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And now, my watchers, we go from the utterly iconic Ferrari 250GTO and the Cobra Daytona to a cute Japanese deathtrap, the Subaru 360 kei-car. 392,000 of these were built by Subaru from 1958 to 1971 and I hope to God not too many people were killed in these. It has a 2 stroke, 2 cylinder 360cc engine which, depending on the development of said engine resulted in a whopping 16 to 36 Horsepower, and a top speed which might have reached 100 km/hr, if you had the 37 seconds of time to get it going that fast before you were squished by a truck or a kid on a bicycle.

This was the first vehicle imported to the US by Subaru, and they managed to sell 10,000 of them to people who obviously had no money to afford a skateboard or had a deathwish. Consumer Reports flunked the vehicle and pretty much warned everyone it was a deathtrap. Why, you may ask?

The suicide doors, if improperly closed could flap open while driving at speed. Mind you... they're called suicide doors for a reason. Because it weighed under 1000 pounds, it was exempt from the then pretty weak US crash testing, but Consumer Reports did a crash test with a normal huge American battle barge of the period, and the bumper of the Big Meaniehead American Death star ended up inside the passenger compartment of this cute but rather flimsy little car.

I can tell you it's ridiculously tiny, even by microcar standards. Aarie would have to jackknife herself into it and her ears would smash into the roof. I think Mini-Me and Peter Dinklage *might* fit in there if they gave it a go.''

Here's the actual CU report on this car, which I just dug up after I wrote my original little write-up. I still remember reading this as a kid and I was amazed.

www.mysubaru360.com/manuals_an…

Anyhow, it's a nice example, it's cute and goofy, and would be more than welcome at the AACA Concorso Bizzaro. Enjoy!

Description
And now, my watchers, we go from the utterly iconic Ferrari 250GTO and the Cobra Daytona to a cute Japanese deathtrap, the Subaru 360 kei-car. 392,000 of these were built by Subaru from 1958 to 1971 and I hope to God not too many people were killed in these. It has a 2 stroke, 2 cylinder 360cc engine which, depending on the development of said engine resulted in a whopping 16 to 36 Horsepower, and a top speed which might have reached 100 km/hr, if you had the 37 seconds of time to get it going that fast before you were squished by a truck or a kid on a bicycle.

This was the first vehicle imported to the US by Subaru, and they managed to sell 10,000 of them to people who obviously had no money to afford a skateboard or had a deathwish. Consumer Reports flunked the vehicle and pretty much warned everyone it was a deathtrap. Why, you may ask?

The suicide doors, if improperly closed could flap open while driving at speed. Mind you... they're called suicide doors for a reason. Because it weighed under 1000 pounds, it was exempt from the then pretty weak US crash testing, but Consumer Reports did a crash test with a normal huge American battle barge of the period, and the bumper of the Big Meaniehead American Death star ended up inside the passenger compartment of this cute but rather flimsy little car.

I can tell you it's ridiculously tiny, even by microcar standards. Aarie would have to jackknife herself into it and her ears would smash into the roof. I think Mini-Me and Peter Dinklage *might* fit in there if they gave it a go.''

Here's the actual CU report on this car, which I just dug up after I wrote my original little write-up. I still remember reading this as a kid and I was amazed.

www.mysubaru360.com/manuals_an…

Anyhow, it's a nice example, it's cute and goofy, and would be more than welcome at the AACA Concorso Bizzaro. Enjoy!