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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

#51

Post by Reubachi »

sandworm101 wrote: post #36
bob1029 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you would be planning to keep it at a race track, you would not want to own a car like this. It would almost certainly be miserable to drive at legal speeds. That 2.0L engine isn't going to make any useful power below 5-6k RPM. Keeping a turbo like that spooled for any meaningful duration is guaranteed to get you pulled over by the police.

It is more than the speed potential. This thing is very likely not capable of running pump gas, and has to be running very rich. The cost per mile, just in fuel, would be insane. Also, good luck passing any sort of emissions controls for road use.

this vehicle has no interior to speak of, and no lighting to see at night (inside or out)

It has no cats, no EGR system, sequential trans etc etc.

To original OP of this question, this is closer to a racing speedboat than a race car. More expensive to own than a yacht assuming you want to run it

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

#53

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

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.

Yeah, but they were 2-seater trucks. Very few people want that these days.

Our truck carries stuff a lot. Bags of feed, bales of hay, etc. But unless you want to stack it unreasonably high, 10 bales is about the limit. For big loads, it has to haul a trailer. If it were only a 2-seater, with a bigger bed, it could carry more, but that would mean that all we wouldn't be able to carry all the stuff that's typically in the back seats for safety or protection from the elements.

Like everything, it's a tradeoff.

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

#54

Post by driverdan »

yabones wrote: post #27

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…

People have been building 700hp WRXes (2L boxer) for decades.

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

#55

Post by redwall_hp »

sandworm101 wrote: post #32
yabones wrote: post #27

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…

2 liters is hardly econobox, even without a turbo. A new honda civic sedan is 1.3 liters (NA). 2.0 is more typical for sedans imho. The 2.0 turbo in this biuld originally turned 250+ hp (wrx) which is well beyond econo anything.

That was a big thing with Japanese sports cars in general: proving more cylinders was a dead end and just extra weight. Pretty much all of the big JDM classics of the 90s and 2000s are 4-cyl (aside from Mazda's rotary engine cars) putting down 200-300hp range with favorable power/weight.

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

#56

Post by ge96 »

not a fan of the design but for rally I like the stratos or a Focus hatchback/Volkswagen style

active aero seems silly on a truck-design but ehh

regarding cars I did enjoy this video (comparing C8, GT3, GTD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw7tDXLyLVo

admittedly not much of a track guy currently

personally I drive a 2 liter 4 banger as well with a turbo, fastest I've gone so far is 150mph, next car I'm trying to get is a supercharged Lotus Exige in orange

I know if you want speed it's cheap with a Corvette C6

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

#57

Post by giobox »

redwall_hp wrote: post #55
sandworm101 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 liters is hardly econobox, even without a turbo. A new honda civic sedan is 1.3 liters (NA). 2.0 is more typical for sedans imho. The 2.0 turbo in this biuld originally turned 250+ hp (wrx) which is well beyond econo anything.

That was a big thing with Japanese sports cars in general: proving more cylinders was a dead end and just extra weight. Pretty much all of the big JDM classics of the 90s and 2000s are 4-cyl (aside from Mazda's rotary engine cars) putting down 200-300hp range with favorable power/weight.

Sure, if you completely disregard the legendary straight sixes from Toyota and Nissan (RB, JZ...). I agree 4 bangers are huge historically in JDM sports cars, but so too is the straight six - the classic Z cars, Supras, GT-Rs...

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

#58

Post by ljf »

commandar wrote: post #30
AlexandrB wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thset is really sad - I'd seen a review of an early model on YouTube and it seemed like a brilliant idea - really hope someone else can make something similar work.

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

#59

Post by acejam »

VintageRobot wrote: post #31
SilverElfin wrote: post #2

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

You can't, unless you a Saudi billionaire. These things are completely custom, are hugely expensive (why they have sponsors all over them) and often they will have work lined up for literally years. You also wouldn't want one. They cannot be driven on the road really as they aren't legal. They will also break a lot. Generally the more tuned a car is the more maintenance it needs. If you are interested in cars, you ar…

While I agree with your comment about learning more by doing the work yourself, you don't need to be a billionaire to acquire one of these. Yes, they are expensive. A typical pro-level WRC spec WRX STI rally car from Vermont SportsCar goes for about $600k. They are actually very reliable though. And thats a bargain compared to just about any modern hypercar.

Rally cars also must be street legal because they are driven on public roads between stages.

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

#60

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

redwall_hp wrote: post #55
sandworm101 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 liters is hardly econobox, even without a turbo. A new honda civic sedan is 1.3 liters (NA). 2.0 is more typical for sedans imho. The 2.0 turbo in this biuld originally turned 250+ hp (wrx) which is well beyond econo anything.

That was a big thing with Japanese sports cars in general: proving more cylinders was a dead end and just extra weight. Pretty much all of the big JDM classics of the 90s and 2000s are 4-cyl (aside from Mazda's rotary engine cars) putting down 200-300hp range with favorable power/weight.

I can't think of any from the 90s that weren't 6 cylinders. Nissan 300Z, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Honda/Acura NSX, Toyota Supra, and Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 were all 6 cylinders.

The only exceptions I can think of are the Subaru Impreza WRX/STI, and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

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