When I first spotted this jacked-up Subaru from across the street, I thought it to be a genuine off-roader, as some Subarus are modified to be. But as I walked up to it, I began to wonder.
The “Battle Wagon” stencil on top of the windshield (which I failed to shoot properly) is what got me suspicious. It’s almost like it’s as much art car as it is a genuine off-roader.
An air intake snorkel at roof height? For fording six foot deep rivers? And an air scoop too? Maybe a valve to switch from one to the other, as needed? (Update: the hood scoop is presumably for an intercooler, if it has one) Or maybe all show?
And dual exhausts protruding through the bumper. Is that to gain clearance? Genuine or poseur? Or maybe just a mixture of the two, like so many off-roaders.
The snorkel starts where it should for a turboed boxer 4. The hood scoop is where it needs to be for the inter cooler. So that could be legit. I have a hard time seeing how you ‘d be able to ford any river deep enough to cover the windshield. I was dumb enough to drive my STI through some high water and survived. Turn around don’t drown. Do as I say not as I do. I know. But I also have 50 years of experience to draw on.
Forgot about the hood scoop being just for the intercooler.
Methinks the hood scoop is for show. The rear badging is missing the XT which would denote the turbo model. I know as my wife’s daily driver is an 05 XT. Sidenote..best sleeper ever 😉
It’s an ART CAR but I like it. Nominally more capable than stock. Now if Subaru had just kept diver selectable manual locks on the differentials like years ago, we’d have something here.
I know that “diver selectable” is a typo, but it actually works in this context…if that snorkel is used to its full potential, the driver truly becomes a diver!
The snorkel doesn’t seem excessively high to me, considering how high the front wheels might throw water.
A “battle wagon” Subaru? I see it as an ironic gag aimed at “Granola & Sandals” Subie owners. Note the assault-rifle sticker in the rear window.
Now if we lived in a part of the country with more inclement weather, we might consider a Subaru as a rational option despite my resolutely non-hippie worldview & dislike of boxer-engine noise.
We don’t buy cars to impress strangers, but the day we drove our new Prius home, we got a dirty look from a Real American in a pickup.
Could definitely be a combination of greater capability and a skewering of the granola set. It’s a little over the top, but no more so than many of the “Brodozer” Jeeps or “Rollin’ coal” HD pickups, and with a better sense of humor than either.
I don’t see myself as an Outback or Forester type, but I know quite a few people who own both who don’t fit in with the hippie crowd. I would very much, however, like one of the 2005-07 Legacy GT wagons if I could find one that wasn’t ragged out.
The blanked out rear quarter windows make it more of a Battle Sedan Delivery.
Wonder whether they’re steel panels or just painted glass?
I’m going with “real”. Google image search on Subaru Battlewagon and there are all kinds of Subarus well off the beaten path that look similar. It’s not just decor, everything seems functional at first glance except maybe the led bar on the hood. It’s lifted way beyond stock, the wheels are off an older model and smaller diameter with bigger sidewall tires than a stock Outback XT would have.
Subaru is/was the third most “off-roaded” brand for sale in the US per JD Power in 2013. Over 29% of Subarus are used off road – defined as non-paved, so even gravel trails count. Ram and Jeep are at 30% and 31% respectively across their entire brand. Noting that there are plenty of Subarus that are AWD but no higher than a Camry for example, the Outback model skews higher than the brand itself at over 34%. Among competitors to the Outback Jeep’s Grand Cherokee for comparison comes in at 21%. Everyone else that could be considered a competitor is even further back. (I assume a 2-door Wrangler and a Ram 4×4 pickup are not considered competitors to anything in the Subaru stable).
Yeah I’d agree it is “real”. Too much money on lifting it, real All-Terrain tires and several other things that appear more functional that decorative.
For sliding around on some gravel roads and doing some camping, this looks like a fun rig. At that point, youd WANT a gnarly look that when it will inevitable get scratched and banged up (those plastic bumpers are toast), itll add to the look rather than cause a blood pressure spike.
Personally, I don’t put much faith in the ‘off pavement durability’ of ANY fwd based CUV. Having owned Jeeps and 4×4 trucks, I know how sturdy and beefy those are and yet they take damage all the time form severe off pavement debauchery. That said, if any of them has the chops its Subaru. They’ve been doing the transaxle based awd thing for longer than anyone, and their chops on rally courses are proven. Still, when I see one of these things ‘lifted’, I also know that at those angles, CV joints become a consumable item…
Subaru uses longitudinal drivetrains, Flat 4/6 engines would be very tricky to mount transversely.
Correct. The drivetrain is still front biased, and its a transaxle since the transmission and front differential are integral. The Chrysler LH cars used an inline fwd layout as have many Audis.
Actually with the bigger lifts on Subarus the norm is to put a “body lift” on the front and drop brackets on the back to minimize the CV joint angle. Axle replacement at least on the front is considered regular maintenance on Subarus anyway so you are just shortening the interval.
Whoa, these Outbacks have depreciated enough to get turned into art cars/off roaders!? Neat looking car and if I lived outside the Portland Metro Area and/or did more rural driving I would look into getting more lights, but proabably nothing this intense. It is interesting the different demographics that buy Subarus since seeing a machine gun sticker on a Subaru is atypical and back in New York some Subarus wore NASCAR stickers while others wore more granola oriented stickers. Here is a Journey Crossroad with supposedly more offroad cred than usual Journeys including a chrome “bullbar.”
I would have to meet the owner to decide. I have seen many lifted Subies at the mud runs I’ve been to, and they are quite competent, although the real hard core ‘wheelers prefer the older ones with a low range transfer case.
It is not an assault rifle or machine gun. It is an AR-15 style semi automatic rifle.
How do you know it’s not a full-auto M-16? Can you discern the fire-selector switch?
Anyway, the distinction would hardly matter to any gun-control advocates following this car.
Thanks for pointing that out, no reason to trash the car’s owner over a perfectly legal firearm.
There’s actually a pretty significant Venn overlap between off-road vehicle and firearms enthusiasts (I’m one of them).
I might be more convinced if there were any actual dents or scratches from rocks and gravel. I don’t see any.
Back… from Thunder Dome.
+1
You beat me to the punch.
Looks like a rejected candidate for the movie.
I’d like to see the interior as well as see whether the electronic gizmos work ie the power windows that no doubt reside in this car. Maybe time was spent sealing all the holes and insulating the hordes of wiring that enables the computer to manage the whole lot (well as much as it managed in the first place), but I’m doubtful. Water entering the cowl vents at the windshield base would really stink up the HVAC; which reminds me, I would like to see the state of the ducts and vents for any sign of “river flow” dried sediment.
All in all I suspect the majority of visual mods is jewelry for the poser — that’s my vote.
As others have noted, there’s a non-trivial number of serious off-road Subaru owners. Especially in Australia, but even in the US. However this does look more arty or Su-bro than serious. By the way, snorkels are for more than just girding deep water. They help pull in cleaner air when traveling in a group on dusty roads.
Has the owner managed to chase up (perhaps import) a gearbox with a low ratio? It’s not very low in the outback gearboxes, but it helps. Lower ratio diffs would also help off-road, and better still if they were lockers or LSDs. Unfortunately these are nearly unobtainable.
It does look more like a sculpture than a usable car. Amusingly, I thought that paint was just a few layers of dirt, and it took a while to notice the repeating pattern.
Mine has low ratio, a serious (and slightly damaged) bash plate, lots of dents underneath, recovery gear in the back, standard tyres and wheels, and standard paint which is often dirty. Mine has no extra lights, no snorkel, no tricky roof rack, no extra air intakes and no bull bar. Mine gets used off road.
Mine also has a 2″ lift, which is very handy. (Somehow I forgot to mention this.) I still scrape it, though.
I was actually out there today, and drove down that very track, but on the easier bit near the camera. Had a very nice time. Some climbing but no photos. Methinks my fozzy thing may climb 26 to 28 degrees.