Well I went for it- this car which was pulled from a field and not really running, just carried me from Austin Texas to Poughkeepsie, NY.  This after only running about a half tank of gas through it around austin!

 

The car ran great, even climbed the mountains with no issue, never warmed up at all.  It runs terrible when its cool outside because of my single barrel carter carb with totally siezed up idle/mix feedback circuitry, but once on the highway it was fine.  I did have a wheel shake between 60-70mph, which is still a mystery to me considering everything is new, but I'm changing the last non-new parts up here to fix it- struts, and ordered an EMPI axle to test if its perhaps a defective oreilly axle.  I also ordered sway bar bushings and strut rod bushings as well as new strut bearing kits- that makes the front end of this car newer than my 2013 fiat.  

 

The brat has earned my trust, with help from usmb members!

 

Camping at walmart:

 

 

awesome story! glad to hear some one is still really driving these things!

Hah your brat looks just like mine when I went across the US

 

nice one!,

 

I towed a boat back and loaded the car on the way back.  It did ok, but I had to do 35mph up all the mountains between New York and Austin, and there are alot!

 

check out mine on the way back:

 

 

Sadly some idiot sideswiped my boat 10 miles from home :-( at least I was able to get the car out of her way. 

Damn! Sorry to hear that. You definitely got me beat on that pack though

Great story ! Except for the catamaran ! Glad to see vintage stuff in the northeast. Hope we get to meet sometime. We did a vintage small vehicle 4wd meet and trail run up near Albany a couple years ago.

 

Enjoy !!

Great story ! Except for the catamaran ! Glad to see vintage stuff in the northeast. Hope we get to meet sometime. We did a vintage small vehicle 4wd meet and trail run up near Albany a couple years ago.

 

Enjoy !!

 

I'm actually down in Texas, but I grew up in NY on the CT border.  My father had a car dealership and had TONS of these things, and over the years, they have completely disappeared.  On the whole road trip, the time driving it around in new england up to VT, and around down here in Texas I have yet to see another one.  I think all the brats left in the US are on this forum!