CarGene

Subaru · SUBARU 360

Subaru SUBARU 360 SUBARU 360 (K111/212)

Years
1958–1970
Chassis
K111/212
Drivetrain
RR
Subaru SUBARU 360 SUBARU 360 (K111/212)

Image: Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England / CC BY 2.0

Story

A mass-produced kei car with an ultra-light structure drawing on aircraft technology. It created and established the word "my car".

Stories

01

Being the dummy himself

Momose was over 180 cm tall, quite tall for a Japanese man born in the Taisho era. In developing the Subaru 360, less than 3 m long, when checking that it had room for four adults, he climbed in and out of the mock-up himself in place of a dummy, which helped secure enough living space.
Shinroku Momose

Chassis

Front

Trailing arm

Rear

Trailing arm

Length 2,995 mmWB 1,800 mm1,335 mmHeightWidth 1,295 mm
Curb weight
385kg

Production plants

  1. Isesaki Plant No. 2

    Isesaki, Gunma

US import eligibility

Earliest cars
Eligible since March 198325 years after sales began in March 1958
Last cars
Eligible since 199525 years after sales ended in 1970 (month not recorded)

Eligibility depends on each car's month of manufacture on its build plate, not on the sale dates shown here (NHTSA).

Japanese cars by US import year →

Engineers

Shinroku Momose

Shinroku Momose

Hometown: Shiojiri, Nagano

Head of design for the Subaru 360. After working on aircraft engines at Nakajima Aircraft, he led the Subaru 1500 design team, kept intact, in designing a kei passenger car.