I read the thread about how capable the 'subes are off road and I am curious about what kind of 'wheelin' you are doing? Is it mostly crawling and slow stuff or are you guys doing some Baja/desert kind of stuff too? I am looking to get back into desert off roading but don't want to build a truck and I eventually want to take my son and nephew so a baja bug is out. it seems like a subie is a good low cost high fun way to go off roading, with three or four seats but i am curious if I would rip the thing apart on a (somewhat) hi speed run from Tecate down to Mikes Skyranch and back. Any one in the west coast looking to unload a mid 80s prebuilt car i could convert to a prerunner?

Most people who offroad subaru's trail ride an 80's era one, or rally a legacy/impreza one.

 

I would not reccomend taking an older 80's scoob offroad at highspeed, unless you plan to do a lot of reinforcing to it, and plan to stop frequently for repairs.

subaru? PRERUNNER? yeah, right... I dont know if it'd be tough enough, but I'd love to see someone manage to get 12+ inches of travel out of the front of one of these things.

Not without a lot of custom parts and $$$.

i've entertained this idea a million times.i've ran through a bunch of different scenarios for suspension front and rear.there is a way to do it i think.......but walker is right.lotsa bucks involved.a toyota IFS could be fitted to the front ,same with the rear .they sell kits to turn some of the 80's model toys into prerunner type vehicles.but that alone could kill the bank with the proper accessories,ie. shocks,tires and whatnot.beside the fact that you would have to find a completely, and i mean completely rust free car and strip the paint and seam sealer,seam weld it like they do rally cars and then build a full cage for it.you might as well make a 4 seater sand rail and use a sube drivetrain.

wait, wait.. How fast are we talking? Is this going to be a race or just out for some fun?

 

If you're just looking for a good beater vehicle to fly around on rough roads with, a late 80's subie with a D/R 5spd might be a good car. If you get some adjustable struts from a 1985 or 6 car, springs from an RX for stiffness, and new bumpstops for the front and rear, it might be a cheap thrill. I'd look into at least a hoop style roll bar inside, these cars do fairly well in rollovers, but still, can't be too safe. Strip out as much weight as possible though, remove A/C componants, rear trim and insulation, carpets and such. If you picked up a 3-door, you could remove the rear hatch and put a pickup style rollbar in the back. removing the hatch drops a lot of weight too.

 

don't do too much jumping with the car. 2' max air if you want to keep the damage down. The stuts can end up bending or ripping through the wheelwell in the back if you are too abusive. You might want to put a crossbar in the back between the 2 wheelwells.

I've crawled and rallied my '80 wagon. Depends on what I'm driving through. Hatchy rallied his bone stock '86 hatch(45 sideways is FUN!!!), and tore up a 'crawl' hill. Bashed the control arm. Old school Subarus are built to drive like hell:headbang: but things will break. And things get fixed or replaced to break more things.

Thanx guys, I was thinking more along the lines of tearing down Mexican roads, but not full race speed. I have friends who can fabricate so I can fer shure get a cage built. I like the idea of building a subie powered buggy though, that would be pretty trick, maybe find a chassis pre built and drop the motor in w/ the KED adapter to a bus trans. It sure would be cool to be the only guy wheelin down in mexico with a wagon all tricked out though.

My bro in San Diego has an EJ powered sandrail.