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# Why the Outback Wilderness is Subaru's most fun car
- URL: https://torquecafe.com/car-reviews-2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari/
- Published: 2026-09-21T07:00:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T07:00:21.000Z
- Description: Subaru has a proud history of making fun cars. It turns out it's not over, it just looks... different.
- Author: Andrew van Leeuwen
- Tags: Reviews, Performance

When most performance car enthusiasts think fun Subarus they think about the WRX. More specifically, the STI versions of the Impreza WRX.  
  
But while the WRX is still the staple of Subaru's performance offering, it turns out the dream of fun SUVs – one started by the Forester GT back in the 1990s – isn't over.  
  
In fact, it could be that Subaru's most fun car available right now is the Outback Wilderness.  
  
The problem, for lack of a better term, is that it doesn't necessarily look like a fun car. Polarising is probably a more appropriate term when it comes to styling. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-8.jpg)

It doesn't always feel like a fun car, either. Not through any real fault of its own; nearly all modern mass-production cars are kind of boring if you're old enough to remember really having to drive cars.  
  
The Outback Wilderness is comfortable and quiet and holds the sealed road well. It's spacious. It's well-equipped. It looks and feels and acts exactly like a capable modern car and that's great.  
  
But none of that is necessarily fun.

So Subaru decided to take drastic measures to prove its fun credentials. And when Subaru wants to do something fun, it tends think rallying.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-5.jpg)

And that's how we ended up out on the closed stages of the Sunraysia Safari Rally learning things about that this boxy wagon that you just couldn't learn in any other environment.  
  
The Sunraysia Safari is effectively a sequel to the now-defunct Australasian Safari. Based in Wentworth Shire, not far from Mildura, it features more than 1200 kilometres of competitive stage running across four days.  
  
It runs through huge farming stations and the farmers help cut the paths with their own tractors and graders. And they aren't scared to make the course as tough as possible.  
  
The course is a mix of deep sand, mud, hard pack ground covered in grass and more traditional gravel roads following fence lines and power lines.

It's literally too tough for a traditional gravel rally car. Instead, those endeavouring to conquer the Safari arrive with purpose-built rally raid machines.  
  
Or, in our case, a fleet of unmodified, road-going Outback Wildernesses.  
  
So you can see how it was a risky play for Subaru. Particularly when a bunch of journalists with no rally raid experience are behind the wheel, on closed stages that aren't speed-limited, and encouraged to really put the Outback Wilderness to the test despite all of the trees and stumps and jumps and gates and water splashes.  
  
It was a risk that paid off.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-11.jpg)

The Outback Wilderness is a decent step up from its predecessor and standard version in a number of ways. The most instantly noticeable is engine performance.  
  
The car is powered by the 2.4-litre turbo boxer engine, tuned to produce 194kW of power and 382Nm of torque.  
  
That's the same engine as the WRX, with just 8kW less but 32Nm more.  
  
For added context, power wise, that's right in the vicinity of the ultimate Subaru hero car, an early 2000s WRX STI.  
  
Yes, it's a little dulled by the CVT transmission, but that can be switched into an eight-stage 'manual' mode with paddle shift to bring the fun back to life.  
  
Then there's the adaptive suspension... and it is unbelievably good. It's not a driver-led initiative, it's entirely intuitive.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-9.jpg)

We only tackled two of the Sunraysia Safari's stages, but it was immediately noticeable now capable the road-holding was. For context, we were at the tail end of the competitive bikes and cars field, so the roads were at their worst. But the suspension ate it alive.  
  
Even just moments into the first stage we came across a deep pothole, impossible to be noticed in real time. The kind that makes you tighten up in the fractions of a second between when you see it, and you hit it.  
  
And it barely upset the car at all.  
  
Next up, a hard left-hander with deeply rutted sand tracks, every bit as deep as running along the beach, but a heck of a lot sharper.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-1.jpg)

Again, no issue. Find the rut, the suspension adjusts to the depth, the 240mm of ground clearance came into play, and the sheer grunt helped the Outback Wilderness power out of the corner like, well, a rally car.  
  
Helping the whole situation was a new factory option, Pirelli all-terrain tyres. Again, these were the kind of stages that traditional rally tyres wouldn't hold up to, hence why even the factory-backed Maximum Motorsport squad, fielding competitive cars for Aussie rallying legend Dean Herridge (Crosstrek with STI running gear) and Dakar hero Toby Price (WRX, modified for a Safari rally), was running A/Ts.  
  
The factory option isn't the cheapest way to get A/Ts on your road-going Outback Wilderness, but you can tick it off in terms of convenience and performance.  
  
Another early impression in the stage was the surprising willingness for the car to drift. It was hard to feel it in the deeper sand and slower, more technical parts, but on the first harder-packed corner (admittedly with nothing to hit on the outside, hence why this mildly capable driver might have barrelled in a little quicker) the car leant into a nice oversteer.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-7.jpg)

That was also a lesson in how steering input does bring the stability control into life, even if the traction control is disabled. Subsequent efforts to emulate Colin McRae required work on alleviating the instinct to counter steer until very late in the corner to maximise the fun.  
  
Once you get a feel for it, though, there was the fun factor once again.  
  
The entire experience was confidence inspiring. To the point that Subaru made the wise choice of ensuring hard driving stints didn't go much beyond the 20-minute mark. 

Right about the time that another Aussie rallying legend Cody Crocker, our fearless leader on this risky endeavour, predicted was the crossover between spirited attack and a brand new Outback Wilderness being wrapped around a tree.  
  
It was a brave, but inspired, way to properly showcase the Outback Wilderness. An alpine cruise on sealed roads wouldn't have done the trick. You could easily dismiss this as just another capable, powerful modern car.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/b3/a9b3e204-3117-4792-9a32-46184029df44/content/images/2026/09/2026-subaru-outback-wilderness-sunraysia-safari-4.jpg)

Instead, we got to see its wildly fun side.  
  
The lessons was not to underestimate the Outback Wilderness. It may well be the most fun car Subaru has on the market, including the WRX.  
  
For the record, Price won the Sunraysia Safari to add to a remarkable list of rally raid achievements that includes two Dakar titles on two wheels, and nine Finke Desert Race wins (six on two wheels, three on four).  
  
Herridge finished second to make it a Subaru one-two, despite a very costly bird strike (see below).  
  
Still, despite the success, it's hard to imagine Toby and Dean had any more fun than we did, in perhaps the most deceptively fun off-road car on the market.

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Dean Herridge strikes a bird in his Subaru Crosstrek