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Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

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Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#21

Post by fragmede »

throwway120385 wrote: post #18
bluedino wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US. Not all trucks are 1/4 or 1/2 ton in the USA. There's things like the Honda Ridgeline, Hyundai Santa Cruze, and the Ford Maverick Subaru had the Baja for a little white but they only sold a couple thousand per year.

Wouldn't you need to flag a sheet of plywood in the back of a Maverick? My old '06 Canyon doesn't require that and it's actually a smaller truck than the Maverick.

you’d need to flag a sheet of 4x8 in quite a few of the full sized pickups after you get the extended crew cab which shrinks the bed and makes them more of an SUV than a truck. THeres a platonic ideal of a truck bed holding 2x4 and 4x8 sheets, but it’s more of an ideal sometimes.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#22

Post by AlexandrB »

bluedino wrote: post #16
stickfigure wrote: post #11

Can we just bring back the Brat? A compact 4wd pickup truck with a pair of jump seats in the bed. Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US.

> Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US. Not all trucks are 1/4 or 1/2 ton in the USA. There's things like the Honda Ridgeline, Hyundai Santa Cruze, and the Ford Maverick Subaru had the Baja for a little white but they only sold a couple thousand per year.

All of these trade bed space for seating space, and they're still larger than my stepdad's 1990s-era Sonoma. As a sibling comment pointed out, you can't carry 4x8 sheet goods easily in these.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#23

Post by everdrive »

bluedino wrote: post #16
stickfigure wrote: post #11

Can we just bring back the Brat? A compact 4wd pickup truck with a pair of jump seats in the bed. Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US.

> Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US. Not all trucks are 1/4 or 1/2 ton in the USA. There's things like the Honda Ridgeline, Hyundai Santa Cruze, and the Ford Maverick Subaru had the Baja for a little white but they only sold a couple thousand per year.

The Ridgeline and Maverick are actually quite large compared to a 90s Ranger. Yes, not everything needs to be as big as a modern half-ton, but everything has shifted towards huge.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#24

Post by AlexandrB »

fragmede wrote: post #21
throwway120385 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you need to flag a sheet of plywood in the back of a Maverick? My old '06 Canyon doesn't require that and it's actually a smaller truck than the Maverick.

you’d need to flag a sheet of 4x8 in quite a few of the full sized pickups after you get the extended crew cab which shrinks the bed and makes them more of an SUV than a truck. THeres a platonic ideal of a truck bed holding 2x4 and 4x8 sheets, but it’s more of an ideal sometimes.

The overall problem is that the ratio of vehicle size to carrying capacity has gotten way larger. Small 2-seater pickup trucks could comfortably carry this stuff in the 80s and 90s and were not that much bigger than a sedan. Modern trucks are enormous and can't even carry as much unless you choose options that make them even bigger.

Then compare this to something like a Kei truck and it's really quite pathetic.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#25

Post by pengaru »

bluedino wrote: post #16
stickfigure wrote: post #11

Can we just bring back the Brat? A compact 4wd pickup truck with a pair of jump seats in the bed. Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US.

> Pickup trucks are great, but they're only available in "behemoth" size in the US. Not all trucks are 1/4 or 1/2 ton in the USA. There's things like the Honda Ridgeline, Hyundai Santa Cruze, and the Ford Maverick Subaru had the Baja for a little white but they only sold a couple thousand per year.

Sure, but the OG Brat is a tiny truck by modern US standards. It's like the Miata of trucks.

Even my 01 Forester will look big parked next to the OG Brat. Despite looking diminutive next to most modern vehicles here in Cali... It's super annoying how big ~everything on the road has become.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#26

Post by jcgrillo »

SilverElfin wrote: post #2

Looks amazing. How does someone with no car tuning / mechanics skills get something like this premade?

Step 1: Get ~$250k+ in cash for the initial build.

Step 2: Start learning. If you don't know how to evaluate the work of your builder you may have a few false starts finding someone who can actually do it, which will cost you even more time and money.

Step 3: Learn some more. Owning a vehicle like this is a constant development effort. The work will never be "done" so unless you have a mechanic on retainer you will be working on it constantly.

In short, unless you have like a million dollars to spend on a toy and staff to keep it running you'll have to shoulder at least some of the effort.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#27

Post by yabones »

When cost and reliability is no concern, you can do truly crazy things...

> 2.0-liter boxer engine ... 670 horsepower and 680 lb-ft of torque

Those are V10 numbers coming from something the size you'd find in an econo-box.

Obviously unlike your Camry this thing is not going to do 300,000 KMs over its lifetime, and will be rebuilt frequently. This is the extreme end of the engineering tradeoff, and it's interesting to see what happens when the scale tips all the way over.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#28

Post by lan321 »

SilverElfin wrote: post #2

Looks amazing. How does someone with no car tuning / mechanics skills get something like this premade?

The best way with finite money is racecarsdirect or some other similar platform.

Cons are you're getting someone else's project.

Pros are they've already sunk stupid money into it.

You can get great cars on there if you have someone in the know to bounce deals off of.

The best way with infinite money is either some very high end small batch restomod or to even commission one of the large OEMesque motorsport shops to plan and build a one off. Smaller, specialized shops are also an option but the amount of people who're learning on customer vehicles is high and they'll be so hyped to get a large project they'll promise you the moon with entirely good intentions and then fail spectacularly.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#29

Post by VintageRobot »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #7
SilverElfin wrote: post #2

Looks amazing. How does someone with no car tuning / mechanics skills get something like this premade?

Honestly, just learn it like anything else. Understand the basic components of an internal combustion engine (block, crankshaft, rods, pistons, camshafts, cylinder heads, valves, intake and exhaust manifolds), the 4 cycles the engine goes through (intake, compression, power, and exhaust), how fuel delivery and ignition systems work. And then there are tons of resources on tuning and you can get the software for a lap…

It isn't that simple. I've been learning to work on my own car over the last few years. I'm not even doing anything crazy just fixing up an older vehicle and modernising some parts of it (mainly interior).

I had to fix the wiper system. The wiper system you would think it wouldn't matter much whether the parts are aftermarket or not. I was very wrong, parts that even look almost identical may not work properly, due to differences in tolerances.

There is also different revisions of particular parts and it will become obsolete. You can lose an afternoon on the internet just doing that.

Then there is the tools. I've spent about a small fortune on tools. I have 3 torque wrenches, 3 sets of sockets, 3 sets of spanners and loads of weird specialist tools like special pliers. There are many jobs I can't do myself because they needs specialist knowledge to do properly e.g. gearboxes.

You have to be prepared to spend potentially years on it and huge amount of money, even on relatively simple projects.

There is a reason that a lot of guys get into old 4x4 pickups and do those up, because they are a known quantity and parts are readily available.

Re: Gymkhana's 1978 Subaru Brat with 9,500-RPM Redline, Active Aero

#30

Post by commandar »

AlexandrB wrote: post #24
fragmede wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you’d need to flag a sheet of 4x8 in quite a few of the full sized pickups after you get the extended crew cab which shrinks the bed and makes them more of an SUV than a truck. THeres a platonic ideal of a truck bed holding 2x4 and 4x8 sheets, but it’s more of an ideal sometimes.

The overall problem is that the ratio of vehicle size to carrying capacity has gotten way larger. Small 2-seater pickup trucks could comfortably carry this stuff in the 80s and 90s and were not that much bigger than a sedan. Modern trucks are enormous and can't even carry as much unless you choose options that make them even bigger. Then compare this to something like a Kei truck and it's really quite pathetic.

>Then compare this to something like a Kei truck and it's really quite pathetic.

I will forever be sad that Canoo was wildly (possibly fraudulently) mismanaged and went bust before they ever built any of their planned pickup trucks:

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/canoo-pickup-tr...

They were going to be built on the same platform as their vans and the best way to describe them is "Kei truck upsized and uppowered enough to be safe on US roads." They had neat party tricks like a compact bed for daily driving that could expand out to fit full size ply and fold out workbenches on all four sides of the truck.

I'm not even a truck guy and I desperately wanted one of these things. Just such a cool concept.

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