1986 Suzuki Samurai review from North America

Clutch is almost dead.

Sloppy shifter.

Sloppy U-joints - understandable with what I do to it.

Bad rod knock - solved with 20w 50 racing oil.

A/C doesn't work - damn...

Blew a couple of tires so far.

I don't forsee much of a future for the current brakes.

The exhaust got ripped from underneith the car.

I don't have a top for it, and our other Samurai with a top has a bee's nest in it - hate that.

The Samurai wasn't really made for performance.. It was made to go where no other SUV or Multipurpose vehicle could go, and it does this well. I have a Samurai I drive at the 100 acre junk yard I work for.

My shift pin is broken, too. I don't regularly have a passenger, and this is the only time the sloppy shifter bugs me (I will hit them in the knee when shifting gears). I kinda prefer the shift being sloppy like that, I've got long legs and if the shifter was good, I would be hitting myself in the knee - this way it is kinda out of the way.

As for the enormous lack of power and unbelievably small clutch, I have read that Buick 3.8's fit nicely in these - surf the net for Samurai hop-ups. Another nice thing about these that makes me wanna get one, is the ease of modification to the car and the ease of installing a killer sound system that WILL be heard. I also like the styling of this car, it looks cool from the front and back.

But what I REALLY like about this car is the fact that I can go where no one else can go, who enters the yard.. My tracks amaze everyone. It can fit between cars where no one else's car can. It doesn't need a road. And it doesn't need all four wheels on the ground to keep moving, I know this 1st hand. Some places I go in the yard include me never having all four wheels on the ground, and it teeters all over the place on 3 wheels, but keeps moving forward. It's even kinda humorous.. It has working no e-brake, you see, so sometimes when I leave it running it will roll away on me - everyone calls it "antichrist" thinking of the movie "the gods must be crazy". One of the guys who I work with told me that he was going to use my winch and dangle the thing from a tree!

All in all, I want one of these for myself and I want to put in a Tracker engine or a Buick 3.8 or a Ford 1.9. I can't wait till I have money to throw at a project like this.. Oh I can't wait to have one.