In 14th July 2003 i bought "The Subee" an MY04 Forester X poverty pack for at the time around $32000, a lot of money back then and still is today.
I had a dream of turning it into the best touring offroader i could, the decision to buy the Subaru came after months of looking at every 4x4 known to man and this car kept coming up tops.
I had my own web servers that were sitting idle after i gave away my music career and stripped all my music out of there, it was time to get back out in the bush, so i started a forum in the background and called it OFFROADSUBARUS.com, i was hoping no one had the name and to my luck i found it was vacant so i registered it as a domain and we were in business.
It was JUly when my car arrived, the 1st one sold in Melbourne of the newer SG, so i decided to tour it asap, below is my 1st trip away. I had visions on this trip of making this one of the best most informative sites on the net, combining my photography skills with my driving skills (an ex Army Driving Instructor) and my knowledge of the bush.
Little did i realize that to run and moderate the site, look for sponsors and be 100% hands on with the driving and touring and trips away, would 5years later take its toll on me, but thats a story for later.
Walhalla to Woods Point.
I wanted to see what this car would do in a Rally type situation and i flogged the butt off it when safe to do so. The Walhalla to Woods Point Rd can be a tough strip to punt on, so just the right one to test this stock straight out of the dealer Forester. It s wasnt until i started to lose traction on corners and was getting huge sideways drifts that i knew i had reached the limits of the car, but had i? no it wasnt until i found i had torn the shreds out of some tyres and puntured one that the 1st fault with the car raised its head, the tyres.
I have to add that not being used to AWD i hadnt realized i had blown a tyre and that
the car had actually saved me from crashing with the AWD allowing me to drift and
slide rather than lose control.
Walhalla
Walhalla Cemetery is on the side of a steep hill
On the Woods Point Rd, it gets very narrow and steep in parts.
Aberfeldy Bridge for a rest stop
Thompson Dam Catchment it would of been great to stop and smell the roses but i was moving too hard
On the way into Aberfeldy i had a big grin, i had just punted this road at speeds i would never normally dream of and had total control
Sliding and drifting, now i know why, i was wrapped the car took a blown tyre at speed on a gravel road in its stride
All out of spares and on inspection tyre number 2 is about to blow a sidewall.
Home and not quite hosed, we made it, time to do w rite up on the forum i haven't bought online yet and do some homework on what the car needs in the future.
Repairing the blown tyre and putting the wrecked sidewall tyre in as a spare i had to wait for an order on Yoko AT tyres, over size i knew they would be, but i had a trip planned with Beigewagon, the 1st member to join me ,and it was decided to do Dry Gully Track Baw Baw for some real offroading, so the OEM squealers would get a second outing, and i hoped the would hold up.
Next up Dry Gully Track
but my most memorable was my 11yo niece saying to me on a very wet day "Lets Rally Uncle Tony", when we got to the end of the Acheron Way her door was open and out went her lunch :rotfl:no more Rally for her after that.
:rotfl: