By Club President, Rikki Close

I bought my first Subaru from Sunspares in 1989 before I knew about the Subaru 4WD Club. It was a 1976 wagon and came with bull bar and XA Falcon GT bonnet scoops, which are now in my green MY. Sunspares had put an another dash and front seats in it because there had been an electrical fire in it. Apart from that the car was stock.

A lot of rust was removed, I flared the guards, painted it Monza Red, blacked out the around the windows, changed the interior from brown to black and put some Sunraiser wheels on that I got from Sunspares. It took 18 months of hard work, and the finished car looked real good.

It had a 1600cc motor and a single range gearbox, and I did my first ever trip to Fraser Island in this car - that was a lot of fun.

It stayed like that until I sold it 2 years later after I rolled it late one night on a gravel road near home…. What a sad day that was.

My next car was of course a Subi. I found a nice red single range MY81 in Buderim for $1600 I think. Stock as with air, but not working.

That was in December 1990, I then found out about the Subi club and joined 6 months later. By then I had bought some 13” Sunraisers from Sunspares. Next to come was a dual range gearbox, a CB radio, then a 2” lift kit and some 14” wheels with M/S tyres. This was a great car and we went so many places together, I had so much fun in this car and learnt a lot about 4WDriving.  I had it on the road until November 1997, when it had so much rust in it that I still wonder how the seats did not fall through the floor.

I was working for PK at this time and he loaned me a Brumby until I got my project finished - the green MY82 wagon that I am driving now.

The Brumby was a “beast”. It had a 1.8 EA81 twin carby motor that loved to rev, had a 2½” exhaust and straight through muffler. It made a great sound, a bit like my car now. It had a 4” lift kit and 14” wheels, and was painted chrome yellow with a blue splash, just like Possum Bourne’s RS Liberty rally car. This was a fun car to drive on or off a 4WD track. You could not go anywhere without someone looking at you giving you the thumbs up. And you could not hide anywhere either. I drove it for about a year, I think. PK still has the car and it now is set up for off road racing.

The car I am driving now is an MY82 hybrid wagon, it has a lot of 84 parts on it like the ventilated front brakes, side mirrors, Brumby rear mud flaps, full 84 grey interior, Brumby dash and Touring Wagon rear blind. The door trims and hood lining have been retrimmed, and I made a centre roof console to hold the CB and map light. The front guards have been modified for bigger wheels and tyres, double shocks are fitted on the front, a rear diff breather and a bull bar have been fitted. On the back is a John Petersen Engineering (now Suba Xtreme) rear tyre carrier (the 4th one he ever built) and on the roof is a big roof rack fitted with driving lights and reverse light. The car is painted in 97 Nissan micra green, with a chequered flag design down the side.

I had the EA81 motor rebuilt with bigger pistons and a mild cam, put on a Webber carby and a 2½” exhaust. This car started out as a wreck. It had a head-on with a power pole and had to have the whole front end from the strut towers forward replaced. The car has done too many beach trips and jumped at to many gymkhanas and now needs to be replaced.

I started a new project in 2000; it was a 90 L Series wagon bare shell that had a big hit in the front. I replaced the suspension and steering in it, and then with help from Wayne Martin we cut the front off and put on a new front. It was left outside beside the shed until I had the front fully welded up. I had gone to Melbourne to see my sister and while I was away a gum tree in the back yard fell over across the car squashing the back half of the car.

The front was still OK so I just moved it behind the shed wondering what to do with it. A mate had an idea to make it into a ute. So I gave it to him, it is now in Nambour being built into a one-of-a-kind extra cab hybrid ute, with a Toyota turbo diesel motor in it. It has been lifted 27” so far, and has 15” wheels on it.  

So I went out and found a straight 85 L Series at Sunspares, and have cut out all the rust in it. The engine bay has been painted and the rest of the car is waiting to be painted. I hope to put an RX turbo motor in, and hope to have it finished by the end of the year, all being well.

That’s my life with Subarus to this point in time. And I have enjoyed every one of these cars, and as I sit here with a beer in my hand and I think to myself how much fun it’s been, I think I will always have a Subaru in the shed.

BE COOL AND GO HARD

Rik Close SC 328