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It may come as a surprise to learn that Subaru and parent company Fuji Heavy Industries, can trace its roots back to the obscurely named “Aircraft Research Laboratory” founded by Chikuhei Nakijima in 1917. Previous to this, while enrolled at the Japanese naval academy, and at age 19, Nakijima became captivated by the notion of human flight, and the romance associated with taking to the skies on hearing of the Wright brother’s first successful powered flight. This quickly led to Nakijima working on the production of aircraft for the Japanese navy. Ultimately less than satisfied with simply building aircraft, Nakijima became more and more absorbed in the development aspects of aircraft, culminating in leaving the Naval academy to found the aforementioned Aircraft Research Laboratory.
Very quickly this new company was renamed as the Nakijima Aircraft Co. Ltd., rapidly becoming one of Japan’s leading aircraft design and manufacturing companies in the ensuing years leading up to, and including the period during World War II. Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, and the total collapse of the domestic aircraft industry, Nakijima Aircraft was renamed Fuji Sangyo Co. Ltd., and began the task of adapting design and production techniques learned from aircraft production into the manufacture of motor scooters and bus body building.
Reacting to the demand for cheap personal transport, in June 1946 Fuji Sangyo, after studying for six months a Powell Streamliner scooter (as used by American service personnel of the time) produced their own interpretation of this existing design. Called the Fuji Rabbit, it proved to be an instant success with the local population who appreciated its step-through design, low centre of gravity and satisfactory performance. Propulsion was by a 1.5kW 135cc air-cooled engine and made use of surplus wartime tail-wheels from military aircraft! It is also interesting to note that the Rabbit made it to the market a full six months prior to the very first Vespa scooter.
Changes to prevailing corporate law in 1950 forced Fuji Sangyo to separate into a further twelve autonomous companies. In 1953 Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) was formed as an aircraft manufacturing, maintenance and sales company through the combined investment of five of the original companies formed from the break-up of Fuji Sangyo. Two years later these five investors merged with the newly created FHI, beginning the modern era of FHI’s business activities as we know today.
Early in 1954 the prototype of FHI’s very first passenger car was produced, known creatively as the P-1. Then president of FHI Kenji Kita, made it a priority to come up with a dedicated name for the fledgling car making division of FHI, by conducting an inter-company poll.
Ultimately unsatisfied with the suggestions made, Kita chose instead to use a name dear to his own heart, and that of the Japanese people. For both the Chinese and Japanese, the cluster of six visible stars known as Pleiades in the west, is known by the name Subaru.
For the Japanese, literally translated, Subaru means “to gather together or to govern” and is sometimes translated as meaning “unity”. It is interesting to note that FHI was created out of the merger of six different companies, demonstrating what an evocative name Subaru is for the Japanese.
The P-1 became the Subaru 1500, which ultimately failed to be a sales success for FHI for a variety of reasons, but in 1958 Subaru hit on the right mini-car formula for the masses with the Subaru 360. The 360 was a small four-seat car and went on to sell successfully for eleven years.
The rest, is as they say, history!
Brett Middleton has over 10 years experience working on Subaru’s and has transcribed all his knowledge into the Subaru Performance Handbook. His company, MRT Performance has modified and serviced more Subaru’s in Australia than any other workshop.
There is no other Subaru book like it! Get a valuable insight into Subaru models from just about any country.
Bonus chapters available for instant download at http://www.subaruperformancehandbook.com
SUBARU Forester S20 4WD
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