

I turned my daily drive Smart Fortwo into a machine capable of driving up and down a small waterfall. I turned a Ford Festiva into a discount side-by-side. I’ve wheeled a lot of different vehicles over the years, and a good mix of them started life as regular road vehicles.
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I slapped an orange flag onto the black Benz, hopped into the driver seat, then followed a Jeep down into the pits. Our plan with Ski-Klasse is to take on a Gambler 500 run later this month, so I figured Detroit 4Fest would be the perfect place to see how competent the car is in the dirt. To my eye, it looked just mild enough for Ski-Klasse to handle. A kid in an off-road go-kart looked to be having a great time and that HHR was putting down some serious times. Throughout the weekend, I watched various vehicles hit the dirt track just outside of the Off-Road 101 training area. A number of people commented about how cool it is that we turned a wagon into a race car while others just adored the car’s killer livery, bullbar, and enough Hella lights to challenge the Sun.ĭuring the training courses, I used Ski-Klasse as an example of how you don’t necessarily need a Jeep to have a ton of fun in dirt and snow. Despite not at all being a 4×4, the Ski-Klasse was incredibly popular at 4Fest. This car was built to slay snowcross and icecross courses with a possible future in dirt racing. At the same time, Ski-Klasse represented a different kind of motorsport. Ski-Klasse, with its snow tires and just a few inches of ground clearance, looked out of place. I saw one other two-wheel-drive car, and it was this freaky Jurassic Park-themed Chevy HHR. Even the few Subarus that showed up appeared to be lifted. The vast majority of the vehicles at 4Fest were some flavor of Jeep or Ford Bronco.Įverything that I could see was a four-wheel-drive jacked sky high. The car got constant looks, thumbs up, and more pictures than I could even count. Everyone going into the Holly Oaks park had to pass by Ski-Klasse before going off-road. To get to the Off-Road 101 area, you have to drive through Detroit 4Fest’s vendor area. Ski-Klasse was really out of its element out here, but that didn’t stop it from having the draw of a rockstar. When I wasn’t tagging along with the Off-Road 101 course drives, I was fooling around with the two cars I had on hand: a 2023 Ford Bronco Heritage and Ski-Klasse. It was awesome watching these people, including a lot of women, gain confidence and skill at the same time. We partnered up with 4Fest to provide the onsite Off-Road 101 course, where these people got their first taste of off-roading and their Jeeps and Broncos got to see dirt for the first time. There were a number of folks out there with Jeeps that had never gone off-road. Even better, Detroit 4Fest was for anyone at any experience level. 4Fest was also a place to check out the latest in off-roading gear, try out a new off-road vehicle, and meet some fun folks along the way. People brought their Jeeps, Fords, Toyotas, buggies, side-by-sides, and even some Subarus out there to get dirty in various situations. Holly Oaks is perfect for an event like Detroit 4Fest. There’s dirt, there’s a track, there’s plenty of water crossings, rock climbs trenches, tight forests, sand, mud, and just about any other off-road obstacle you can think of. Something excellent about Holly Oaks is that you can experience just about everything in one place.

The park has an excellent mix of easy trails and hardcore, technical stuff that will bite you hard if you don’t know what you’re doing. This was the place David sent a cheap and cheerful Tracker and where I sent my $1,700 Volkswagen Touareg on street tires and a worn lowered suspension. The host site of the event was Holly Oaks ORV park in Holly, Michigan, just outside Detroit. The event, which just completed its fifth year with record attendance, was a weekend party about all things off-roading. The venue for the destruction you’re about to read was Detroit 4Fest. To help make these goals a reality one day, Bill overbuilt the front end of Ski-Klasse and his clever work is why I was able to drive home in the car despite what you’re about to see.
