Endurance Testing the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport During the 2025 Alcan 5000 Rally

Imagine logging 20,000 remote miles in northern Canada and Alaska, crossing all of British Columbia and heading deep into the Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territory, and our country’s final frontier, Alaska, in late summer and the dead of winter. The roads are rough, the weather equally as so, especially as we travel above the Arctic Circle—again.

My husband, Andy Lilienthal, and I just competed in our fourth Alcan 5000 Rally, and drove a bone stock 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport for it. Would we repeat our 2024 2S class winter win with an INEOS Grenadier 4x4 by driving this AWD in the summer? This 5,502-mile, 11-day Arctic competition would test teams’ stamina, skills, and sanity. 

Andy was the driver, and I was the navigator. We chose Passport TrailSport as it generates plenty of power from the new 3.5-liter V-6 powerplant. It has 8.3 inches of ground clearance and comes with tons of room. This new 2026 two-row SUV rides on General Grabber all-terrain tires that were also co-designed with Honda, too. 

We added scads of factory-available accessories like rock sliders and their new cargo roof platform rack which housed two sets of MAXTRAX XTREME vehicle recovery boards, five gallons of fuel, and a Front Runner Outfitters Wolf Pack Pro storage box. We also used the factory two-inch rear hitch receiver to mount a Factor 55 HitchLink 2.0 rear recovery point. Honda’s Passport TrailSport’s hitch receiver comes with two recovery points on either side of the hitch receiver itself. We finished off the exterior by swapping factory wheels with Honda’s HPD rollers. 

The interior was left mostly stock. However, we brought a full-size spare for the competition. It was mounted with the stout factory-optional interior full-size spare tire system that affixed to the rear driver’s cargo area. Our rally Honda also featured rear cargo area MOLLE panels and a super-bright lift gate LED light. 

The only aftermarket modifications we made to this 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport were a prototype Rally Innovations light bar mount that used Baja Designs Squadron XL-R Pro LED lights with amber covers. Honda’s stock fog lights were also changed out in favor of amber Baja Designs Squadron XL-R Sport LEDs.

The Alcan 5000 Rally is North America’s longest road rally. This time-speed-distance (TSD) competition starts near Seattle in Kirkland, Washington. This year’s rally route took teams due north to all of British Columbia, Canada through the Yukon Territory (including Whitehorse and Dawson City), and into Alaska. Competitors went to Valdez, Alaska, up to Fairbanks, and then back to BC heading south to finish in Williams Lake, BC. 

However, teams wanting all the challenges, which included us, completed all four optional extreme control routes to garner this year’s Go Farther award. That included a long haul on Yukon’s Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle; traveling to Telegraph Creek, BC, a hidden village deep into the unknown; the dirt Mitten Forest Road in BC; and the famed Denali Highway in Alaska. In short, extreme teams tackled appr. 1,000 miles of dirt and gravel to make it happen. 

This year there were 17 automotive entrants and 12 motorcycle competitors. Each team fell into the following categories: 1U (Unlimited cars), 2U (Unlimited trucks or SUVS), 1S (SOP or Seat Of Pants cars), 2S (SOP or Seat Of Pants trucks or SUVs), and HA or HC for historical classes. There was also a small fleet of motorcycle competitors.

Unlimited classes allow any kind of rally computer or app to compete. SOP or Seat Of Pants competitors can’t use Unlimited equipment and run “by the seat of their pants” using things like their vehicle’s OEM odometer plus slide rule, or a Stevens wheel and calculator to keep themselves on time while passing through hidden checkpoints. Or in our case, we use a kid’s lime green calculator and a simple kitchen timer, plus mathematical equations to figure out incremental time to keep us on track. SOP teams can also use nothing but their stock odometer to monitor mileage and nothing else.  

The name of the TSD game is to stay on route and on time perfectly against what the rallymaster gives you in a route book. They give you odometer readings and route directions to follow while traveling at a certain average speed during the competitive sections. It’s up to you to figure out exactly what time you need to be at each point. 

Time-speed-distance rallies are not races where the fastest team wins on a closed course. TSD rallies are based on accuracy and are held on public roads with other traffic. Teams travel at or below posted speed limits and obey all traffic laws. Arrive through a checkpoint too early and you’re penalized points. Same thing if you run late. Time allowances can be taken if competitors face delays because of trains, stop lights, livestock in the road, traffic, etc. It’s all happened to us. Teams with the least amount of penalty points at the end of an event come out on top.

“The 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport is a very good long-distance driver,” Andy said. “It's got ample power, loads of space, and is comfortable. The General Grabber A/T Sport tires were surprisingly quiet on the trip, too. And, unlike many other competitors, we had zero flat tires.”

To Andy, the Honda SUV felt more trucklike than one might expect from a unibody Honda. “Depending on what you want, this might be good or not,” he exclaimed. “It feels substantial, robust, and weighty. Ours was a preproduction prototype, and the steering felt heavy, although Honda says they addressed this with production units.”

Honda's AWD system worked very well on both dirt and gravel and pavement. “When on dirt sections, the AWD system and General tires worked well as a team, preventing nearly any wheel slip,” Andy said. “On some of the curviest roads, even when wet and muddy, the Passport TrailSport offered impressive grip without sliding.”

On the pavement, the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport’s ride was stiffer than expected and more trucklike, but not overly harsh. “Again, it feels like a bigger truck than it really is. Another inch of ground clearance would've been great, too.” Thankfully, it was equipped with steel factory skid plates and the optional rock sliders just in case. “More aggressive shock tuning would have prevented us from hitting the bump stops over the biggest frost heaves in The Yukon, but I also realize we were driving in rather extreme conditions [when compared to the general populous driving conditions].” 

Overall, the combination of power, comfort, and storage made the 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Elite a very good Alcan 5000 Rally vehicle. We nabbed First Place in the 2S class (again!) and Second Place overall for this year’s Alcan 5000 summer rally. We used the right vehicle with the right combination of OEM-available and aftermarket upgrades and accessories to get the job done right. 

[Images © 2025 Mercedes Lilienthal/TTAC.com]

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