Spa Asia The 70 years of Subaru will be worthily celebrated!
For many aficionados of motorsport, Subaru is first and foremost known for the awesome success in the World Rally Championship, with its blue Impreza machines, which, among others, the late Colin McRae and Richard Burns drove so masterfully. However who truly knows that the make saw the light of day in … 1953? Exactly 70 years ago. That is all it took for the second edition of SpaAsia to focus on Subaru!
It was a company specialised in the manufacture of aircraft, Nakajima Aircraft, now the Fuji Heavy Industries company, that as from 1953 started to produce a prototype car christened P1. The following year the project took shape under the name Subaru 1500. Even though this first model was to bring about manufacturing and sales problems, the make truly took off straight afterwards with the 360 and 1000 models. The Subaru machine was launched. Exports to the United States started in 1968, whereas four years later, the Leone became the first production car to be fitted with four-wheel drive. Subaru’s success grew as from the end of the ‘80s with the launch of the Legacy, which promptly appeared on the rally scene, and was to be succeeded by the Impreza.
As one can see, at many levels, Subaru is one of the makes that contributed to the development of the automotive industry. Which makes it well worth a proper exhibition at SpaAsia, allowing one to look back on the seven decades of the make’s existence, whose headquarters are based in Tokyo.
We wager that this Subaru highlight will delight fans of Asian cars in general, and more specifically Japanese ones. Not to be missed on Sunday 10th September …
