This is a Subaru Sambar. It's JDM. Literally! My buddy daily drives this thing. Not so sure it's legal but I totally have to get one. It has push button 4 wheel drive, has a rear mounted 660cc liquid cooled engine and does around 80mph. And its tiny!
lol at first i thought u meant u have 1 for sale that u toke a look at.. then i got it that u mean near ur area:laugh: feeling a lil slow today:ugh:
yah, there is a farm about 10 miles away from my house and they have like 8 of them for sale. All of them are white, and a few are showing off the dump box.
Yes. Yup, that's me. That's Jerry Kowitz (co-owner of Central Irrigation.) He can be reached at (320) 249-3674. He bought a container of seven trucks, sold a few, and last I heard from him, he's considering buying another container. I think he's looking for $4-5,000/ea. Colin
I was thinking about one a while back...But I heard that they are not allow on FWY/HWY There was a bunch of them FS in blaine at a construction yard I believe...$5k-$6k with 30k-40k miles on them range from 1996+
they cannot be titled in the US as a car, so are not technically street legal. they're typically registered as an ATV.....
^^^ What Chux said. As I understand it they have to be registered farm vehicle / offroad only. A collision in that thing would make you feel like a pedestrian who had taken on a semi. I had a van version (Sambar Dias II) in Japan and it was pretty hairy on the expressways. HOWEVER, it was a great vehicle and if American roads/traffic were different you couldn't beat it even with a radioactive stick. Oh, but ECVT sux. At least the 1991 version.
ECVT? No thanks. Mine's got a 5+1 manual and pushbutton 4x4. Since yours was a van, did it have the supercharged 660? Sure they can, you've just got to get creative. Colin
that is sweet. i cant believe it does 80. thats gotta be faster than my brat. and it has 1/3 the displacement. more on this subaru supercharger pls.
I'd like to turbo it... maybe with a GT25R or some little itsy-bitsy pretend DSM turbo, but then I'd have to convert it to EFI, build a header, have forged pistons made, etc, etc, etc... and that's a whole can of worms I'd rather not open. This is one vehicle with enough factory-supplied novelty that I don't feel the urge to modify it much. When it comes to the Merkur, on the other hand, I'm perfectly alright with going berserk. Colin
A few updates on the Sambar: I coated the floor with rubberized undercoat... ...and mounted some lights to the roof rack, which was robbed from my Previa, then shortened ~4 feet and narrowed ~6 inches. Fits pretty well. Colin
Love the 2 Person Lift Sticker! :biggrin: I dropped the front end of the Honda version of your Sambar (Acty maybe?) off a plank bridge and two of us got it out by one standing on the back corner that was in the air and the other pushing it backward! No, mine was not supercharged. It was weak sauce all the way. I think it had spent its professional life as a construction dude's vehicle. It had sliding doors on both sides and one row of seats that folded down to make a flat floor from the rear hatch to the back of the front seats. Used to throw 2 mountain bikes in both wheels on with no trouble at all. Coulda fit 4 bikes but only room for 2 people. It was perfect for a double/full size air mattress: slightly narrower so you had to inflate it in place and then there was about 6 inches of extra space between the hatch and the foot of the mattress. ECVT went out on our way to the first camping trip we had planned for it. Subaru didn't make the transmission for that one anymore so we paid about $100 to junk it rather than the $2,000 to fix it. Garage gave us a ride to the train station and we went home. If I knew then what I know now (which still ain't much) there woulda been other options. Dynapar, I don't know anything about the supercharger, but I will see if I can find out something.
A friend of mine rear-ended some geriatrics in a Buick on his YZF-600 and I came to his rescue in the Sambar. We managed to fit it in, but just BARELY... I guess the bent forks helped. He took a picture with his cell phone, but like most pictures taken in that manner, I'm sure I'll never receive a copy of the file. :roll: Colin
I know I'm resurrecting this thread from the grave, so bear with me. About a year ago (maybe more?) I majorly screwed up a valve adjustment on the Sambar and it ended up sucking a valve. I replaced the engine in the middle of summer, so I just put straight water in the cooling system, thinking I'd replace it later. Shortly thereafter, the registration lapsed so the truck was sitting around and being driven once in a great while. So... winter came, I forgot to replace the coolant. Coolant froze, but it didn't crack the block or anything. I fired it up and drove about 1/4 mile and the truck shut off... cranks over, no compression. Timing belt had been slipping across the water pump pulley, which was frozen in place, and the belt broke. It's a non-interference engine so there's no internal damage, but I decided to pull the engine and swap an EJ. Clutch was slipping anyway. :ugh: I picked up a 5-rib VW bus tranny - initially, I was looking for a Vanagon Syncro transaxle so I could retain the AWD, but they seem to be few and far between. I've got an '86 GL wagon with an EA82, which would propel a Sambar at decent speeds, but I decided to seek out an EJ after I priced the bellhousing adapters. I'm not going to blow $500 on an EA swap. :laugh: Just figured I'd give you guys a bit of an update on the truck. Engine and tranny are out and I'm finishing up some other projects (swapped Ruckus, etc) before I really dive into this. In a few weeks, I'm picking up a freebie EJ18 with a broken timing belt as a mockup engine. After the mounts are built and axles are made, I'll seek out an EJ20T or an N/A EJ22. The plan is to register it as a constructed vehicle. Wheelies guaranteed. :biggrin: I gave it some poser decals, too: :biggrin: Colin
I'm pretty sure an ej18 isnt an interference engine either, slap a belt on it, a free engine is a free engine.
Oh, cool. I'm not really sure if it's an EJ18 or an EJ22... it's in an early 90s Legacy wagon. I just looked at it for a few seconds - long enough to confirm that it was an EJ and that it was free for the taking. :biggrin: I'm getting it from St. Cloud tech college - they strip down four or five vehicles every school year in auto body, just to show the students how they come apart. The engine and subframe are typically removed as an assembly, so I should have everything I need to build some mounts. Colin
Nice. I'll have to dig in and see if it had any other problems beyond the timing belt. I just totally eviscerated the clutch in my Dodge, so this project is on hold for a while. That'll teach me to attempt to do burnouts with a dually... :ugh:
