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Whats the hardest and fastest your 1973-1979 went?


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I still miss my 1977 sedan.

 

I drove to Chicago and back in 1990 with it. First I drove from Portland Oregon to Bozeman MT, no biggie. Then I drove from Bozeman to Minneapoilis in about 16-17 hours straight (1000 miles almost to the dot). This was the fastest top speed and fastest average I ever did in this sedan. I hit 113 once (basically redline in the little 4-speed) and I did 400 miles in 4.5 hours. AND I GOT 36 MPG for one tank!.

 

Then I diddled about the midwest for a bit.

 

Then I left Chicago at 12 noon. Hit the east side of Nebraska at 2 in the morning. Slept for 4 hours in a truckstop, started it up and didnt stop (except for gas and food of course) until I hit Hermiston Oregon 21-23 hours later. Wooh, what a drive.

 

I miss that car.

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Back in the day... Orlando, Florida to Mass. Just over 24 hours.

 

'78 Brat with low topper. 2 - 10 year old girls and luggage containing clothes for 10 days for all of us in back, 2 adults in front. Sears X-cargo turtle on the cab roof... added to carry all the junk the kids bought home.

 

Same truck, 4 adults and a dishwasher, had to use 4WD to get rolling.

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I'm impressed... my first car was a 79 4wd wagon. My top speed was 93 alone on the highway and once it was 113 drafting a prelude on 78 outside of Allentown PA. I really miss that car.... if I find a pic I will post it sometime.

 

Matt

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Youthful years were terrorfying.:lol:

 

More recently,coming back from Carlisle my wife calls from her '96 Legacy to me in my '78 4WD wagon..."slow down,I'm doing 90 and loosing you".....

 

so,I'll guess it was around 100mph,at 26 years old.

 

HaRdEsT driving??? gotta be beating the living tar out of my first Brat as a "youthful offender".Best hunting vehicle for my money.

 

My GF Coupe was my favorite buzzbomb.I didn't care what the speedometer said it always felt like I was doing 90mph.:)

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lol Carfreak you havn't seen half of the insanity that reddevil has done lol

 

 

and Reddevil you remember my lil blue 76 wagon? it still runs but the tags are expired and the max I went in that thing is like 95ish

 

as a jumpstart in the memory dept.

 

courtesy of Travis Ogden of rallyrabbit.com

249DCP_3526-med.jpg

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Hardest driven was my first second gen a 77 BRAT, I picked it up for $50 and had top weld the pass door back on befor I could start driving it. I bought it to drive through the winter wile I did a EA82T swap on my 81 Wagon. I drove 80 mph everywhere I went. I never had a pass side window and the heater sucked. It had a high topper on it with a plywood back window. The rear shocks were so shot that you could slam on the brakes and the back end would come off the ground. After I got the wagon done I continued to drive the BRAT, but I torched out the wheel wells to clear 235/75/15 tires mounted on donut wheels bolted on backwards and I welded the rear diff. Shorty after that abuse I was fixing something in the shop one rainy night and as I went to leave I tried to slam the drivers side door closed and the window shattered all over me. So now I had no side windows, big holes in the floor and I couldn't open the doors anymore. I finnaly stoped driving it on the road and used it for a few mud bogs, including jumping it. After that it served as a dump truck around the shop for awile, untill I sold it to the cleaning kid to use as a feild bomber around his house. He eventually had carb problems with it and had it hauled to the crusher.

 

 

That BRAT was a testament to the durability of Subaru, even in it's delapitated rundown state it could still kick rump roast, and still get like 400miles to a tank of gas.:cool:

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This weekend was the test endurance run.

 

30 miles from Hartford, CT to Springfield, MA in a '98 Dodge Caravan (Dad driving).

 

100 miles from Springfield, MA to Troy, NY (me driving, '04 Outback Limited).

 

40 miles including getting lost, Troy, NY to Petersburgh, NY. Dad driving the OBW.

 

Mom and aunt drove the OB back home, Dad and I got in Skip's new '78 Brat and went from Petersburgh to New Alexandria, PA. (I drove the entire way, about 11 hours.)

 

Interesting side notes: Steering out of whack, needs tie rod ends, carb kept on flooding in town driving and with the clutch in so the car needed to be kept in gear and rolling at all times, or with the clutch all the way in, the service brake depressed (handbrake is the weakest I've ever seen on a Gen 1) and the gas in a quarter of the way, seats are...well, Brat seats, the car had previously not been run at all in over a month--and it had NEVER been on the highway. EVER.

 

Got it up to 75 in Albany (where everyone else was doing 90, easy). Lost the muffler bolts around Schoharie on I-88 and didn't stop to look at it or fix it. (It would've had to cool down for at least an hour anyway.) Loose connector in dash light switch made me look like a fool as soon as Skip got in it. No hood release cable on the inside of the car (it's sticking out of the hood). And to top it all off, the dipstick's underneath both the spare tire AND the A/C hoses.

 

Filled it three times: 32MPG/34MPG (new gas)/38MPG(stopped using lead additive). Each fillup was with premium.

 

Next weekend's my '73. Atlanta, here I come. :banana:

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  • 6 months later...

first subie 87 wagon great car was not tagged or insured yet just boought took home tested the 4wd parked it went too work (phone call) hour later matt ur call went half a mile doin 65 then hit a willow tree :banghead: needlist lil bro test drove before i did hes was ok but my lil 87:eek: :dead: yeah it sucked but he went home lol now got brat tac it 85 marshall to ashille 20min take about 1hour 30min

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heh, this last summer has to be the craziest for me. I drove from San Luis Obispo to The oregon Dunes west of Eugene. Had a couple days of 4wheelin action there. Drove it all the way up to Bellingham next. Dinked around there for a couple days, then caravanned with people to the show, 4wheeled the crap out of it there, then drove from there all the way back down to San Jose california on a bad wheel bearing, then replaced that and went home to San Luis Obispo. I dont remember what my total milage, but it was Solo..

 

Fastest I have ever gotten that brat was 85-90 ish

 

and then recently I got my 77 wagon up to 90 as well.

 

-Mike

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Off road to and from the base of Cerro Negro in Nicaragua, 1983 or so. Google that! Very tough roads, lots of silt and mud and volcanic debris. Busted the front wheel drive, made it back home with the rear wheel drive only, slowly and with a lot of clicking and clacking!

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'80 brat, Santa Fe to LA ~1000miles, pulling a 4' x 8' flat bed trailer. Trailer was loaded with ~600 lbs worth of furniture measuring 4' x 9' x 32" (looked like a pooltable on the trailer. Made the trip out in about 16hours, came back empty in around 12 hours.

 

Top speed in this Brat has been around 94mph, best gas mileage ever was 27 mpg, average is 22-24 mpg. Now that has been the best gas mileage in this '80 and also in my '78 Brat. I don't understand how some people are getting in the high 30's for gas mileage.

 

Klaus

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I drove my 1979 Subaru 4X4 wagon from Sequim Washington to Anchorage Alaska in 1995. Took right at 3 days. The trip was about 2100 miles. Averaged a little over 700 miles a day! That was in june. Some road work was being done and some roads were gravel. Only thing I used was two quarts of oil and gas. Did rock chip a headlight. Still have the car in Anchor Point, AK.

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