On the Trail With Primitive Racing—The Northwest’s Subaru Specialist

This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of THE SHOP magazine.

By Andy Lilienthal

Automotive parts and customization shops come in all varieties. Some have broad product offerings, while others have specific niches. One of those niche-oriented businesses is Primitive Racing in Tigard, Oregon.

The shop mostly caters to Subaru owners who want to outfit their all-wheel drive vehicles with better underbody protection, improved suspension and other parts to make them go farther and faster. Whether it’s increasing off-road capability to get to a trailhead or building a full-fledged rally car, Primitive Racing has made a name for itself—not only in the Pacific Northwest but nationwide.

PRIMITIVE RACING’S HISTORY

Primitive Racing was founded in 1998 by rally racer Paul Eklund and is located about 20 minutes southwest of Portland. Blake Lind began working at Primitive in the fall of 2009 and purchased the business from Eklund in 2019.

Serving as the go-to place for Subaru enthusiasts and rally racers alike means the shop’s customer base is a mix of daily drivers and motorsports participants. Primitive Racing also services a smattering of other vehicle brands and types with a host of upgrades.

“Our customers run the whole spectrum of how they use the products,” says Lind, “I think a large chunk are (buying products) for ‘just in case’ or ‘nice to know it’s there’ (scenarios). We do also have some really hardcore guys pushing the limits of what a Subaru can do.”

Lind points out that the majority of Primitive Racing’s customers are Subaru SUV/CUV owners that do a little off-roading and want to bolster their car’s capability. “(They) add protection (like skid plates) for peace of mind.”

SELLING SKID PLATES

Whether it’s a casual Subaru owner who wants to protect their vehicle’s undercarriage from damage while going to a hiking trailhead, someone looking to armor-up their Outback for overlanding trips or a rally racer who is looking to guard against damage on a high-speed stage trail, Primitive has something for most Subarus—often in the form of front, mid and rear differential protection. In fact, Lind says Primitive offers its skid plates for nearly every Subaru model and year going back to the early 1990s.

Primitive’s best-selling products are its own skid plates, which it makes in house. Lind points to them being a great value, and that they’ve been meticulously developed from years of experience and customer feedback. However, the protective plates aren’t the only products Primitive carries. The shop also offers plenty of suspension components from various brands.

Hot sellers include shock absorbers from Bilstein and KYB, as well as coil springs from Australia’s King Springs. Brakes, engine and performance products, exterior accessories, factory replacement parts, safety gear and wheels are also available. These parts can help transform a customer’s vehicle into a more adventure- or rally-ready rig.

Lind estimates his sales split is 50/50 between Primitive’s own products and the other brands it sells. He identifies other hot sellers as Speedline wheels (the shop is the U.S. importer), Reiger Rally suspension, and high-end rally suspension products that can often start at prices of $7,500 and up.

On the wheel front, Primitive offers adventure- and rally-centric brands such as Method, Sparco, and Speedline. While Method is more of a mainstream brand, Sparco, and Speedline are brands well-known in the rally racing world. Of course, Primitive also offers wheel accessories such as lug nuts and wheel studs.

Lind says the shop also previously dabbled in tires, but shipping them was difficult so it chose to focus priorities elsewhere.

A UNIQUE NICHE COMBINATION

Primitive has three employees and a 5,400-square-foot shop, which doubled in size about four years ago to expand inventory, upgrade offices and increase the installation bay area. The business is a unique combination of manufacturer, e-commerce company, importer, installer and rally car builder.

While most of Primitive’s business comes via its website, the company still has a storefront and take orders over the phone—something Lind acknowledges is rarer these days.

“Rally is what got all of us into this business. We have our own rally cars, and we also build rally cars for customers,” Lind says.

Primitive does everything from basic installations to full builds of rally racing vehicles. On a recent visit, it had a fully stripped Subaru WRX body on a rotisserie. The entire thing had been torn down, with the team in the process of building it from the ground up to be a stage rally car, complete with roll cage.

“We open the bay for installation of our own kits and parts middays, Tuesday-Friday,” Lind explains, noting installation isn’t a major part of the company’s business. And, while most projects come from the Subaru crowd, owners of rally-centric vehicles like the Ford Festiva and Mitsubishi Lancer EVO also patronize Primitive.

The shop will collaborate with other businesses when needed, Lind adds.

“It’s a small market and we try to cooperate with like-minded brands where possible, like Rally Innovations, MeLe Design Firm, Nameless Performance and Rally.Build,” he reports.

Many of these brands also have roots in rally cars and sell parts for street vehicles, just like Primitive.

While building rally cars is a niche inside a niche, Lind notes that over the last five years, there’s been a boom in SUV/CUV parts, particularly with Subaru. While he sees the trend beginning to cool off, it’s still popular.

There are pros and cons to having such a narrow focus. Lind says the pros include Subaru of America being on a roll selling cars, so the shop has a growing customer base. One downside, however, is that business can be subject to whatever cars are currently popular, forcing Primitive to stay within the limits of what Subaru produces.

PRIMITIVE’S CHALLENGES

Like many businesses, Primitive Racing has found supply chain disruptions to be one of its biggest challenges.

“We had huge disruptions in 2021 that have continued to have a ripple effect, and tariffs have seemed to reignite them in some cases—or, at the very least, slowed the return to ‘business as usual,’” he reports.

On the topic of tariffs, Lind calls them “a challenge” noting his business sells a lot of imported auto parts, although none from China. Most of his parts, such as King Springs, come from Australia, with many other parts manufactured in Europe, where the rally scene is very popular.

He also has to purchase raw materials for his own manufacturing.

“We manufacture (our skid plates) from raw aluminum and steel. All those things have been impacted by tariffs. Paying the tariffs has been one thing, but the uncertainty they have brought has probably been worse,” he says. “We did a certain amount of stockpiling preceding (tariffs) as well as a sort of pause, waiting to see what the policies would be.”

META MARKETING

Since Primitive Racing (get-primitive.com) serves such a specific niche, its marketing also has to be specifically targeted. Lind says Primitive has had particularly good luck with Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads, stating his demographic aligns very well with Facebook. The business works with an agency to help produce content.

When asked about the best part of his job, Lind jokingly points to driving rally cars.

“As for actual work, I enjoy the product design the most,” he adds, highlighting the satisfaction of turning a vision into reality.

He’s also very proud of some of the builds Primitive Racing has done—particularly a 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek project for a local dealership.

“We dubbed it the Desert Edition. It was a khaki color and we hydro dipped some of the panels in a desert digital camo,” he recalls, noting the build went “pretty viral” and was among the first “off-road Subaru builds that kind of started it all.”

The project included the company’s front light bar plus Warn Industries driving lights, a Superwinch winch with synthetic rope and a custom mounting plate. The front and rear bumpers both wore the aforementioned digital camo (as did the radio bezel), and the rear bumper had a rear bar for added protection from obstacles. Of course, there were Primitive Racing skid plates, and the car was lifted on King Springs and rolled on BFGoodrich all-terrain tires mounted on Sparco Terra wheels.

As for what the future holds, Lind reveals, “my next big projects are going to be increasing manufacturing capability and bringing more processes in house,” with the goal of making each Subaru the best that it can be.

Andy Lilienthal is an award-winning automotive journalist who’s written for a host of online and print publications. He worked as a communications manager in the automotive aftermarket for 17 years, primarily in the off-road and overland spaces. He also has a penchant for unique cars and vehicle-based adventures.