A direct crystallographic orientation comparison between a parent and product phase of a microalloyed low carbon steel during the diffusion controlled alpha --> gamma transformation was investigated by use of EBSD in a field emission gun SEM. After a recrystallizationanneal an orientation mapping was carried out on a marked area both in the ferritic and after the phase transformation at 920degreesC in the austenitic state. In order to stabilize the austenitic phase at ambient temperature, Ni-atoms by wrapping the sample in an austenitic stainless steel foil were enabled to diffuse into the specimen surface during phase transformation treatment. Through improved experimental methods and new analytical equipment, it is possible to identify a large number of transformed grains and them to get a better statistical reliability of the stabilised austenite orientation. The experimental results were compared with the orientation relationship predicted by the Bain, Kurdjumov-Sachs and Nishiyama-Wassermann model. It is also possible to observe variant selection, namely the lack of the {110}<110> orientation in the transformation texture, which mostly arises from {111}<112> and {554}<225> orientations in ferrite texture. At the early stages of phase transformation {110}<112> and {110}<110> oriented grains were developed directly adjacent to {111}<112> and {554}<225> grains in the ferrite phase. In this case always the same variant {110}<110> was selected. This observation serves to understand the variant selection in diffusion controlled phase transformations.