If you think you need fancy dual-reservoir shocks this or thousand dollar skidplate that to have fun off-road, just watch this Honda Element conquer the Cleghorn Ridge Trail.

This Southern California-based Honda Element owners club held their annual trip to the Cleghorn Ridge Trail earlier this weekend (Mar. 18, 2019) and left with one of the most badass moments in Honda Element history, Element Owner @PartsBeen took his five-speed Element down a particularly sketchy descent section and it’s all on video. Check out this absolute boss with a unibody Honda below.

Badass Honda Element owner conquers this Cleghorn Ridge Trail descent.

Shared with permission via (at)blackbox_e on Instagram pic.twitter.com/rapRDcTAQ5

— Paulo nonVTEC Acoba (@ferio_252) March 19, 2019

 

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@partsbeen making it look easy #cleghorn #awd . . . . . . #elementsociety #hondaelement #saveanelement #socalhonda #hondaelementownersclub #hondaelementlife #hondaelementclub #hondaelementsc #hondaelementowner #hondaelementcamping #k24 #honda #hondaelementcamper #kseries #hondalove #elemental

A post shared by element.society_jr (@element.society_jr) on Mar 17, 2019 at 8:07pm PDT

The Cleghorn Trail is a roughly 15-mile off-road technical dirt trail in San Bernadino, Calif. While the main trail, which is what these Element owners took, is quite scenic and not too difficult, there are offshoots and side-trails that require a serious AWD setup, something that would behoove even the brawniest Honda Element setup to sit out.

That being said it looks like a handful of Element owners and even a couple of CR-V’s that tagged along, decided to take on a few of the harder bits of the trail as seen above.

Reading through some of the comments, it looks like this is a lightly modded Element at best. In reply to someone asking about his setup, his Element is

“Lifted 1.5-inch strut spacer front. 2” in the rear using 2nd Gen CR-V Bilstein shocks and 10mm strut spacer.

The Honda Element was mostly sold in its Front-wheel drive only variant while a handful optioned out for Honda’s Real-Time AWD system which added a couple pounds but gave the Element the ability to send power to the rear wheels if slip is detected which, at the very least, is necessary for off-roading like this. With just 160 HP and 160 lb-ft at a relatively low 4,300 RPM, you’d also better get the optional five-speed, which this Element owner has.

I’m sure a bog-standard Jeep could take on these segments, no sweat, but does your standard Jeep owner have the proverbial balls like this Honda Element owner does? Maybe.

Do you own an Element or know someone who does? What do you think about people who take their Elements off the beaten path? Let me know in the comments below!

Source: @BlackBox_E