Carey Lando and Andrea Shaffer open the 2026 Rebelle Rally today as two-time X-Cross class champions, returning in the same 2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid that carried them to last year’s class win, now more heavily modified and wearing a new livery that ties Lando’s MtnSubi identity to Subaru’s stage rally past.
The Rebelle covers more than 1,500 miles of desert terrain across Nevada and California using maps, compass, and roadbooks only. No GPS. No electronic navigation. Speed is irrelevant; precision is everything. Team 200 will run Oct. 7–17 in the X-Cross class, which is open to crossovers and SUVs rather than purpose-built 4x4s.
The Forester Hybrid they’re campaigning started life as a stock crossover and has been built up substantially for desert running. RaceWorks coilovers and RalliTEK adjustable arms deliver a 3-inch suspension lift. Thirty-inch Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro tires fill the arches. Anderson Design and Fabrication supplied the underbody protection. A TORQ locker, Diode Dynamics auxiliary lighting, and full recovery gear round out the build. The team has already put the vehicle on some unforgiving terrain, including Hell’s Revenge in Moab and both Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass in Colorado, before pointing it at the Nevada desert.
Back-to-back X-Cross victories make Team 200 the standard to beat in class. Lando and Shaffer first claimed the X-Cross title in 2024 driving Lando’s personal 2014 Subaru Outback, then repeated in 2025 in the Forester Hybrid, which also marked the first time a Subaru-sponsored entry won the Rebelle outright. That 2025 result was Subaru’s first season as a team sponsor at the event.
The case Lando is making is a specific one: that a Forester Hybrid, a vehicle Consumer Reports named Best Compact SUV for the 13th consecutive year, can operate credibly in terrain that embarrasses most purpose-built machines when the driver is thoughtful enough. “The Forester Hybrid is such an interesting vehicle for this challenge because it lets us explore what a hybrid crossover can do when you take it well beyond where people expect to see one,
Source: Subaru. Images courtesy of Subaru.
