when ppl inquire about having offroad fun and then shoot back that they don't want to risk their daily driver, wtf are you supposed to think? Well, basically you can have one or the other--pristine paint on your car, or a grin a mile wide--but probly not both.
OF COURSE it's fun to spank your suby sideways in the dirt. OF COURSE it's gonna get beat up a leetle. How much it gets beat up depends on several things...how fast you try to go during the learning curve, what events you do, and what you figure is "damage." You WILL get stone chips (my wag has em up past the door handles), and your front spoiler will get dinged up. If you drive with your brain engaged instead of your gonads, there shouldn't be anything worse than that. Maybe the tie rods get worn out faster, and your snows get chewed up playing in the dirt. "If you wanna play, you gotta pay."
So get over it it. These are replaceable parts. a suby is built for the dirt, so let the car play in its natural element. A Fozzie or Impreza or even an STI is not an irreplaceable art object like a Ferrari or Aston Martin. Ppl who play in the dirt soon learn to do their own work to replace the stuff they wear out. Not that big a deal. The more you play off pavement, the more maintenance you'll need, and this is a good thing to learn.
If you can't feature risking ANY damage to your dd, you probly won't have fun in the dirt. The key is to start out in manageable steps...a little rallycross or a time-speed-distance rally on dirt roads. Realize that you don't know what you are doing behind the wheel on dirt/snow--rally driving techniques are largely counter-intuitive, and until you learn the ropes, all you're likely to do while trying to drive fast on dirt roads is stuff your car in the ditch and you won't even know why.
go to a rallycross and ride along with some of the better drivers, you can learn a LOT this way.
ccasion14:
