of the settings in their production model R1T (they are a pre-production R1T in 2020), Rivian made the changes and added Sand Mode to both R1T and R1S .
Kia this year, Honda’s motobikeHyundai, Nissan, Ford, Jeep, Toyota and Rivian are joining with their own manufacturer-backed teams. Last year’s OEMs included Volkswagen, Porsche and Mitsubishi, although these manufacturers did not return in 2022.
This year’s OEM collection includes five teams participating in the X-Cross team and eight in the 4X4 team. And Ford, Jeep, Toyota and Rivian are running multiple teams. Some teams are made up of rookies while others include a mix of rookies and alumni. Here’s how these groups break down:
Team X-Cross
That running Kia Sportage X-Pro 2023 with Team 206, made up of a pair of veteran Rebelles: Tana White and Verena Mei. White is Rebelle five times, and Verena is joining the second. Mei is a former professional racing and simulation racer, as well as a driving instructor.
Honda’s motobike running Honda Passport Trailsport 2023 with Team 208is made up of Hillary Tate, a rookie, and Liz Long, who has rebelled 3 times.
This year, Hyundai was attending with a pair of auto journalists behind the wheel of a 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz. Kirstin Shaw and Jill Ciminilo, both rookies, make up Team 215 for Hyundai.
Nissan has been a longtime supporter of Rebelle, participating since 2015 with different vehicles and different teams. This year, the company has the Pathfinder X-Cross 2023 in the long run tested competition Team 216, made up of Lyn Woodward and Sedona Blinson. Woodward is an auto journalist, and Blinson is a teacher. Both have been in Rebels for many years.
And also a pair of OG Rebelles joined in with the help of Fordin a 2023 Ford Bronco Sport Badlands. Team 200 made up of Melissa Fischer and Chris Benzie; both have been on Rebelle for many years. In fact, Fischer is part of the team that won the X-Cross title in 2021.
Group 4X4
Ford there are a total of three teams in this year’s Rebellion; one in the previous category, and two in the 4×4 category. Team 131 operates a 2021 Ford Bronco, and includes teammates Kathryn Reinhardt and Tori Bundrant; both are two-uprising time. Team 150 including Shelby Hall and Penny Dale. Hall is the niece of legendary Baja racer Rod Hall, and a famous trail racer in her own right. Both Hall and Dale are old Rebelles.
Jeep car are also running a total of three teams in this year’s Rebellion: Team 111, Team 129 and Team 160. All three teams are running the highly capable Jeep Wrangler 4xe – which will be designated Electrified.
Team 111 including Emily Winslow and Mercedes Lilienthal, who is also an automotive journalist. Both are Rebelle alumni who ran Volkswagen ID.4 at last year’s event. Team 129 including renowned terrain trainers, Nena Barlow, and Teralin Petereit; they are 4×4 champions in 2021. And Team 160 created by Rebelle Racquel Black twice and rookie Kaitlyn Milky.
Toyota was the main sponsor of this year’s Uprising. The company is supporting the program directly and sponsoring three teams of Toyota engineers: Team 152, Team 153 and Team 182. Team 152 is made up of Sam Barber and Becky Brophy, both of whom are-uprising time. Team 153 consists of Karen Yde and Crystal Mink. And Team 182 is Carole Koenig and Libby Perego. Two Team Toyota is running in the 2022 Toyota Tundra hybrid, while the other group is competing with the 2018 Toyota Tundra.
And, finally, the electric carmaker, Rivian are running two cars in this year’s Rebelle, and like Toyota, Rivian has chosen to source in-house for their teams. Team 186 consists of Nicole Johnson, Director of Human Machine Interface (HMI) at Rivian, and her navigator is Rosanna Nuch, Senior Service Lab Technician at Rivian. They are in a brand new R1S. Both Nicole and Rosana are rookies.
Rivian is also running an R1T (truck) with rookie Team 187, which includes Lilly Macaruso, who worked on the Uprising last year and helped my team deal with everything from altitude sickness to sandstorms. King, and Alex Anderson. Macaruso is a Senior Special Projects Engineer at Rivian, and Anderson is a Senior Mechanical Engineer at EV.
That’s it for OEM-backed teams. We will update you on how Rebelle Rally coming this year, so stay tuned for more.
