Here's Why You Need a Subaru Sambar Kei Van From Japan! | VW Bus Conversion

[Music] [Applause] um [Music] [Music] all right you guys subaru sandbar time the original rear engine rear wheel drive [Music] subaru all right you guys what is going on welcome back to the show my name is marcus and behind me we're very privileged to have this 1990 subaru sandbar in our presence not only because it's very unique but because it is not something we normally see here in like north american car culture obviously um k cars or a cave in or micro van such as this is you know very prominent in japan and when we were in japan very briefly in the beginning of 2020 you know one of the key things i brought back was like north america has got a lot right in terms of automotive modification and like motorsport and stuff but we've also got a lot wrong and what i came back noticing and all the photos i was taking and looking back at those photos is like hey fans and things that are less than a thousand cc or in this case i believe it's 660 cc they're just so practical and i definitely could see myself uh owning one of these in the future we're gonna talk to the owner alex uh and we're gonna get your story just kind of on the build uh and sure the confusing nature obviously uh you guys i haven't really mentioned it yet but it's a subaru and you're probably wondering what the heck is going on with the vw badge so like how did this all come to be the main idea was that somebody back in the 90s when subaru first started making these somebody figured out you can swap out the front plate on it a couple of headlights and then the badges and it looks like a miniature westphalia bus when i bought it it already had the swap on it so i don't really have to do too much mods as far as um making it look cleaner and everything yeah somebody just did the pin striping and the painting and everything already there are a few extra bumper accessories you can get for it but yeah this is all-wheel drive four-wheel drive and some other just rear wheel yeah as well originally produced and manufactured in 1961 all the way up until 2012 when subaru kind of passed it off and passed off the chassis to daihatsu and a few other companies around the world that have continued continue to produce this vehicle and manufacture uh kind of a you know a modern version of the subaru sandbar today so uh key things to note here i am sitting on top of the front axle here uh which is the this is the first time i've ever driven a vehicle that is like this you know a lot of commercial vehicles obviously are your position kind of like we are here at the very front of the car right so the steering column is very uniquely placed as you can see it's trucker status here right it's very kind of vertical um top-down kind of style driving super cool never driven anything like this so and yes as i uh go back in the second gear let's try third again there we go um and this one has actually been converted to look like a vw van uh which is hilarious already today we have got so much attention from people because you look at this thing and you're like well from the front it it really i don't know about you guys drop a comment down below but it really upon first impression resembles a vw van or a westphalia kind of van right um which also funny enough this is why this works so well is because those are also rear engine rear wheel drive uh but that being said this particular one is four-wheel drive so um the base models i guess or originally they only came rear wheel drive uh and then some of them you can get in four wheel drive as we look around us here this gorgeous friday afternoon uh here in north vancouver it is we're in the pacific northwest okay so four-wheel drive is a given one two subarus are a given up here uh the subaru culture here or as we have if you guys see right here you can see a mitsubishi delica passing us here [Music] we featured many different subarus before different build styles whether they be you know a stance build or like a raised up kind of jacked up uh build where you can actually take it on you know dirt roads and stuff and go rallying um but the culture here is such that a vehicle like this with four-wheel drive although far from quick is just so practical um in in most scenarios now here's scenarios where a k van like this or a micro van a k truck whatever you want to call it is not practical and that's when it comes to highway driving now when we look at the dashboard here we can see that the speedometer only actually goes up to 140 kilometers an hour obviously it is imported from japan these were only ever sold for the japanese domestic market jdm um so it the speedometer is in kilometers an hour which works for us here in canada because obviously the metric system vastly superior to the imperial system and it just makes sense here's the thing though you're never gonna hit 140 kilometers an hour in this thing okay um alex has told me he's made it up to maximum of 110 kilometers an hour [Music] very very different very unique like there's a little toggle switch to go and make it into the four wheel drive setting but yeah it's selling something you don't see every day yeah so show me around i would like all right i have not you guys i have not ever this is my first time actually like really kind of poking around a sandbar so yeah show me what your kind of favorite things are about the car and like what makes it so so unique unique yeah um yeah other than the obvious exterior that turns a lot of heads and there's a lot of confusion in it um people look at it and think oh it's a smallest failure i think it like weird imports and it's right-hand drive by failure so it's a bit odd um interior wise it's pretty pretty simple kind of old to be honest that red and black cable is a set of mystery wires that i've chased into the carpet that literally disappeared into a bundle of other wires but there's a switch on the end but i can't find what that switch does the sweet santa hat shift boot that i cut up and used so there wasn't one installed the little clock there aftermarket steering wheel came with it as well um no dash the heat and ac works sometimes ac never works so you've got to roll the windows down all summer yeah um your gas you have a nice low fill up for your gas tank so you gotta get it just unlock it and you basically do a little squat as you're filling up which looks hilarious when you're filling up and everybody's got their big dodge rams they're yeah up right next to you and you're in this thing yeah um the back oh yeah that's a little little bed set up that i've had a couple naps in i plan to go camping in um put some nice mats down otherwise you do have some rear seats that will fold up entirely um and just kind of metal back on it huge amount of headroom oh yeah wow yeah there's roughly about six feet worth of space between like the back of the seats and the back of the van so you know being a north american size adult you can fit into it pretty comfortably right so both both sides are sliding doors like this okay there's grayson we need to get one of these for a camera car absolutely yeah and it's cool because like it being in 1990 it's like i'm sure uh it's not the safest as far as crash test ratings go nope but that's what makes it like the interior space so large because there's like there's nothing oh yeah yeah also like it's fairly slow so you're not exactly driving at 100 kilometer an hour roads like we're used to here so you are driving 50 60 so slightly less of a chance so i justify it but it's still the option to unfortunately crash i mean yeah vehicles even without airbags have never deterred me from driving them exactly right yeah part of their fun um yeah i guess you want to work your way to the back absolutely uh so tell your lifts all the way up uh it was a pain trying to find new struts to replace some of these that were blown out yeah i know a good bit different uh this is your reservoir for the rear washer fluid because it's in weird spots this is your coolant reservoir no way what yeah okay uh i guess your battery for the engine is underneath the passenger seat yeah um inside there is also the reservoir for the front uh windshield washer this is an aftermarket bumper on it because it's just fiberglass you are supposed to have a little switch here that lets you drop the bumper down to get the engine the exhaust and your dipstick and everything oh i see okay so you do have to remove body panels i have to i have a phillips screwdriver keep with me until i'm screwed with a bumper to be able to get at anything yeah so it makes it even funnier after i squat and fill up gas when i check my oil i gotta get out tools and really get into it [Applause] you feel like you're going so much quicker than you actually are especially because the steering there's no power steering in this sandbar here i don't know if any of the other or later model sandbars actually did have power steering i don't see a need though it's such a light vehicle it's got a 600 cc four-cylinder motor in the rear there the originals were all air-cooled uh this one is not this one's water cooled but carbureted okay so it still retains some of that like really just you feel the engine you feel the car there's no tack here i can't see what we're revving to but alex is just like hey man rev it out oh it sounds so cool it's a micro van it's a k car it's meant to be good on gas and it's meant for the japanese domestic market it's meant for small japanese city roads there are a lot of uses for this vehicle one might ask why in the world marcus would you get a vehicle that does not that doesn't even get up to freeway speeds or at the very least if you're in a situation where you're like forced onto a freeway it might be incredibly frightening for you um and that's a question that's not for me that's a question that's for you um and the you know that's the thing about importing vehicles from japan you don't get to drive them before you buy them unless you go to one of the local dealerships let's say here in vancouver where they will allow you to test drive the car beforehand but even then most of the cars you're seeing are the other subarus you know up here you're seeing imprezas you're seeing s14s s15s r33s r34s the staples of the japanese car culture and the tuning culture but after going to japan and spending about two weeks in japan at the beginning of 2020 what i got back from that trip is how incredibly smart uh the japanese culture has been over decades and this is totally off topic but a few uh maybe a year ago one of my good friends um told me i should you know recommended a book to me and it's called the blue ocean strategy and basically it's a business book that describes kind of how to create your own market space in whatever niche you're in whatever market you're in and that's kind of the same idea with the sandbar in 1961 this was the first k-van or micro van uh which is for those of you who don't know a k-car is a 660 cc or less vehicle uh that is in a different insurance class in japan uh so obviously using much less fuel taking up much less space parking and you get kind of deals for that so this was the first one where you're sitting on the front axle 1961 subaru was an innovator subaru created their own blue ocean within the k market and i mean it speaks volumes because the vehicle has long outlasted uh probably many of the original engineers and designers that worked on that first original subaru sandbar [Music] yeah so it's rear passenger side this handle on mine's unfortunately busted work on getting a replacement just kind of open it from the inside and then yeah a nice through access there is a little storage space where i've got uh stuff to change tires if i need to and your seats again pull completely flat down which is nice yeah no kidding um i guess originally they came with 12 inch tires on them super tiny these are 14s uh so they're a lot easier to find there's a spare 12-inch tire that i'm not even going to bother to try and use by use a tire yeah because then that cuts your top speed from 80 to like 50. um this here uh it's a new cover because the other one was busted that i got um this is your brake fluid in here it's weirdly positioned out the way brake fluid in the dashboard yeah yeah yeah that's a little bit easier i don't like to pull it off there it is yeah that's a brake fluid in there it's like a motorcycle yeah the amount of things that just like randomly hidden in weird places in order to make it work it's great um super tiny pedals down the bottom so you can get kind of not quite heel toe more like side of your foot and toe yeah action on it technically lowered during the stock ride height um not sure why the previous owner did it to me i've tried to swap out the suspension for it but finding some parts for that's a bit of a pain corners are a struggle you can't like really lean it because it's so top heavy right um but yeah some bumps you want to avoid potholes and bumps as much as you can it looks cool with the with the up size 14s on it though for sure yeah i like it the the white steelies i guess um seating position wise this is as far back as the seat will go so you are kind of crunched up in it um so it makes long journeys a little bit difficult yeah i just got in a couple days ago uh new seat rails to be able to slide back and adjust the position a bit better have you ever now are you like a vw fan or would did you like consider buying just a factory totally stock one of these or did you see this and be like no this is just so unique i have to have it it was sold sold on first sight a long time ago i was in tofino and i happened to see one that had a similar conversion kit it was a steamworks brewery sandbar with like a weird volkswagen conversion to it um yeah back in august i was on facebook marketplace i saw this one it was like sold yeah i'll take it went and saw it made the guy off for that day and drove it home like i was real fun getting over the port man bridge not really realizing some things about it but right right yeah always the drive home driving a a used vehicle is it can be an interesting experience yeah yeah um yeah why don't we do you want to pop off if it's not too much work you can check out how the engine looks [Music] 660cc four clover yeah um again if you don't believe me that it's a subaru it says that on the engine there one a few easy accessible places uh it does have an exhaust off a 1996 sandbar i bought used um pretty short little turns through the cat here and through the muffler and back out wow that is the smallest exhaust manifold i've ever seen in my life it's great um yeah so the stock bumper is supposed to mount onto these brackets and just fold down this is where you check your oil for your dipstick so again i got to remove that and check it we should be able to flip the switch and just do it mm-hmm what kind of fuel economy do you get like good or bad i guess is it is it what you expected it's a little bit less than i expected on one tank and gas i could probably drive about 100 kilometers oh my god there's a 25 liter tank on it so like yeah yeah it's not it's not the best yeah but you know like the the end goal is to have a roof rack with some jerry cans on it and just fill up as needed um yeah you just keep driving yep and if you run out hey well you can sleep in the back exactly right i can have a nap all wait for the tow truck yeah absolutely all right well thanks alex no worries for showing me uh showing me the car do you have uh obviously you have instagram go follow alex on instagram uh and yeah [Music] it feels so cool the steering is steering's incredibly vague um but at the same time well yeah lots of body roll too so much headroom i mean i'm i'm kind of a short guy but there is an incredible amount of headroom [Music] 55 kilometers an hour feels like a hundred but it's just easy to drive it makes so much sense and it just uh this is why this right here dude alex this subaru sandbar is why i love japanese vehicles it's because this smile never leaves your face uh and now having been to japan a long kind of a bucket list dream of mine and i will go back at some point after all this global bs is over with um but it just it it's a different feeling it's all just about enjoying the driving experience and having fun people people's jaws just hit the floor because it is so alien to us here in north american culture but surprisingly enough it works it works here in north america and it is so cool and i'm so thankful that here in canada our import rule has allowed us to import vehicles that are 15 years or older now obviously this is a 1990 if you're in the states you're watching this this is totally legal to import and you know what you know what the porsche purists are going to hate me for saying this but it has that little bit of not old-school air cooled 911 feel in the sense of you just have to rev it out your right foot is your tack you just have to feel it out [Music] oh it's just great you really do have to be careful in the corners though it feels incredibly top-heavy not so much so that well we picked a good road let's just say that a low speed road was a good choice um for this video it is kind of sketchy though in the corners i'm not gonna lie just a joy to drive they also made these by the way i think she was complaining about the noise i love it i don't know what she's talking about they also made this in like a pickup truck form uh which is mainly what you actually see these as um and some that actually had like a hydraulic lift in the back that is capable of actually you know towing or carrying a bunch thank you so much you guys for watching hopefully you guys enjoyed this quick video uh on alex's subaru sandbar go hit him up and his buddy rudy that came all the way out here from calgary he's here kind of visiting and taking in the car culture hit me up on instagram too at rhodes untraveled you can see what we're shooting on a day-to-day basis we'll see you guys next time

Channel: Roads Untraveled

Views: 33,277

Keywords: roadsuntraveled, roads, untraveled, subaru, sambar, kei, kei van, micro van, jdm, micro bus, subaru kei van, subaru sambar kei van, jdm micro bus, vw van, vw micro bus, kei truck, JDM import, JDM imports, subaru sti, impreza, jdm impreza, RHD, illegal imports, vw van conversion, kei car conversion, best kei cars, kei car, honda beat, autozam az1

Id: m6PYRp0PJPI

Length: 22min 40sec (1360 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021