Here’s a promotional video from 1969 extolling the virtues of the new wondercar from the Land of the Rising Sun, the Sue-BARR-oo 360. Look, it can park perpendicular to the curb between two massive Detroit land yachts! It may be “Cheap and Ugly” but it’s the car of choice for chefs, Vegas showgirls, and “very groovy chicks.” The Autodrive feature means “No clutch, just touch” and there’s even a “Super Sport” version with bucket seats. Watch as it catches major air and goes to the track for some loose-tail drifts that almost puts it into a fence!

And who wouldn’t want a 360 side-loading pickup? Known as the Sambar in Japan, it had a twin in a van body and is perfect for moving your giant wooden TVs! Follow that up with the 1000, known as the Star in the US, which climbs the hills of San Francisco with ease, and you’ve got the 1969 Subaru lineup. It’s what’s happening!

Thanks to TSiSS350 for the tip!

This is a ways off, but we thought you Subaru 360, Honda N/Z/S and various kei-car owners might be interested in making plans for the World Micro/Mini Car meet. It’s the brainchild of Ken & Sylvia Weger, owners/curators of the Small Wonders Microcar Museum and will take place in downtown Crystal Lake, IL at the University Center, located at 100 S. Main Street, on August 21-22, 2010.

From the website:

This will be the first ever WORLD MEET of its kind. Microcar and Minicar owners and their cars, will gather from all over the world to share their enthusiasm for these small wonders. The Weger’s are expecting over 500 Micro and Mini cars. Those cars under 500cc are considered to be “Microcars”, and those between 500-1500cc are considered “Minicars”. Many marques are expected to fill the lush lawns surrounding the University Center. Vendors will provide food and beverages. Alongside the car show, workshops and classes/seminars are being planned.

[Edmunds]

More T-shirts featuring old Japanese cars are popping up all over the place. Normally they’re all the popular models from Nissan and Toyota, leaving kei car fans a bit left out. But thanks to JNCer xemoto, here’s one of a Honda N600! It’s part of a series that also features a Subaru 360, BRE Datsun 510 leading an Alfa Romeo, and a whole host of other European microcars.

Speaking of microcars, someone sent in four old Subaru 360 commercials to Jalopnik today. The car’s $1297 price tag and 66mpg are heavily touted, as is the price of a carburetor, just 13 dollars. I guess when you’re calling your own car “Cheap and Ugly” right there in the ad, cheap is the selling point you want to go with. These spots also raise the question, when did they change the pronunciation from SuBARu to SUbaru?

[Jalopnik]

Microcars are on a roll! First a duo of Subaru 360s finishes 1-2 in their class in the Liége-Brescia-Liége, and now a Honda Z600 has broken the 600cc class land speed record at Bonneville Speed Week. We first came across Evil Tweety last year when we pitted it in a hypothetical Blaze of Glory Deathmatch against jet- and ‘Busa- powered Z600s. JNCers, including Evil Tweety’s own driver Eric Burns, voted for JETBOY as their chariot into the afterlife, but that was before anyone knew this bad bird could hit 106.531 mph on the salt flats!

Congrats to fearless pilots Eric Burns and Chris Clay!

[Image: Popular Mechanics]

Two UK-based teams have taken first and second place in the Spirit 425cc Class of the Liége-Brescia-Liége microcar rally. Covering 2000 miles through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia, these little kei cars even conquered the Stelvio (not Kev’s dream car, the Alpine road) and Gavia Passes of Italy, some of Europe’s most grueling terrain.

Regulars know that this year marks Subaru’s 50th anniversary, but 2008 is also the 50th anniversary of the Liége-Brescia-Liége. It was started in 1958 during the Suez Canal Crisis, which threatened to cut Europe off from its oil supply in the Middle East. In response, rally organizers wanted to prove that small, fuel-efficient cars could perform just as well as their gas-guzzling counterparts over Europe’s most demanding roads (making it all the more disappointing that we’re still grappling with the same oil issues today). The original allowed only cars 500cc or under, and the intense schedule meant almost three non-stop days of driving. The modern rally is a bit more leisurely - 10 days, and cars up to 1000cc are allowed.

Congratulations to Jane Puttock, James Ewing, Vic Sayer and Craig Lawson!

[Subaru UK]

Greetings, Pleiads! Today we help Subaru celebrate 50 years in the automaking business. What’s that you say? How can Subaru be celebrating their 50th birthday when back in 2003, they already partied hearty and released a slew of 50th Anniversary edition cars? No, there isn’t a rally inspired AWD time machine lurking inside the company’s Shinjuku headquarters, although that would be awesome. 2003’s anniversary marked the formation of Subaru’s parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, from the remnants of Nakajima Airplane.

Today, on the other hand, is the real deal. Half a century ago, Subaru announced that it would begin sales of a round little kei car, the Subaru 360, that would become one of the most iconic vehicles of its era.

At the time, very few Japanese families owned cars of their own. Available choices were either only suitable as commercial vehicles or, in the case of the Prince or Toyota Crown, priced for the wealthy in mind (note the connotations of royalty in the names). In an effort to get the masses on wheels, the Japanese government issued a standard for a “People’s Car” that could serve as an affordable passenger shuttle and qualify for the 360cc kei car class.

Enter the Subaru 360, a rear-engined little runabout with suicide doors and about 16hp. That, um, power came from a tiny air-cooled two-stroke mounted in the rear and displacing 356cc. That doesn’t sound like much, but the entire car only weighed 850lbs.

When you think of the modern Subaru formula, however, you think of three things: rallying chops, a boxer engine, and all wheel drive. Admittedly, the 360 had none of those qualities, but the company’s next offerings would soon rectify that.

Subaru’s second car was a compact called the 1000. Although they weren’t being very creative with the model names, they were entering it in some of Japan’s most grueling rallies. By 1968, it had won its class at the Japan Alpine Rally. Subaru also entered the US market officially in ‘68.

The following year Subaru began sales of the new FF-1, powered by a four-cylinder boxer engine. Front wheel drive was still considered new and exciting technology, and the FF-1 had the honor of being the first front wheel drive car from Japan, hence its name.

Subaru’s third and final distinguishing trait appeared in 1971, when an all wheel drive version of the FF-1 1300 was shown at the Tokyo Motor Show. The production system debuted in 1972 on the Leone wagon, known simply as the 4WD in the US. In particular, it was this feature that struck the loudest chord with customers, and AWD soon became synonymous with the brand.

The bright blue, dirt-kicking WRXs wouldn’t come into being until 1992, but you can definitely see that the roots were planted long ago. Compared to the other Japanese marques, Subaru is relatively young. And with a small model lineup, it normally doesn’t get a lot of ink on our pages, but today, we’re glad that we could give this innovative automaker some much-deserved attention. Happy Birthday, Sube!