The adventure-ready 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport will face 10 grueling days and approximately 1,000 miles of dirt and gravel during the legendary time-speed-distance competition, showcasing Honda’s off-road capabilities in one of overlanding’s ultimate challenges.
Do you love long-distance travel, seeing things off the beaten path, and being around like-minded gearheads? If so, you’d love the Alcan 5000 Rally.
We, husband and wife, (and fellow OVR Feature Editors), are tackling our fourth Alcan 5000 Rally this summer, the longest rally in North America. And we’re doing this time-speed-distance rally in an all-new 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport SUV.
Yes, we love running trails and camping in remote places, but there’s a sport many haven’t heard of—time-speed-distance, or TSD, rallying. It’s part competition and part on- or off-pavement traveling. And, best yet, it’s a lot more affordable than taking a cruise or major curated excursion to a far-flung area.
This year’s Alcan 5000 Rally is 10-days and 5,388-miles. It’s known for extremely long days, some sleep deprivation, and perhaps some long-distance travel-induced hunger.
But it’s also known for providing 40+ years of stunning scenery, a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, including one of the best rally communities there are. So, why do we keep doing it? For the love of it all.
Honda’s Adventure Vehicle Takes on the Alcan 5000
For the 2025 summer Alcan 5000 Rally, we’re partnering with Honda and using their all-new 2026 Passport TrailSport.
While Honda has previously introduced its TrailSport models after the launch of a model’s restyle, this time, Honda led with the new Passport’s launch with the TrailSport variant.
TrailSport models are Honda’s most adventure-ready, off-pavement-capable versions, and this ruggedized Passport includes a host of features that make this SUV Alcan-ready.
Rugged Features from the Factory
The 2026 Passport TrailSport comes with beefy 31” (275/60R18) General Grabber all-terrain tires. Honda and General actually co-designed these tires—no need for a rubber upgrade for the rally.
We plan on bringing a full-size spare tire in addition to the supplied compact spare, and an ARB tire patch kit, in case we get a flat.
For additional ruggedness and protection, Passport TrailSport comes standard with steel skid plates. This includes a 5/32”-thick plate to protect the engine and transmission, and a 3/32” plate for the fuel tank.
With over 1,000 miles of dirt and gravel slated for the ’25 Alcan 5000, all-terrain tires and skid plates are good things to have. Our rig will also feature factory-optional rock sliders, just in case things get rowdy.
Heaven forbid we end up in a ditch or mired in the mud, the Passport TrailSport has two front and two factory-standard rear recovery points.
Our Alcan SUV will have a Class III hitch, and we’ll also throw in a Factor 55 HitchLink 2.0 recovery point for good measure.
Alcan 5000 Must-Haves: Ground Clearance, Comfort, and Power
There are three things we want in an Alcan rig: ground clearance, comfort, and power. The Passport TrailSport has all of them.
It offers 8.3” of ground clearance, so we won’t have to worry about bottoming out on the frequent bad roads in western Canada and Alaska, including the Dempster Highway.
The vehicle has admirable off-road angles (23° approach angle, 16.7° breakover angle, and 23.3° departure angle) should the trails turn treacherous.
In the comfort department, we’ll be in a 2026 Passport TrailSport Elite, which has all the niceties. This means heated and cooled seats, the 2nd-generation TrailWatch system (a series of cameras to help see trails around you), and an impressive-sounding Bose sound system.
By the way, that TrailWatch system is great. When we off-roaded this SUV in Puerto Rico, those cameras were instrumental in seeing over the large hood and around the vehicle.
Finally, with a new 3.5-liter V-6 making 285 HP and 262 lb.-ft. of torque, this AWD Honda offers plenty of power.
It’ll be a comfortable cruiser for all 5,388 scheduled Alcan 5000 miles, no matter the terrain. Plus, we’ll have enough passing power to blast past slow traffic.
A Rally Ready Drivetrain
Speaking of AWD, the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport offers a variety of driving modes for different terrain, which will be useful. This includes Trail, Sand, and Snow. (Hopefully we don’t need the latter.)
The i-VTM4 torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system offers plenty of surefootedness and is great on gravel and dirt. No, there isn’t a low-range transfer case, but on an event like the summer Alcan 5000 Rally, we won’t need it.
The 3.5-liter V-6 is mated to a 10-speed automatic, and there are paddle shifters on the steering wheel. This is helpful while competing in the time-speed-distance portions, as we’re able to hold gears and specific speeds steady, better able to keep average speeds.
Aftermarket Upgrades and Factory Accessories
The 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport is ready to tackle the Alcan 5000 out of the box in many respects. However, we’re going to add a few upgrades and accessories. This includes a prototype light bar mount from Rally Innovations.
We’ve used their products on a host of vehicles, including our personal 2022 Subaru Crosstrek. They’re made in the U.S.A., are super sturdy, and offer a great place to mount auxiliary lights.
As for lights, we will use Baja Designs Squadron lights, also produced in the United States, and amber rock guard protective covers to mount on the Rally Innovations light bar mount (that’s the same auxiliary lighting manufacturer, along with the light bar mount, we used for our recent TransAmerica Trail effort).
We’ll also run a five-gallon fuel can for extra gas, two sets of MAXTRAX traction boards, and some Honda factory accessories, which includes the interior spare tire mount. If we get a flat tire, the interior mounting system will allow quick and easy access to the spare.
We’ll also use Honda’s OEM roof rack system. It consists of six crossbars and side rails for tie-down points. We’ll use it to carry our five-gallon fuel can, our MAXTRAX, and a Front Runner Outfitters Wolf Pack Pro storage box. We’ll also incorporate Honda’s factory-optional rock sliders for side-body protection.
What is the Alcan 5000 Rally?
This historic TSD rally isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s 10 days long and typically over 5,000 miles in length.
The 2025 summer competition takes teams from near Seattle through Quesnel and Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, into Whitehorse and Dawson, Yukon Territory, (with optional extreme jaunts to Eagle Plains on the Dempster Highway and Telegraph Creek, British Columbia), and deep into Alaska. We’ll travel to Valdez, which we did in the 2024 winter rally, then up to Fairbanks.
We’ll go into Canada again where we’ll zip past Whitehorse, Stewart, Smithers, and to Williams Lake for the finish. We’re expecting about 1,000 miles of this to be dirt and gravel if we complete all optional routes. That’s like driving from San Francisco to Denver without touching pavement.
The Alcan 5000 Rally is like the Olympics, there is a winter version, then summer, then another winter, and so on. This event typically happens every two years, but sometimes there is a correction year so there isn’t too much lag between rallies. The 2025 competition is one of those years.
We competed in the winter rally iteration in early 2024, where we won our class, but the rally organizer, Jerry Hines, along with his wife Colleen, added this year’s rally September 2-12. After that, a 2026 summer rally will happen, before the traditional lapse in time happens again before the highly anticipated winter rally in 2028.
Stay tuned as we pilot the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport for this year’s competition!
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