Rivian just announced a new division within the company focused on feats of performance, but with a uniquely Rivian twist, aiming for extreme off-road stunts instead of your standard circuit racing.
There is a long tradition within the automotive industry of automakers having divisions dedicated to extracting maximum performance out of their vehicles. Fiat’s Abarth, Mercedes’ AMG, Nissan’s Nismo, and Ford’s RS, among many others.
The electric startups, so far, have not had such a division. But that’s true no longer: Rivian has just officially launched a performance brand, but with in keeping with the Rivian ethos, it has an off-road twist.
It’s called the Rivian Adventure Department, or RAD, and Rivian says it’s for “Exploring what our vehicles can do, and how much fun you can have.”
While Rivian has only made this formal announcement of RAD as an official “skunkworks” division today, RAD isn’t really brand new.
Rivian has already focused on sending its cars on various adventures over its lifetime, including before the R1T was even released, when it was spotted in Tierra del Fuego doing what we thought at the time was winter testing, but in fact it was facilitating the filming of Long Way Up, a documentary that followed a 13,000 mile electric motorcycle trip from the tip of South America to Los Angeles, California.
It also ran a vehicle in the Rebelle Rally (and won), and shattered the production truck record at Pike’s Peak, one of the most difficult races in the world.
For that Pike’s Peak run, Rivian brought a colorful livery along with it… which you may recognize from today’s announcement. It even started calling it the “Rivian Adventure Department” at the time, so the name isn’t really a surprise today.
But, now we know that this isn’t just a one-off effort, and that the manufacturer intends to take performance stunts like these seriously, and perhaps roll out the benefits thereof to users.
In fact, users have already received some of these benefits. The first fruits of RAD’s labor were the RAD Tuner, which is a mode on Rivian vehicles that allows users to calibrate every aspect of their vehicle’s performance in the car’s software. You can adjust acceleration, regen, torque balance, wheel slip, damping, and roll stiffness, among other things.
We’re not sure exactly what will come next to customers, but Rivian says that its next performance feat will be at the FAT Ice Race in Big Sky, Montana, where it will take a Quad R1S to compete.
And if nothing else, we get to see more of that awesome(ly gaudy) livery.
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