We have seen a lot of rare cars here and that usually involves some sort of monster V8 muscle car from the 1970s. This is mos-def (as no Subaru owner said, ever) not a monster V8 car but for those of us who love Subaru 360s, this is the absolute pinnacle. This is a 1970 Subaru 360 Yacht, one of the rarest versions of the Subaru 360. It can be found here on eBay in Newark, Delaware with a current bid price of $3,500 and there are a couple of days left for me to A) wrangle up the money B) find a divorce lawyer C) both. If any of those things happen it’ll be Fred H’s fault for sending in this tip. Thanks, Fred! I think.

Those of you who don’t understand will never understand, and that’s ok. I don’t understand the current Porsche 911 craze or the Buick Grand National craze or the nose piercing craze or the full arm tattoo craze or most other crazes. For me, this is the car that I want more than almost any other on the planet, sans a Lamborghini Miura or Jaguar XK-120. No lie. So, now you know where my head is at, or maybe you’ve known from day-one here at Barn Finds. Clearly, I’m craze, I mean, crazy.

Jesse showed us a very similar car but in nice, restored condition a few years ago, here. I’ve burned through 7 calculators since seeing this auction last night wondering how I can make it work. It would be $1,500+ in enclosed shipping from the east coast for a non-running, non-rolling open car, maybe more than that? The front brakes are locked up so that’s why it’s on wheel dollies, but the rear brakes work. That’s a good sign, maybe that means that the engine isn’t seized up. Although, having a 4-speed manual transmission, maybe it doesn’t mean a thing other than the front brakes are locked up. Most people wouldn’t pay $1,500 for a Subaru 360 of any type in any condition, as in for the whole thing with shipping let alone just for shipping. Again, if you don’t understand, that’s ok. We’re an equal-opportunity car’ployer here at Barn Finds. All makes and models are welcome and encouraged.

This same car was for sale last February on craigslist in Laurel, Maryland. I ran across the listing and just about jumped out of my medium-tall skin. The seller had two 360s, one was a Deluxe sedan and the other was this Yacht. They were asking $8,500 for both cars and I regretted not jumping on it then and have regretted it ever since. It will sell for more than that now that it’s getting some big-time exposure, unfortunately. I wasn’t going to write this one up until I had time to crunch the numbers, being the selfish person that I am. That wouldn’t have been fair for any others who may be as excited to see this car as I am. There must a few others if there are as many bidders and watchers on the auction as there are. I fully expect there to not be much love for this car here and that’s ok, this isn’t a Subaru 360 site.

You can see that this car, reportedly 1 of around 15 or so Subaru Yachts ever made, needs a full restoration. The interior may be the least amount of work for the next owner but it’ll most likely all have to be redone. That original red vinyl is most likely hard and dry. The top is basically a pattern at this point and that’s ok, at least it’s there. In fact, the whole car seems to be pretty complete. In the listing last year, the ad said that this car had the same elderly owner for the last 45 years which is exactly what you want to hear. I’m not sure if the current seller is that same owner or if they bought this car last year and found it to be too much of a project or why they’re selling it so soon. It doesn’t appear to even have been cleaned up at all since last year. Maybe it’s the same owner, but it’s in a different city.. hmm..

The engine appears to be missing.. no, I’m kidding, of course, the Subaru 360 has a rear engine and this one is still there. The hood/boot in front shows some signs of the dreaded thick paint which I hope isn’t former bodywork. It may not have any bondo, who knows. The spare tire would be mounted to the firewall over the jack shown in the photo above, but in the opening photo there are two extra tires shown lying on the back seat. Any extra parts for a Subaru 360 is always a good thing, even rims with old rubber on them. Brakes are a major sticking point, no pun intended. They’re what usually causes a lot of these cars to be taken off of the road. There are companies that will rebuild cylinders and reline brake shoes. As always, the Subaru 360 Driver’s Club is the best source for information and parts, not to mention being some of the nicest folks around.

The engine is Subaru’s EK31 356 cc inline-twin, a two-stroke, air-cooled, 25-hp beast (tapping foot, waiting for “Drop a Hayabusa in it” comments). All they know about it is that it ran in 1977 when it was parked. That’s 42 years of not running compared to 7 years of running. There is some talk about the Subaru 360 Yacht having been ordered by Malcolm Bricklin in an attempt to sell the remaining Subaru 360s in the waning days of that car being sold in the U.S. and 24 of them were ordered but never paid for or picked up. Some sources say that there were only 15 of them made. However many were, this is one rare little bird. Have any of you heard of a Subaru 360 Yacht?