Folks have been wising up to the fact that the first-generation RAV4 is kind of awesome. David Tracy and I talk about it every time we hang out. I know we’re not the only ones, because hey look, somebody put a version of Toyota’s famous off-road racing livery of the 1990s on one of these plucky early crossovers.
You don’t really need to watch Drew Johnson’s video here to appreciate the coolness of a RAV4 wrap calling back to Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s look. But maybe peep this classic clip of old Toyota racing trucks, in case you don’t recognize the three-color stripey design:
And of course, those colors flew up and down the Baja peninsula a time or two as well:
Johnson’s RAV4 here, obviously, has a maroon base color instead of Stewart’s red but I appreciate the effort nevertheless. I also just like the fact that he’s showing the OG cute ute some love... looks like he’s got a lift kit going as well.
I actually almost bought one of these instead of a Montero, and objectively I totally should have for my purposes, but I just love the size and look of my Mitsubishi too much to swap it out for something sensible.
Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to seeing more early RAV4s getting restored and modified. I’d be willing to bet they’ll start popping up more and more.