Vintage Subaru Promo Film Will Turn You on to Cheap and Ugly [Video]
Long before it was a major player in international rallying with theWRX, seducing hoons of all stripes with theBRZ, or supplying countless Snowbelt inhabitants, outdoorsy types and X-chromosome-only couples with practical transportation by way of theOutback,Subaruwas just a scrappy little automaker trying to gain a toenail-hold in the U.S. market. Initially, responsibility lay squarely on the tiny shoulders of the360microcar, available in two-door sedan, pickup truck and van forms. So how didSubaruget around the fact its cars were tiny, underpowered and ugly? By embracing those attributes, as this promotional film dating to mid-1969 ably demonstrates.
Granted, not too many people in this country could get past the 360’s shortcomings, but the more conventional (if you could call aflat-four engineandfront-wheel-driveconventional in Nixonian times)Starseries certainly had broader appeal. It was the 360s and Stars that paved the way for the Japanese nameplate to sell many, many more vehicles here, and eventually start building some of them on these shores. So the next time you blitz your favorite backroad in your BRZ orWRX STI, think of the flimsy, insectoid machines to which it owes its existence.
Source: YouTube