Aha! Yet another true classic! It's kit #38, the Subaru Brat. First released in 1983, it was given a *very* slight update and given a proper re-re in 2007. Whaddya say, should I jump in?

Alright, here goes the build. Follow along with the pictures, as always!

1. Every fiber of my being wants to say "It's a Frog chassis." No. That is wrong. It's not a Frog chassis. It's a Brat chassis. The Brat came first! This whole impressive spaceframe assembly goes together in step 1 of the manual.
2. Recognize anything here? Those cast knuckle arms & axles are from the Rough Rider!
3. If you haven't seen a Frog, I mean Brat chassis before, have a good look at the bizarre front suspension setup. That spring goes into a tube. The whote knob goes over the spring, durning the whole thing into a spring-loaded push-button. The vertical tab on the lower suspension arm pushes the button. That's how the front suspension works. Horizontal springs, no shocks.
4. Here's the front end assembled. The forward links geometrically turn the lower arms into wishbones. Front to rear stability is a good thing.

1. Transmission time! It's a very slim, sleek unit for its day, though it unfortunately mounts the 540 motor just about as high as it possibly can.
2. Here it is closed up & attached to the frame.
3. Rear trailing arms operate in one axis and one axis only. Intentionally peeking out of one of those axle dust covers here is one of the few details that distinguishes the re-release from the original. The OG used hex-shaped axle ends, while the new one uses more modern dogbones.

1. Speaking of distinguishing details, here's the other big one. The shocks look old-school from the outside, but inside they're all modern and simplified, with volume-compensating bladder caps.
2. Yep, mounted horizontally. Got a problem with that?
3. See what I mean about the motor? It's actually hanging off just above the top of the gearbox!
4. With the installation of a steering servo and the TEU-101BK ESC the re-release kit includes instead of a MSC (and mounted in place of the throttle servo), things are looking close to complete, chassis-wise.
5. The three-piece wheels are true beadlockers
6. The tan-colored ribbed plate is the batterydoor, which gets affixed on the opening end with the removable white pin you see there in the middle.
7. And there you have it, a rolling chassis, and then some!

Next up is the body. The re-release kit includes both the original ABS hard shell and a new, much simpler, clear Lexan version. I'm putting the polycarbonate shell aside in the big "find something to do with this very unique body some day" pile and going for broke.

I have witnessed my first Jang build live. Awesome!

Looks great so far, can't wait to see it in action.

Don't some kits come with two body's, one hard plastic & one soft?. Also a chrome frame.

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See what happens when you don't read all the post's.

Its all the pretty pictures.