Category Archives: Off-Road

Still doing work even when the asphalt ends.

4WDing with Subaru

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This is a vintage Subaru instructional/promotional video from the same YouTube user who posted the “Getting Through” Vintage Toyota Offroad Instructional Video. What makes this interesting is that it comes from the era where Subaru first started offering cars with four wheel drive in order to provide a flexible vehicle that can drive on and off-road. This video shows off their 80’s Australian lineup and provides a guide to what the Subarus can do off-road. Keep in mind that the customers they were targeting were used to doing some pretty hardcore wheeling in trucks on the rough terrain and unpaved roads of the Outback. The video does a pretty good job of showing the benefits of a car based 4WD platform for on the tarmac, in snow and on high speed gravel roads while making very few compromises when doing true off-road driving. You could even say that this video is the essence of the Subaru brand.

 


Source: YouTube user 100bushy

The Gama Goat

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Stacey David did a bit on the Gama Goat as part of his show, Gearz on SPEED. The Gama Goat is a military transport vehicle that was built during the Vietnam war. It answered a demand for a vehicle capable of traversing rough terrain that was hanging up the classic Deuce and a Half 2.5 ton truck. The Gama Goat is a 6×6 with an articulating body, independent suspension and lockers on all three axles. Power is provided by a Detroit Diesel supercharged, 2-stroke, 3 cylinder engine. The body was made from aluminum which allowed the Gama Goat to float. Unfortunately, not too many were made due to high cost and complexity, but they definitely got the job done off-road.

Part 1: Introduction
 

Part 2: Details
 

Part 3: Driving It

Source: Stacey David’s Gearz on YouTube

Cheap Truck Challenge

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The guys from Hot Rod Magazine and Peterson’s 4 Wheel & Offroad got together to do a cheap truck challenge. The premise was simple: build the best all around off-road truck on a high school kid’s budget. They set the parameters of being able to spend $2000 on the truck and $2000 on modifications. The three teams ended up fielding an old Toyota truck with a Marlin Crawlers transfer case, a Ford Bronco and a huge Chevy Suburban. They drag raced them, hill climbed, jumped some sand dunes and some strange test where they taped a gallon of milk to the hood and ran a course trying to get the fastest time while spilling the least. Basically they got some beaters and flogged them as another tribute to the mentality of “You don’t need to spend a lot of money to have fun.”


Source: MotorTrend on YouTube

Icon 4×4 Builds Incredible Resto-Mods

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It makes me happy to know that a company like Icon can exist and be profitable. The core of their business is to take vintage 4×4’s like the FJ40 Landcruiser, Jeeps and Ford Broncos and turn them into usable drivers with modern running gear. They will scavenge vintage bodies and put them on a modern chassis with new suspension and a new crate engine. Icon have also started to use new aluminum reproduction bodies from Aqualu Industries. Autoblog just posted this mini-documentary on Icon’s latest Bronco project. The restored body sits on an Art Morrison frame with Dana axles and Ford’s new Coyote crate engine (the 5.0 V8 from the Mustang).


Source: Autoblog, Icon 4×4

Icon has also done a couple of awesome cars as part of their Derelict line. The same premise applies to these cars except for the bodies are purposefully left unrestored to show off the time earned patina. They then go back and get really creative with the interior textures and fabrics to make some truly remarkable works of art. At the time of this video, they had only done two cars like this: a Chrysler wagon with a DeSoto front end and a 55 Chevy. I like how the guy describes how the Derelicts engage people at the end. There’s a couple of bad words in this video.


Source: eGarage, Icon 4×4