Do it, Dad. Do it.
I dont know, Son. I just dont know.
Dad,come on! Put this bad-boyall-wheeldrive SUV into X-Mode.
Lets back up a moment. On the road south from Crescent Head is another, less inviting turn off. It heads to a beach where the wind and the waves were almost certain to be on the epic side of fully sick. With boards on the roof and thoughts of grandeur in our heads, we were on a surfing type safari.
But then, I had been down this road before (the surf safari and thisparticular road) in a less appropriate vehicle. To be fair, it was a wagon from the 60s, and things hadnt ended particularly well.
So now, faced with the exuberance of youth and a head full of future surfing memories I was pressed to re-enter the fray. Ill do it, said my son, swatting my hand away from the screen. And he did. Just like that. He pressed the X-Mode button.
Woo-hoo! We were off.
Im not sure what I thought would happen. Maybe thered be bells or whistles ora ring-a-ding-ding. A clown might jump down from the roof rails, a marching band could emerge from a pothole. But there was nothing, just a light thatindicatedX-Modewas activated.
To be fair, Id done the reading. At my heart, Im my fathers son and a car nerd so whilst I havent committed the entire 500 or so pages of the owners manual to memory, I was excited about X-Modefor it basically turns the Outback SUV into a beast that can go out back.
The Outback already has full timeSymmetricalAll-WheelDrive, but with X-Mode engaged, rough or treacherous or simply slippery conditions are sorted. The road ahead was no issue. The brakes, CVT and Symmetrical All-WheelDrive all work together to ensure that me and my son with the fresh mullet haircut are free to chase the bombs rolling in from the Pacific Ocean.
With nothing to fear, I was a little surprised to feel a few butterflies bashing into the walls of my guts.
What if the waves areactually asgood as he suspects? What if we canactually getto them without any genuine sense of worry?At 213mm, the ground clearance is excellent, this gnarly dirt road with potholes and mud and sand is no longer a reasonable excuse to hang back and talk up the old days when I was a charger.
Oh, God. I mightactually haveto try and surf, that would be a disaster.
So, with fingers crossed we went. The road was worse than I remembered, but more fun. It wasactually greatfun. We went deep, as the saying goes. And whilst the surf wasnt quite what we expected, the drive in and out more than made up for it.
Andrew Daddo
Subaru Ambassador
04 May 2021
