1982 Subaru Brat 4WD – For Sale

Stop the press! Somehow I have details of another 1982 Subaru Brat 4wD For sale. Go check that one out before you read my little rant about my rust bucket which I sold within a week of buying it.

I bought a Subaru Brat at auction without really realizing just how sought after these little 4WD vehicles are. It perhaps didn’t register until after the fact that I’d seen one in “My Name is Earl”, and not fully appreciated that they actually come with the two jump seats that you can attach to the pickup bed. I thought it was the show being funny, whereas in reality it was Subaru themselves that made the fun and funny Brat that way.

When I won the game at the Batmobile auction in Bastrop, I won a Subaru Brat. The economical 4WD pickup you’ve always wanted to own, but never dared buy.

I bought it fast and furious, assuming it to be a dentally continent gift-horse. Had I looked it in the mouth, I may have noted a distinct lack of radiator, and a few extraneous wires running from the place where the battery used to be. Part of me wants to give up on the extant engine and add a Hayabusa turbo engine. Goodbye Subaru Brat’s EA71 73HP motor, hello 150+HP Hayabusa engine.

My long-suffering pal Ori pointed out that I didn’t know how to put a motorbike engine into a car. True. Though I didn’t know how to take an Austin FX4 clutch apart until I had to.

So I took 15 minutes to ask the internet, and it appears to be simple. Buy a $4000 engine. Build some mounts and instrumentation. Connect. Turn key. Drive off.

I think I’ll spare myself the madness and sell the Brat as a project for someone else. Either that, or mount some batteries in the bed and make it electric…