The First Subaru Ever Made: The Subaru 1500

Subaru is known today as one of the biggest Japanese car makers and also for their use of the boxer engine layout. The company has produced cars that have been successful in motorsports, most notably in the World Rally Championships with the Subaru Impreza WRX. It is also a popular car manufacturer in the tuner car scene. Subaru is the automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), a transportation conglomerate based in Japan.

Where did the Subaru name come from?

Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster or more commonly known as “The Seven Sisters”. According to mythology, the seventh star faded away thus there are only six visible stars in the Subaru logo. Subaru also means “unite” in Japanese, and the logo also represents the six companies under the FHI group with the largest star is for Fuji Heavy Industries.

The FHI group started out as an Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1915 and was a major manufacturer of airplanes during World War II. At the end of the war, the company established Subaru, which would be the automotive manufacturing arm of FHI.

The first prototype of Subaru was developed with the code-name P-1.

The P-1 was later named the Subaru 1500 as production started. The 1500 had a 1.5 liter (or 1500cc where the name came from) four-cylinder OHV engine which produced 47.3 bhp code-named “FG4A” which was sourced from the Peugeot 202. Later on, the engine was changed to the L4-1, which was developed in-house by FHI. The new engine was 20 percent lighter and was water-cooled.

The Subaru 1500 had a front-engine rear wheel drive (FR) layout. The car had a monocoque body structure and a ponton style look. The car design was similar to the Peugeot 403. The 1500 sported an independent front wishbone suspension and a rear leaf spring suspension.

Only 20 Subaru P-1 were ever made in 1954. Of the batch, 11 cars had the FG4A engine. Six of the cars were given to taxi companies for private testing and results were positive. The P1 or 1500 was the only FR layout car made by Subaru before the Subaru BRZ was launched in 2012.

The Subaru 1500 was succeeded by the Subaru 1000 in 1966. The new car had the horizontally opposed four-cylinder engines that would be the hallmark of the Subaru brand. The 1000 also had the front engine front wheel drive (FF) layout that is also a staple of the brand.

Today, Subaru is one of the biggest brands that we know of to manufacture quality cars around the world. Fans of the brand have even gone as far as customising their Subaru cars to make better and faster cars for their use. It can definitely be categorised as one of the most successful brands for cars around the world.