What It Took to Prepare the BMW 2024 Rebelle Rally Car for America’s Longest Off-Road Race

The Rebelle is unlike other off-road rallies, think the famous Dakar Rally or Baja 1000, in that is is not about speed. Rebecca says the Rebelle is special in that it is really “tailored to the female brain” – favoring problem solving and strategizing over raw guts and speed. Navigation is just as important as driving, but neither carry as much weight as the ability to act quickly and calmly under pressure and adapt to the problems that invariably will occur. 

And all this is done is a stock car. The vehicles driven in the Rebelle Rally are not race cars. They are lightly but thoughtfully modified cars that can be purchased at a car dealership. The vehicles are grouped into two classes: 4×4 for vehicles with selectable four wheel drive low range gears, and X-Cross for AWD vehicles without selectable four wheel drive modes.

Last year, Rebecca and co-pilot Sedona Blinson competed with BMW, driving a not-yet on the market BMW X2, ending the race in second place in their class. For the 2024 Race, Rebecca and Syndiely are competing in a BMW X3 M50, a powerful SUV not typically thought of for off-roading. Proper prepartion it will be key to competing in the 2024 Rebelle Rally.

Read: I’m Not Just Navigating the Desert During the Rebelle Rally, I’m Also Navigating Some Mom-Guilt

None of the teams know the course until the start of the day. Each day at 5AM, they are given a list of potential checkpoints – way more than the team could possibly achieve in the 10-12 hours spent driving each day. The checkpoints are graded like ski slopes, with green checkpoints being the easiest to spot and easiest to access and black checkpoints the most difficult to access and lacking any physical marker to denote their location. Teams must position themselves within a specified geofence and hope that their location is correct. 

While competitors work with low tech paper maps and compasses, the backside of the competition is very high tech, with Rally staff maintaining constant location data on all the teams, each driver/co driver pair competes with nothing but old-school navigation (unless the team needs to call for help, of course, which results in a penalty).

Read: 2023 Rivian R1T Takes First Place at the 2023 Rebelle Rally

Preparing for such an event is as much mental as it is physical. 

For this year’s Rebelle Rally, Rebecca and Syndiely are piloting the all new BMW X3 M50 in the X-Cross class. Rebecca and Syndiely drove the BMW X2 in the Rebelle last year, as well, clinching a podium finish. Both drivers have ample rally experience individually – Syndiely has competed in the Dakar Rally eight times and Rebecca has competed in the Navigation Rally ten times, as well as Rebelle, at which she’s podiumed 5 times. The two have known each other for quite some time, meeting in 2015 at Rebecca’s first off-road rally. 

In the 2024 Rebelle Rally, Rebecca will be spearheading the driving, while Syndiely will be the co-driver, taking control of navigation. Both women are trained in both skills, so have the option to swap positions if desired.

Still, the drivers say that they get into their “mode,” and switching roles in the Rally can often slow the team down. Both members of the team being familiar with both roles, though, means that they can assist the other. After all, according to Rebecca, you “need two brains, 4 eyes, for both roles.” 

Read: What Does It Take To Rebelle? Kristin Shaw and Jill Ciminillo Tell All on the What Drives Her Podcast

Preparation for the two drivers began…well, ten years ago. Everything that they have learned about navigation and off-road driving comes to a head in the Rebelle Rally. Specific preparation for this year’s event began in February, though, when Rebecca took courses on trail mechanics to assist her with understanding what can go wrong mechanically on the vehicle during the rally, and how to fix it. 

In May, Rebecca and Syndiely were provided a practice vehicle: a 2024 X3 M40i. Rebecca used the X3 M40i to get to know their third teammate: the car. Last year, Rebecca did not have the opportunity to drive the BMW until the day before tech, so she was learning the limitations of the vehicle during competition. This year, she feels more prepared, having had the opportunity to learn the BMW X3 on the practice vehicle. 

Learning the car is multifaceted project. Because the tech in modern cars, Rebecca said one of the goals is simply making sure that she is “as smart as the vehicle.” This means learning the different drive modes and really understanding what these features change about the handling of the car in different terrain so she knows how best to utilize these features, which could be the difference between making it to a checkpoint and falling short.

Additionally, the practice in the BMW allows Rebecca to learn the limitations of the car so she knows what obstacles they can tackle, and which obstacles are best left alone. 

Syndiely’s preparation as a navigator looks a little different. Syndiely and Rebecca are constantly working on their communication, focusing not just on ideas, but also on language – Syndiely’s native language is French. They also work on developing their strategies. While specific strategy will change on the rally, they need to align their goals between themselves and with BMW. In the event of a difficult checkpoint, will they go for it or play it safe?

According to the women, everything that you are both good and bad at will become apparent during the rally. It is necessary to prepare for and build processes to accommodate for each individual’s flaws. They also prepare for the general nature of the event. They will be tired, hungry, hot, and uncomfortable. By being aware and prepared for these conditions, they can be more at ease when in the desert. 

While the drivers are preparing themselves for the Rebelle, BMW and XPel were busy preparing the all new BMW X3 M50 for the event, as well. The specific vehicle being driven is still a pre-production model of the X3 M50 – customers haven’t started taking delivery yet.

The BMW has been modified slightly with a skid plate to protect the undercarriage, trail tires, wheels, lighting pods, and ample storage, both inside and outside. The interior storage solutions were designed by the Talent Factory, a group of students interning at the BMW factory, in Spartanburg, SC. This process of preparing the vehicle for the Rebelle began in April of this year. 

The finishing touches to the BMW X3 M50 were completed by XPel at their headquarters in San Antonio. I got to visit the site just a few months ago and saw what goes into prepping and protecting a car, a process that ensures that its paint and body are impervious to things like rocks, sand, weather and more.

In the spirit of the event, XPel hired an all-female team of installers to protect the car with paint protection film, tint, and ceramic coat. Just as this is the second year of Rebecca and Syndiely driving for BMW, this is also XPel’s second year utilizing an all-female install team to protect the BMW. Installers Florine Peffer, Elisa Ross, and Morgan Yakiwchuk took on the project this year. 

Morgan was part of the team last year, as well. While entering the PPF industry was a little intimidating to her at the time due to the overall lack of women represented in the industry, she fell in love with the profession. Five years ago, there were no other female installers at XPel. Today, there are five female installers at the XPel retail location she works at. When Morgan was offered the opportunity to work with BMW on the Rebelle vehicle last year, it was an “instant yes,” and she is excited to be called back to work with BMW for a second year. Both women love to see women making an impact in a male-dominated industry. 

Elisa entered the PPF industry on a bit of a whim after discovering XPel through her mother-in-law, who assisted the local Ferrari dealership in transporting cars (which often stopped at XPel for PPF installation). She was instantly interested in the world of PPF and tint and knew she wanted to work at XPel. Starting off as a customer service coordinator, she transitioned into the install shop as an assistant, and finally as an installer. She also works on designing the patterns for the PPF that allow the film to be cut to perfectly-sized pieces for specific vehicles. 

Prior to applying the PPF on the BMW X3 M50, Elisa and the rest of the design team created the patterns for the vehicle so they are prepared when the X3 M50 hits showroom floors and customers start ordering PPF. The entire protection process took four days, three for the PPF installation and one for tint and ceramic coat. 

The tint serves to keep the drivers cool and comfortable – a necessity in the middle of the desert. The ceramic coat makes the vehicle easier to clean and provides a small layer of protection from contaminants. 

Most important, though, is the PPF. XPel installed the Stealth PPF on all painted surfaces of the vehicle. The stealth film gives the car a unique matte look (the paint is glossy from the factory), but also protects the paint from the scratches and rock chips it will receive while on the rally. Morgan said she had the opportunity to see last year’s car after it came back from the rally, and the condition of the paint was incredible, especially considering what the car had been through. 

Adding the finishing touches of PPF was the last step in prepping for BMW’s 2024 Rebelle Rally presence, helping the car to perform well and look good through the race and beyond. Rebecca says the PPF gives her the confidence to go into places she might otherwise navigate around to avoid scratching up a car that doesn’t belong to her.

Just making it to the starting line is an accomplishment for any team, let alone crossing the finish line. The immense amount of work that goes into preparing for the race before hitting the sand allows them to avoid surprises and focus on the finishing, and hopefully winning, the rally. Which, of course, is the ultimate goal.