One of Subaru’s Quirkiest Classics is Gearing up for Its Biggest Role Yet, and Its New Look Will Blow Your Mind

If you thought Travis Pastrana’s “Family Huckster” was a rad wagon, wait until you get a load of this fresh Subaru Gymkhana build.

Rear view of a Subaru race car with colorful orange, red, and yellow gradient livery and multiple sponsor decals.

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By Gray Van Dyke

Published November 5, 2025

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Updated November 7, 2025

In the wake of the late Ken Block’s untimely passing, Travis Pastrana has taken up the Gymkhana mantle as a means to keep the viral YouTube sensation alive. Along with fresh stunts and new locales, it means that Subaru has replaced Ford as the carmaker of choice.

The 2020 installment kicked things off with a WRX STI that was hailed as the “wildest STI ever,” and Subaru and Pastrana subsequently followed up the car with an even more ludicrous project in the form of a wagon-based creation dubbed the “Family Huckster.”

Three Subaru rally cars with colorful racing decals and bright headlights in a dimly lit garage. — The Brateroo is the third installment in Subaru’s Gymkhana efforts.

Not content to settle there, however, they’re back once again. If you thought the last Gymkhana car was crazy, wait until you see the new build.

Landing down under

It’s called the “Subaru Brataroo 9500 Turbo,” and it’s a vehicle that owes its name to its donor, its absurd rev range as well as its filming location. For the next installment of the Gymkhana series, Travis Pastrana will be heading Down Under, and he’ll be driving the build you see before you.

Man in a red plaid shirt and beige pants leaning against a white Subaru rally car with colorful decals under a bridge. — Travis Pastrana will fit right in with his Ute getting up to no good in the Land Down Under.

While the car is technically based on a 1978 Subaru BRAT, it’s a loose approximation at best. Inside and out, Hoonigan and Subaru worked to make the truck fit for hitting jumps, getting sideways and enduring whatever other shenanigans the team may have gotten up to while filming in a country that invented the term “hoon.”

As such, under the hood, the Brateroo packs a turbocharged 2.0-liter boxer-four engine courtesy of Vermont SportsCar. Along with bringing a tenfold power increase over stock (now up to 670 horsepower and 680 lb-ft of torque), it’s also the highest revving Gymkhana car to date, capable of screaming above 9,500 rpm.

Close-up of white aerodynamic fins on a race car with yellow, orange, and red accents above a black tire. — The active aerodynamics are for more than just looks — they result in some serious downforce.

To ensure that the BRAT could accommodate the extra grunt, the team ditched the stock transmission for a six-speed sequential SADEV gearbox and fitted a set of motorsport-grade differentials.

What’s more, Vermont SportsCar provided a full chassis and roll cage setup that has been engineered to the latest WRC safety standards. (Considering one of Pastrana’s previous jump attempts in the Huckster, it’s for good reason.)

White Subaru station wagon with racing decals and gold wheels next to a white and red vintage station wagon in a garage. — The Family Huckster was a cool ride, but the Brateroo takes Subaru’s Gymkhana efforts to the next level.

Riding on a set of gold KMC wheels, it’s made only better by its bodywork. That’s because, beyond head-turning visuals courtesy of Khyzl Saleem, the BRAT’s new look provides some impressive functional benefits.

Head-turning utility

For one, the Brateroo’s bodywork is made from full carbon fiber, so it brings obvious weight savings compared to the stock sheet metal.

White Subaru BRAT race car with red and orange gradient decals, large rear wing, and white wheels near water. — The rear wing is interchangeable, depending on what types of stunts Travis Pastrana will be attempting.

Moreover, according to Subaru, it features “the most advanced active aerodynamics on a Gymkhana car to date.” In practice, this means that, along with a set of front fender louvers, the Brateroo also incorporates two interchangeable rear wings.

Both feature an adjustable angle of attack and actuate upward, though they’re sized such that one is designed to serve as a more general purpose option, while the other is optimized to provide high downforce at speed.

Taken together, it makes for an undeniably trick setup — and that’s not even addressing the cockpit integration.

White and orange Subaru BRAT race car with Hoonigan branding and roof-mounted yellow lights parked on asphalt. — While it resembles a BRAT, it’s little more than a loose approximation because of its carbon bodywork and custom chassis.

To give Pastrana input over the active aero from inside the car, the build team repurposed the stock HVAC controls, complementing the retrofit with a carbon-fiber dashboard, flax-composite wood-grain accents and a period-correct Uniden CB radio.

Gymkhana is back

You can currently catch the Brataroo 9500 Turbo at the 2025 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. According to Subaru, the next Gymkhana film, titled Aussie Shred, will premiere in early December on the Hoonigan YouTube channel.

About the Author: Gray is an associate editor at Gear Patrol, covering cars, motorcycles and anything else with wheels. When he’s not chasing the latest industry news, he’s probably wrenching on one of many projects. For better or worse, he believes classics make perfectly practical daily drivers.

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