All four mudguards crumpled in, like boiled eggs struck with a spoon - that, to me, was real off-roading

Why own a four-wheel-drive vehicle if you never take it off the tarmac? The question was brought into focus recently by the first-ever 4x4 rally organised by the Forestry Commission, staged in Mortimer Forest, Shropshire.

The event, advertised as a "woodland safari", billed as "non-competitive" and spread over two days, attracted more than 200 entrants, each of whom paid pounds 20 to drive round an 18-mile course. One after another, glossy Range Rovers, Discoveries, Shoguns, Four-Traks, Mavericks, Fronteras and Taras poured up the hill out of Ludlow to the start line and set off at five- minute intervals, most of them so immaculate as to suggest that they had never been off-road in their lives.

The course was marvellously attractive: winding, climbing and falling through the forest, and soaring to 1,300ft on the summit of the hill known as High Vinnals. From there, and from many elevated stretches, the views were phenomenal.

Some of the circuit lay along rough muddy tracks, and there were one or two fairly sharp ups and downs. When drizzly rain set in, the sandy earth became greasy and three drivers had to be recovered from a slippery grass slope.

Nevertheless, I found the going a bit tame and kept thinking back to a time when, logging in the Chilterns, I slid my Land Rover sideways on a steep bank so that it became lodged against a beech tree, jamming the driver's door shut.

In search of rescue, I walked up to a field above, where a tractor was ploughing. The driver came straight down to my aid but, because we had no rope, all he could do was nudge my vehicle fore and aft with his huge tyres. By the time the Land Rover was free, all four mudguards had been crumpled in, like boiled eggs struck with the back of a teaspoon.

That, to me, was real off-roading. No such dramas took place at Ludlow - but then, the participants were not looking for action of that kind. "For most of these people, the Sainsbury's car-park is wild enough terrain," said Jerry Gissop, local forest manager and organiser of the event, as we purred round in a pounds 45,000 Range Rover loaned for the day by Shuker's, a local garage. "Even to go on grass is an adventure for a lot of them. So I've taken care not to make things too difficult."

No slouch himself, Mr Gissop is a demon mountain-biker. But from the gingerly crawl at which most drivers were proceeding, it looked as though his estimation of capabilities was about right.

The leisurely pace had its advantages, for it gave him time to expound some of his problems - in particular, his duty to offer the public entertainment in the forest, and to generate money for projects of conservation and improvement.

This rally was doing both: without causing any significant damage or disturbance, it was raising more than pounds 4,000, some of which will go to the planting of wild flowers along the verges of woodland rides, some to the creation of a footpath starting near Ludlow Castle in the town, and leading uphill into the edge of the forest so that walkers can avoid the main road.

In a time of tight budgets, Mr Gissop is pulled in all directions by conflicting pressures. "Look at those Douglas," he said as we passed a stand of mature firs. "There's pounds 100,000 right there. In economic terms, they ought to come down. Our marketing people are at me to fell them. But they look so beautiful I want to hang on to them as long as I can."

Back at base, his assessment of risk-levels seemed to have been spot- on. Almost all the drivers said they had had a wonderful time. One or two could have done with more mud and a few more difficult sections, but most were already inquiring about the chances of a similar event next year.

Off-road vehicles may well be status symbols, but clearly some drivers view them as horses and feel a need to exercise them in suitable surroundings. A contact in San Francisco reports that in America only 5 per cent of 4x4s are reckoned ever to go off-road, but a new craze is sweeping the West Coast.

This is for "road-lugeing" - supine riding of an oversized skateboard downhill, wearing heavy protective leathers and a wide-view helmet. Riders travel at up to 60mph and are sometimes booked for speeding by the cops. How about that for fundraising in the forest, Mr Gissop?