How do you spice up a bland 1995 Subaru Impreza?

Turn it into a Ute, of course!

Then, slap on a turbo.

Then, when that engine blows up, swap in an LS V8. Seems logical, right? Right!

Jaime bought this Impreza a couple years ago for the Gambler 500 and went to work cutting it into a Ute, then adding a turbo to it. We Gambled together in 2020 with it, and when the EJ22 blew up, he decided to take on the ambitious task of swapping in an LS. With some clever fabrication, it took some time to get the geometry of the steering and the lift to work correctly, but now everything is buttoned up and ready for the next Gambler this year!

The LSbaru (as we call it) has a 5.3 L V8 with some tasteful modifications to make about 400hp (estimated) through an automatic transmission from a Chevy Colorado to the rear wheels. There are lots of custom components in a suspension to allow for the huge lift and big tires (relatively speaking, for a Subaru). While swapping in a WRX motor was a consideration, Jaime wanted V8 power and Rear Wheel Drive – we are the Bad Ideas Garage, after all.

This has been been on the road for just a few weeks so we are “taking things easy” – from what we have seen so far, it brings a lot of smiles to people who see it. Stay tuned to our page to see more of my Mercedes AMG Ute that is finally ready for the road as well!

The Subaru Brat of the 1980s and the Baja of the 2000s are both really cool rigs. However, and we are a bit bias, we think that this Impreza is the coolest V8 powered Subaru truck, ever.