Can you drive the FF on a road like this?

I would like to take the FF up to the mountains, but the road up there is a somewhat rough gravel road. I am mostly worried about bending a rim or damaging a tire at anything other than extremely slow speeds. Does anybody have any experience with this sort of driving? Other cars I have taken up there have been fine at speeds of up to 60 MPH. There are the occasional section where you have to slow down in any car, where there are some stones poking up or some ruts/holes, but nothing too extreme.

http://www.shenandoahnaturalists.org/images/721_DSSRview_rdx.JPG

Here's a video someone posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_PT238hfRc

 

Can't see any issue except for if you have run flats, which from my experience on roads like this always pop.

 

Don't do it.

These interiors develop creaks fast.

Is it really that pleasurable listening to rocks hitting against the undercarriage and wheel wells?

Nature is best enjoyed without a machine.

 

absolutely no issue driving an FF on a road like the one in the video with the exception of possible rock chips in the paint. At speeds below 50mph you will have all 4 wheels providing traction.

Not sure I would want to drive my FF on that road but it's absolutely capable of doing so.

 

I don't see any problems for it there unless you were to get rain between starting and finishing, in which case mud could become a challenge that easily overwhelms any car with sport tires, 4 wheel drive or not. And you could be detailing dust out of spots for days.

Additionally, if you were to drive such a road frequently (and maybe not so frequently, but fast), the wheel well will become imprinted with the tire channel/groove pattern.

 

The drive up to that road is glorious. Wide open country back roads with lovely twists and turns. The top of the mountain is a bit of a highlight of the road trip but requires a few miles on roads like that to get to. And oh, yes, do the vehicles I take up there get dusty! This is what they look like after the trip.
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Haha. Awesome. I don't mind detailing the dirt and dust I can see, it's the stuff I can't that bothers me. Bet it is a fun drive. In the FF, put it in snow or wet setting and you can have quite a good time. I'm not a good enough of a driver to see what happens without that assistance. I'm sure it wouldn't go well.

 

Certainly capable no problem, but would it be fun to bang up all that way? I don't know.

Wheel wells are lined with a heavy felt like material that washes off easily enough. Stock wheel width won't don't throw a lot on the paint but could.

 

The wheel well issue I am referring to wouldn't be washed off with water as it is caused by the wear difference on the felt from varying amounts of material being thrown at it by the tire. The channels don't pick up and impact the felt the same way as the contact points. I don't have it on my FF as i've seen the slot car race tracks on my GL63's durable felt and as a result, don't tear around on the dirt roads in the same way. So, in the end, I guess I will grant the possibility the FF's felt is just more durable.

 

Bit of offroading by Harry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NCbj71GME

 

A definite +1. Use a Jeep or old Four-Runner -- something that does not have a unibody.

 

How does the unibody respond to steep driveway entrances taken at an angle would you guess?

 

You could always put mud flaps on it to reduce the rock damage.