The first and second generations of the F-150 Raptor were offered as a SuperCab as standard, a body style consisting of two properly-sized front doors and two smaller rear doors. Pixel artist Digimods DESIGN used this body style, as well as design cues from the first-gen Ford F-150 Raptor, to create a modern Subaru BRAT.
A very different animal from the BRAT we all know and love, this render is rocking bead-lock wheels mounted with all-terrain rubber boots. Black plastic wheel-arch cladding only adds to the visual drama, together with the black plastic at the truck’s front and rear ends.
Gifted with a Subaru-like front grille and matching headlights, the render is a little bit underwhelming in one particular aspect. More specifically, check out the diameter of the exhaust outlet. It’s a puny little thing for a vehicle this large and heavy, a body-on-frame pickup that would ideally pack a turbo’d V6 at the very least.
Offered between the 2017 and 2020 model years, the second-gen Raptor came with a twin-turbo sixer, much to the dismay of truck enthusiasts. Ford made amends with the current gen, which is available with the 5.2-liter supercharged V8 mill of the Mustang Shelby GT500.
Over at Subaru, the BRAT ran between 1978 and 1994 with four-cylinder lumps. Early models featured the EA71, a 1.6-liter boxer that cranks out 67 horsepower and 81 pound-feet (110 Nm) on full song. Later models received the EA81, which displaces 1.8 liters. It makes 73 horsepower and 94 pound-feet (127 Nm). With the addition of a turbocharged in 1983, output figures improved to 95 ponies and 123 pound-feet (167 Nm).
Designed in response to growing demand for compact pickups in the United States, the Japanese ute is joined at the hip to the Leone that was replaced by the Impreza in 1994. The Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter didn’t enjoy a long life in the U.S., where it was canned back in 1987 due to negligible sales. The best year for the BRAT amounted to 23,441 deliveries.
Even so, the long-running BRAT was different from anything else in the segment due to rear-facing seats in the bed, which were bolted there to avoid the 25-percent tariff on imported trucks. The hard plastic seats qualified the BRAT as a passenger vehicle rather than a pickup.
Subaru ultimately discontinued the BRAT for good in 1994. The Japanese automaker unveiled an Impreza-based concept truck by the name of Suiren in 1993, but nothing came out of it. The indirect successor to the BRAT launched for the 2003 model year as the Baja, one of the biggest commercial flops in Subaru’s history.
Subaru hoped to sell about 24k units per annum, yet sales totaled roughly 30,000 examples over a period of 4.5 years. Twinned with the Outback, the Baja is also notorious for rusting like crazy.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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