Home » If There Was A Luxury Subaru BRAT, It’d Be This Thing

If There Was A Luxury Subaru BRAT, It’d Be This Thing

Cs Rumble Top 1
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If there’s one thing I’m always a sucker for, it’s a grand idea that’s simultaneously a terrible idea. Especially if its carefully executed, like this one is. What you see up there is a 1979 Toyota pickup truck outfitted with a Chastain Rumble Rider package. I have no idea who the target market for this thing would have been.

I mean, other than that very relaxed-looking blonde lady in there.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

The Chastain Rumble Rider package seems to have consisted of those rear window louvers, fender flares, running boards, a rear bumper that incorporated internal storage (for I suppose non-fragile stuff), and, most significantly, those languidly reclined in-bed seats:

Cs Rumble 1

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of a luxurious version of those in-bed seats the Subaru BRAT has in its bed to get around the Chicken Tax:

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Brat Old 7 19

The Chastain in-bed setup, with its butter-cream-colored upholstery, lounge-like seats, and long, wood-inlaid side armrest consoles. It sort of reminds me of a motorboat interior?

I just wonder about the size of the intersection between the sort of people who desire such luxurious accommodations and the sort of people who are just fine riding in the bed of a pickup truck. I don’t suspect that the intersection of this hypothetical Venn diagram contains all that many people.

But for those that do exist, I really can’t think of anything better. Laying back in one of those seats, a nice glass of Woodford Reserve, all while bouncing down a dusty gravel road somewhere. Enjoying heady lungfuls of exhaust as you ramble down the road, your drink sloshing all over your hand and pants! What could be better?

I think a most people think lots of things could be better, so hardly any of these Chastain kits were sold, but there were a lot of models of this thing sold:

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Cs Rumble Model 1

The model kits seem to have some more exciting elements, like that fairing between the cab (they call it a “quarterback” roof) and bed, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same deal we see up there with the fancy lady.

Cs Rumble Model 2

I’m pretty sure the number of model kits of these trucks vastly outsold the real-truck kits, unsurprisingly. I wonder if there’s any way to make something like this work in context of modern safety standards? Maybe not?

Be fun to try, though!

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Baltimore Paul
Baltimore Paul
1 hour ago

If I had just seen this ad online, I would’ve immediately assumed Photoshop/AI special. But since torch has an endless supply of old magazines, I think it might be real.

JunkCarJunky
JunkCarJunky
15 hours ago

Nice! Does that blonde “come” w/ toys…oh, I mean Toyota? We could have a “truck load of fun” in that “long”bed. “So roll w/ it” Yes, please

Grippy Caballeros
Grippy Caballeros
16 hours ago

Any front-end collision would ginsu the pretty lady’s head into distinct slabs of Spam as they pass through those louvers, Play-doh style..

Last edited 16 hours ago by Grippy Caballeros
Widgetsltd
Widgetsltd
18 hours ago

That looks like my wife, Morgan Fairchild! Yeah, that’s the ticket!

MST3Karr
MST3Karr
19 hours ago

You know what this would be great for? Drive-in theaters.

Dodsworth
Dodsworth
20 hours ago

That poor woman. Look what the wind did to her hair!

AlterId has reverted to their original pseud
AlterId has reverted to their original pseud
21 hours ago

Wow! High lux, indeed!

Hangover Grenade
Hangover Grenade
22 hours ago

As a Gen-X kid, I remember riding in the back of a pickup truck on public roads. No seats, just sittin’ there. And we were a very suburban family, not some cowboys or anything.

Vee
Vee
23 hours ago

If the seats are removable this is actually a really nice idea. I could see this being used for sporting events where you don’t want to bring a bunch of lawn furniture that won’t be very comfortable. That or a beach/resort vehicle where people who are wet that need to be moved but you don’t want on the cloth seats can sit and dry in the sun in the meantime. Aaaaaand now I’m sad thinking about how people used to have enough disposable income to afford things like this instead of needing something that could do everything because they can’t afford a second car or the storage space needed for accessories.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
1 day ago

Assuming those seats are waterproof, they would probably be good for a hot tub car.

XLEJim700
XLEJim700
1 day ago

I think I’ve already written about my ’72 Dodge Power Wagon, and the black bucket seats (’67 GTO) I had set in the bed.

They were just tucked in loose behind the cab, so a spirited beer run had the two guys in the back looking like Weebels on a hard turn.

I don’t know why I was never pulled over, but didn’t even draw a hard look from “The Fuzz.”

Oh wait, I know why: 1974, that’s why.

Dr.Xyster
Dr.Xyster
1 day ago

I think I would love the idea of the “Toolbox Rear Bumper” right up until I got rear-ended and 10mm sockets shoot out like shrapnel from a grenade.

TXJeepGuy
TXJeepGuy
1 day ago
Reply to  Dr.Xyster

worst way to lose your 10mms

Ash78
Ash78
23 hours ago
Reply to  Dr.Xyster

Cops are like “Found the thief!!”

AnscoflexII
AnscoflexII
20 hours ago
Reply to  Dr.Xyster

Friend of mine has an old box truck he got at a government auction (he’s converting it into a food truck) that has toolbox bumpers. He thought they were a great idea till he finally managed to open one up. They had long stopped being waterproof, and he found that they were mostly just full of moldy paper and the unidentifiable rusty lumps of some tools.

4jim
4jim
1 day ago

Are modern pickup truck beds even long enough or anything like this?

Hotdoughnutsnow
Hotdoughnutsnow
1 day ago

I can smell that ad just by looking at it. Smells like cologne samples in a fresh out of the wrapper Playboy magazine.

Uncle Cholmondeley
Uncle Cholmondeley
23 hours ago

Made me laugh! But I suspect the “Dept. CD-3” indicates this was the third ad Chastain ran in Car & Driver (or is there another “CD” magazine with car ads?).

AlterId has reverted to their original pseud
AlterId has reverted to their original pseud
22 hours ago

…is there another “CD” magazine with car ads?

There was the magazine that fueled the ’70s – Cocaine & Dewars, published weekly until the drugs ‘n’ drinkin’ moral panics of the Reagan era kicked into high gear

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 day ago

Perfect accessory to fully enjoy the new Riviera.

Chronometric
Chronometric
1 day ago
Reply to  Hoonicus

Luxury technicals are sure to be all the rage in the New Riviera.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 day ago
Reply to  Chronometric

Thousands of years fighting merely for the lack of comfy chairs.

Chronometric
Chronometric
1 day ago
Reply to  Hoonicus

An astute understanding of the situation. Do you work at USAID?

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 day ago
Reply to  Chronometric

Humor to cope with a world gone MAD. What, Me Worry?

Ash78
Ash78
23 hours ago
Reply to  Hoonicus

Wasn’t that the Ottoman Empire?

(not only was that borrowed from Seinfeld but it’s oddly geographically- and semi-culturally accurate…)

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
23 hours ago
Reply to  Ash78

I strive to be semi-cultured.

Ash78
Ash78
1 day ago
Reply to  Hoonicus

New Riviera: It’s that 50-Cal state of mind.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 day ago
Reply to  Ash78

“state of mind” is beyond reproach.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
1 day ago
Reply to  Hoonicus

After you enrich yourself as supreme leader.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 day ago

Surround yourself with praising Yes men, end up Fool Monty.

Ash78
Ash78
1 day ago

OK, I’mma let you finish, and I’ll hold off on the motorboating innuendo for a bit, but was there some point in time where “Chastain” was a household name outside of an underappreciated actress or HOF women’s soccer star?

I’d like to considered myself a Cultured Man, but I’m not “rear window louvers and truckbed couch” levels of cultured.

Xt6wagon
Xt6wagon
1 day ago

Had the luxury version of a brat. Had to rewire the door speakers because the front channel of a aftermarket headunit hated 3 speakers on it. It really hated the front brush guard and was happy that it lost wieght when the garage wall had it. Ricers wet dream when the muffler fell off from rust. Barely had a working carb, it just peed gas where it was metered by the lake of gas in the intake manifold. Really liked when running warm as the hp was temp dependent.

Though the keyless entry was useful when I locked the only keys in it.

Xt6wagon
Xt6wagon
1 day ago
Reply to  Xt6wagon

BTW 1985 was notable for having all the options on brats. So think more like peak luxury that subaru had then, not the bare minimum “farmers friend” subaru was known for

Aaronaut
Aaronaut
1 day ago

The best COLD START graphic yet!

Fuzzyweis
Fuzzyweis
1 day ago
Reply to  Aaronaut

Good catch, no pressure on Torch but I’m starting to expect a new graphic every day, as part of a series…

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
1 day ago

Now are we doing “cool but within normal operating range start”? I think not.
Peg that needle left dangit.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
1 day ago

Or you could just say it’s somewhere hot like Phoenix or Death Valley. For several years a couple decades ago I lived in an especially hot part of California where summertime temps could hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I DD’d a 1969 VW bus which I still have (sans air conditioning, ha, but fortunately it’s indeed true what they say about it being the humidity and not the heat so those high but arid temps weren’t as bad as the less hot but far more humid summers where I live now) and I installed an oil temperature gauge where the calibration started at 100 degrees F. It was always amusing to start the bus up for the first time late in the day and have the oil temperature gauge’s needle immediately move to ambient temperature whenever it was over 100 degrees even before the engine had turned over.

Amberturnsignalsarebetter
Amberturnsignalsarebetter
1 day ago

Not wanting to make your life more complicated (but proposing to do so anyway), how about the oil temp needle reflects how early/late you manage to get the Cold Start article together?

Some days it might be an absolute stinker of a frigid start, others more lukewarm…

Parsko
Parsko
1 day ago

The SHADOW Louver is going to be great in front end collisions. /s

MaximillianMeen
MaximillianMeen
1 day ago
Reply to  Parsko

For some reason, ELP’s “Brain Salad Surgery” comes to mind…

Parsko
Parsko
1 day ago

PROG ROCK ftw!!!!

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
6 hours ago
Reply to  Parsko

Did you know Steppenwolf dipped briefly into prog rock?
For Ladies Only was the album. Maybe not their best, but an interesting snapshot of the times in between Uriah Heep and King Crimson songs.

Twobox Designgineer
Twobox Designgineer
1 day ago

RIP Keith. And Greg.

Last edited 1 day ago by Twobox Designgineer
Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
1 day ago

I could see a contemporary version of this for the Cybertruck. Can’t you just picture the Nookie Monster himself, Link Wray cranking on the stereo, interrupted by Mr. Microphone bursts of “Hey good lookin’ I’ll be back to knock you up later!”

Fuzzyweis
Fuzzyweis
1 day ago

That’s some pimp my ride, put an aquarium in the back of a Honda Accord, level customizing right there, but with a warranty! I approve!

Flyingstitch
Flyingstitch
1 day ago

I’m seeing this parked along Fraternity Row on some warm, sunny campus on game day, ready to head out to the stadium and show off before all the plebeian tailgaters.

MaximillianMeen
MaximillianMeen
1 day ago
Reply to  Flyingstitch

My first thought was tailgating at football games. Would also work for fishing and bird hunting.

Max Headbolts
Max Headbolts
1 day ago

Also Drive in movies!

Dogpatch
Dogpatch
1 day ago

I want that truck with none of the addons,just a long bed truck with low sides not jacked up.Way more usable.

Knowonelse
Knowonelse
1 day ago
Reply to  Dogpatch

I had a Toyota long bed truck just like the one in the picture, but yellow. Perfect for hauling full sheets of cabinet-grade plywood INSIDE the bed. Was a great truck. Sold it and a week later got a call from the DMV asking me if I still owned it as it was found wrecked. Nope, I have the Release of Liability form to prove it.

Aaronaut
Aaronaut
1 day ago
Reply to  Dogpatch

At the dealer, I’ll tick no option boxes/
(No option boxes!)/
We’ll get to work soon as I drop the pen/
I want a truck with small price and a looooooooong truck bed

StillNotATony
StillNotATony
1 day ago

In high school, a friend had a ’78 Datsun pickup with a camper shell. The back wall of the cab was cut out and sealed to the bed and topper. Then the ENTIRE interior was padded and slathered in sculpted shag carpet.

It.

Was.

GLORIOUS.

IRegertNothing, Esq.
IRegertNothing, Esq.
1 day ago
Reply to  StillNotATony

That does sound glorious. Unfortunately, I suspect one quick shine of a black light would convince you not to go in without a hazmat suit.

Pupmeow
Pupmeow
1 day ago
Reply to  StillNotATony

As a parent, I cannot imagine letting my teenager drive a rolling boudoir around town.

4jim
4jim
1 day ago
Reply to  Pupmeow

My mom sold our conversion van with a full down couch bed in the back for a two-door hatchback months before I got my drivers license. I was so sad that my friends and I turned her car sideways in the driveway. it only took 3 of us to slide the little tercel sideways.

Pupmeow
Pupmeow
1 day ago
Reply to  4jim

Hahaha, you had PLANS for that couch. I think the ideal car for a teen has 1 seat. This doesn’t exist but I’m sure I could craft an aftermarket solution.

4jim
4jim
1 day ago
Reply to  Pupmeow

This was the mid 1980s. The perfect 1 seat car was a 2 dr mini pickup and it hauled stuff to the college dorm and cost less than a car. I got my grandparent’s 1969 Galaxie 500 with a HUGE vinyl back seat that worked well.

Ben
Ben
1 day ago
Reply to  Pupmeow

When I got my license our primary vehicle was a conversion van with a rear seat that converted to a bed.

However, because I was a socially awkward computer geek, nothing of note ever happened back there. 🙂

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