Some of the coolest stuff from BMW M and Mercedes AMG over the years came as skunkswork projects. Remember the M Clown Shoe? Now Rivian’s skunkworks performance division just got the green light and became official as the high-performance division for the electric automaker.
On Thursday, in Big Sky, Montana, Rivian formally announced the formation of the Rivian Adventure Department, or RAD for short. Rivian’s giving hints this is the start of something larger as we move from one-off passion projects and software development to full-blown product and experiences.
Until now the RAD team has been a skunkworks operation with employees banding together as a passion project to make cool stuff happen. Their exploits and developments have been the stuff of enthusiasts’ dreams.
One of the most interesting fruits of the RAD team’s labor? A one-off Rivian R1T safari rig complete with eight seats. The funky-looking vehicle might be classified as the world’s most interesting, powerful, fastest, and quickest golf cart.
One of the RAD team members? Gardner Nichols, an engineer at Rivian who modified his personal first-gen quad-motor R1T and ran up the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 2023 and set a record with no factory involvement. Gardner returned to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 2024 with factory backing in a second-generation R1T Quad and set a new electric pickup truck record at the event. Suddenly Rivian got serious.
Rivian’s factory-backed Rebelle Rally efforts with its skunkworks RAD division led to the development of Soft Sand Mode, which was later shipped as an over-the-air update to the R1S and R1T.
All of the RAD department’s work really came together and started giving a hint of where things would be going with the launch of the 2026 Rivian R1 Quads. The new Kick Turn 360-degree tank turn function was developed by the RAD team and put the ability to slide the vehicle in a circle in motion.
But it’s the Rivian RAD Tuner, which has RAD in the actual feature name, that gave the clearest indicator that the automaker was getting serious about the division’s formal future. The RAD Tuner is like an equalizer for the R1 Quad’s powertrain enabling owners to adjust 10 variables ranging from power split and steering weight to wheel slip and roll stiffness. It’s the stuff enthusiasts that grew up playing Forza dream about. The RAD Tuner also brings forth Hill Climb and Desert Rally drive modes, which were developed by the RAD team as the settings used for the 2024 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and Rebelle Rally events. Owners can even save their custom modes, like the Feder Mode I made, along with a racing helmet icon.
These are the kinds of people, and projects, the skunkworks RAD team has been involved with to date. Now as an official performance division the question is how far will Rivian take RAD?
Rivian formalized RAD on the eve of the 2026 FAT Ice Race and will run a R1S Quad in the race complete with RAD livery. The automaker also brought the smaller R2, which is now in pre-production status with units rolling off the assembly line in Normal, Illinois ahead of a summer launch, wrapped in RAD livery.
“RAD is where we maximize the capability of our vehicles. Subjecting them to extreme conditions–from the 14,000-foot ascent of Pikes Peak to the barren deserts of the Rebelle Rally. For us, the competition is only one element. Vigorously validating every system, component, and algorithm is the other,” Luke Lynch, Chief Engineer of the R1, said.
A Rivian spokesperson told The Drive that the 2026 FAT Ice Race is RAD, which is why Rivian is participating, giving the indication that the RAD team at Rivian will be both about developing hardware and software products but also engaging at experiential events.
How far the RAD team gets to take things now that it’s formalized with a green light from the automaker is unclear, but the Quads are pretty RAD. And Rivian did commit to a tri-motor R2.
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