While on holiday in Europe, I got to have a bit of fun at a relative's farm. So, having prepared the car for offroading (by screwing in the front recovery point, chucking some wellies, a shovel and a rope in the boot and letting someone know we might need them to bring a tractor) I set off with him as my instructor.

 

Nice and easy at the start through some woodland.

 

 

It was a little hairy to get into the field tracks as there were deep ditches around and the land bridges were very muddy and felt very narrow.

 

 

At this point, traction control was turned off and the fun really began.

 

 

It got progressively muddier and the car was jumping and sliding about quite a bit. The ESP was still enabled and was trying to keep the car going forwards. Doing a mostly good job.

 

 

Eventually we worked our way through to a field that was really chewed up by tractors and the farm's Hiluxes and other 'real' off roaders. Got to do a few donuts here, despite the ESP. I got pretty bogged down in the end and decided it was time to enable X-Mode (Subaru's off-road button). I managed to get the car back out and was amazed at how easy the car was to control with it enabled. Far less jumping about and much steadier progress. I turned it off though as I wanted to keep it in reserve for if things got hard.

 

 

I thought the excitement had reached its peak as we headed back (mostly because we couldn't see much out of the side windows and the sun was going down). However, on one crossing between fields there was a squeaky-bum moment as the rear snapped around and the car crabbed over the narrow land bridge.

 

 

I was rewarded with a quite messy car in the end. Just a shame that due to the rain and standing water no doubt a lot more mud had been washed off by the time I got to photograph it. ChrisRS look away now Fortunately there was a place to hose it down and I'd brought my wash mitt.

 

 

I also got some important lessons on how to control a car on such surfaces (don't stop, keep your foot down being something he kept yelling at me). I (and him) was also very impressed with the vehicle and how well it coped with the terrain. I'm glad that the latest version of the Forester has not lost its ability and remains true to the name. The four wheel drive system feels very different (more connected) to the one I had in my Octavia before and the ground clearance was enough that I only noticed the bottom making contact with the ground once over a particularly deep rut. The off-road mode made it even more impressive and I'm glad I know what the car is capable of. The tyres were regular Continental TS850P winters though I'd love to have tried it on the nobblies they use on the farm vehicles (they didn't have any laying about in a size I could use).

 

The car's display screen has a nice option that shows you what the wheels are doing, which is quite handy to tell which way the front wheels are pointing, which ones have traction and where the power is being diverted.

 

 

No damage, stuff learned, experience gained, fun had and most importantly no shameful tow out of a ditch so all in all a good day

Edited 29 December, 201510 yr by Huskoda

Excellent stuff!! My old 02 plate Forester put many a 'proper' 4x4 to shame back in the snow of 2009, what an awesome car 

Always had a soft spot for the forrester

Edited 29 December, 201510 yr by mac11irl

Best mate had a 2.0 xt turbo and was a hoot. Glad you had a good time having a go at something most 'off roaders' never get to see!

Subaru's have always been a very capable off road vehicle. Lots of farmers have old ones around the farm and they seem to keep on going, decent tyres makes a big difference to.

Looks like you had fun.