Subaru was known for being a bit eccentric back in the day — or was it its owners that were eccentric? Is there a difference? They both seem to have found each other. And if it was dark out, Subaru’s center-mounted “Passing Lamp” could be of help in the search.
As to why it was called “Passing Lamp”, I’m a bit stumped. Maybe Subaru owners were too, as it was changed to just “Center Lamp” in 1982, the final year of its brief three-year run. Maybe it was designed to intimidate potential passers, to get them to pull over, as Subarus weren’t exactly brimming with passing power back then, especially when a BRAT was hauling two passengers in the bed-mounted back seats. Can you imagine riding back there at night, passing other cars? How the world has changed.
Like this, but at night. Fun On Wheels! And fun with a Passing Light! Admittedly, this is a gen1 BRAT, but it seems Subaru shied away from showing people actually riding in those back seats. Hmm; I wonder why. But note; they’re actually wearing helmets. That’ll help if the BRAT rolls over on a dark night at speed.
Enough finger wagging; the BRAT was a very welcome addition to the automotive palette when it appeared in 1978. As to why it had those rear seats in the bed, the answer was very simple: it was a way to get around the 25% “chicken tax” on trucks; with four passenger seats, it was no longer a truck, but an open air tourer, or something like that; a passenger car, in any case.
Most of those seats were quickly jettisoned, as they put a crimp on hauling space in the rather modest sized bed. That looks to be a modern kiddie seat; the owner is a dad.
Back in 2021 I did find one with the original seats still intact. Can I have a ride?
I was chatting with the owner when he said: watch this! And he reached in and activated that fabulous third eye. Awesome; my first exposure to one. He did admit to adding it to his BRAT, from a junkyard car. I did a bit of poking around on a vintage Subaru forum, and of course it’s a popular upgrade, including having it be able to be turned on anytime; originally it could only be activated when the high beams were on, which of course raises the question of its name again. It’s generally not a good idea to turn on the high beams until you’ve actually passed.
A shot of the interior shows plenty of levers to play with: gear shift, 4WD, and hand brake. Yes, it was of course its 4WD that made the BRAT stand out from the other car-based mini-pickups, the VW and the Rampage. Subaru’s not-so secret sauce.
In case you’re wondering, yes, BRAT was an acronym: Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter. Well, more like they made up some gobbledygook to put some spin on the name. “Bi-drive”? Hmm; ok.
Here’s a vintage ad that gives the Passing Lamp a few seconds of fame.
This is obviously a very cool toy these days, well enhanced by the “Passing Lamp”.
The only way this could be any cooler is if it still had its original rear seats in the bed.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1982 Subaru BRAT – The Young Man’s Choice Of Pickup In Those Terrible Times
Trailhead Classic: 1978 Subaru BRAT – Subie Doo
Curbside Capsule: Subaru Brumby – Wild Horses Could Drag You
I seem to recall Ronald Reagan had a BRAT on his ranch.
Yup.
https://santaynezvalleystar.com/reagan-and-his-brat-were-completely-mismatched/
Looks like Ronnie took out the rear seats too. Not that the dog actually needed them.
I’d forgotten all about that 3rd light available on Subarus at this time. I think it’s a cool novelty feature, but seeing it does bring to mind the whole “flash your lights to pass” thing that seemed common when I was a young driver (late 70s – through the 80s) that I really seldom see nowadays.
Now mind you, I was considerably more aggressive behind the wheel back then, but I regularly came up behind folks in the left lane and gave them the headlight flash signaling them to move over and get out of my way as I demonstrated that I had important places to get to faster than they did. This sometimes resulted in the desired effect, but just as often caused them to slow down or (worst case, yet common) to drop to the right and then get in right behind me on my rear bumper and start flashing THEIR lights like crazy. The 1980s version of road rage. Nowadays they’d just shoot you and get it over with. 😉
Point is, the whole light flashing thing seemed a sure-fire gateway to incivility behind the wheel, particularly here in the Northeast where a certain degree of incivility has always been a part of the driving culture. I’m not sure if light flashing became illegal or just discouraged, but I can see reasons why Subaru retired the feature.
I was right there with you on the “flash to pass” thing. The difference in the midwest was that I avoided the aggressive response from the rear. Instead, I kept getting stuck behind clueless folks in a Cutlass Ciera driving 56 mph while eventually passing the old guy in the LeSabre driving 54 mph, all the while wondering what was up with that guy behind them flashing his lights. They probably thought I was trying to get them to pull over so I could rob them.
I thought of the Dodge Super-Lite, although it wasn’t specifically for passing:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/space-age-dodge-super-lite/
Always love LAND YACHTS, so never had ANY interest in SUBARU, other than Ruth Gordon’s Whoop de do for SUBARU ( thinking maybe IT was Rosemary’s Baby 😉) or an entertainer at a local club who was known as Sue B. Rue. BUT, inspired by Jeff’s story, on a four lane (divided) highway my then vintage 78 Town Coupe was in the right lane at a stop light. A brand new white SAAB pulled up next to me in the passing lane with the driver looking disdainfully at my Lincoln. When the light changed, I floored the 460 ,moving gradually into the passing lane. Traffic closed in so the SAAB had to stay behind me . I slowed until IT was very close behind. THEN hit the gas again leaving the SAAB in my dust of nice black carbon all over that POS. 😁 🤣 😂! 🎵 I showed him 🎶 that a Town Coupe 🎵 was NOT a car 🎵 to scorn! IMO those Peasant cars are revolting! On to VERSAILLES! 😉
My parents owned a 1980 Subaru wagon with the third headlight, and that feature is something I hadn’t thought about in a long time.
They bought their car in the winter of 1980, so it was among the first of this generation of Subarus. It got a lot of attention – especially because of the space-age dashboard with rotating pod controls. But I recall dad showing people other things too, like the spare tire in the engine bay… and the third headlight. The third headlight got more workout in those first few months when it was a novelty than in the rest of the car’s life combined.
I’m fairly confident dad never used it to “flash-to-pass” anyone, likely because that car was so slow. And I don’t remember it being operational only when the high beams were on, but at 7 years old I may not have paid attention to that. But I DO remember asking dad to turn on the third headlight randomly sometimes because I thought it was funny and would freak out oncoming drivers (I was 7 when he bought that car… and dad sometimes obliged with my request when my mom wasn’t in the car).
Very amusing to see one of these headlights operational!
I recall a Mopar lighting add-on called Flamethrowers. Were they just bolt-on fog lights or driving lights? Mannix had ’em…
For me the strongest memory of the Brat is not seeing them as they were rare, but as a radio-control version by Tamiya. I wanted one so badly but my friend already a Tamiya Frog, on which the Brat was based. The Frog came with a bigger motor so it was faster. I ended up getting a Frog but later added a Brat body and mounting kit so I could run the Brat body.
Tamiya re-issued the kit which is nice to see. Tamiya’s box art is always top-notch.
I had a similar era Marui Hunter. In fact I still have some of the parts in my collection of RC car parts.
I had a close childhood friend whose first car was a ‘66 or ‘67 Chevelle 4 door, small block and Powerglide that he got right after high school. We started going in different directions around that time and I only saw him once after college, when I was surprised to see that he had a new blue BRAT. I don’t recall if it had the passing light. I have never met up with him again. I did see a BRAT on the road somewhere on our Southwest road trip last month.
“Fun on wheels”. Not relevant in today’s auto industry
Beam variations were also a fad in the ’30s. Hudson had a three-way switch with high, low and cornering. Olds and Buick had a Country setting that turned off the left light and aimed the right light to the side.
steerable headlights are a cool feature feeding new zenon discharge bulbs to them is expensive though but the amount of light is great.
If I ever knew about the 3rd light I had forgotten all about it.
I’m wondering if those rear seats had seatbelts? The image above doesn’t look like it…or maybe they were removed? But what’s the fun in having those rear seats if one can’t be thrown around a bit…
Seatbelts? Seeeeeeeatbelts? We don’t need no stinkin’ SEATBELTS!
(Because we have little grippy handles to hold on to. This was before Subaru learned about something called “Physics” 😉 )
Here you go (photo)…for those who weren’t there at the time and missed this particular bit of Fun on Wheels the first time around.
(These seats…really chairs…used to remind me of the chairs that we had in elementary school. You know, the ones that some kid would always be tipped back in until the rear legs slid out and he came crashing to the floor on the back of his – it was always boys, girls weren’t that stupid – head? Happened pretty much every day. Yeah, well same thing, only installed in an even more dangerous location.)
I don’t think our resident lighting expert hangs around much anymore, so I’ll give it a shot.
FMVSS 108 (federal standards for vehicular lighting) makes no mention of “passing light”. From what I can tell, very few state lighting codes do, either.
So this passing light lives in a legal gray area. Which is kind of a good way for a manufacturer to add a light like this.
Made me wonder (briefly) about Japanese lighting laws. To the best of my knowledge nobody else offered this.
Pretty sure we didn’t get this extra light on Australian Subarus.
It’s the Subaru chakra and is there to enlighten other drivers as to ones state of being. The purple one had a pair of sunglasses for his. Lol
Hehehe! The light indicated to the other driver that your state was about to be located in front of theirs.
Subaru Brumby out this way seats in the bed illegal never fitted over here and I havent seen that light on old Subarus and these things were common until the rustmites found them now kinda rare.
I’d rather have the center light with a gorgeous Tatra 87 attached behind it, though it is true that theirs indicated “I have just inverted myself and killed another Nazi” rather than “I need to be in front of you.”
The third headlight would have been a big hit if 11-year-olds bought cars. I know it was a big hit with me when I was 11 years old.
My aunt and uncle had a Subaru wagon when I was a kid (maybe 11 or 12 years old). It had the third headlight concealed under the logo on the grill. I thought that it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. Like something you would see on the Speed Racer cartoon or a James Bond movie.
Is my memory correct that most of the Subarus at that time had four-wheel drive? I always thought that the third light was for “off-roading” – not that that ever happened in the Dallas suburbs. Ha.
Interesting, I never knew about this .
I do remember all through the 90’s BRATs pupping up in my local go to self service junkyard, most were filthy beaters but now and then a really clean one showed up, I’m guessing the timing belt broke ? .
I’ve not seen _any BRATs for many years now .
-Nate