Subaru 1500

The first vehicle built by the automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries was called the Subaru 1500, with the development code-name of P1. The prototype used a monocoque body structure and adopting the "ponton" style appearance, with an independent front wishbone suspension and a rear leaf spring suspension with three plates and a live rear axle.

Subaru 1500
Overview
Manufacturer	Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries)
Production	1954
Designer	Shinroku Momose
Body and chassis
Class	compact
Body style	Sedan
Layout	FR layout
Powertrain
Engine	1.5 L FG4A 48 PS (35.3 kW; 47.3 bhp) 1.5 L L4-1 55 PS (40.5 kW; 54.2 bhp)
Dimensions
Length	4,235 mm (166.7 in)
Width	1,670 mm (65.7 in)
Height	1,520 mm (59.8 in)
Curb weight	1,230 kg (2,710 lb)
Chronology
Successor	Subaru 1000

The company was currently manufacturing the Fuji Rabbit scooter, and wanted to explore manufacturing an automobile to compete with established Japanese manufacturing efforts at the time.

The 1.5 litre four-cylinder OHV engine, code named "FG4A" was sourced from Peugeot from the Peugeot 202, and built by Fuji Precision Technology, later known as the Prince Motor Company. The FG4A engine was related to the Prince GA4 with some modification, and was shared with the Prince Sedan introduced in 1952. The 1500 has a similar appearance to the Peugeot 403. Later a different engine was developed in-house by Fuji Heavy Industries, code named "L4-1" which was also a 1.5 litre OHV engine, that was 20 percent lighter than the previous engine used. The P-1 was water-cooled and used a four-cylinder inline engine.

Only 20 P-1's were built, all in 1954, with 11 vehicles using the FG4A engine, with the remaining nine cars using the updated L4-1 engine. 14 of the 20 cars were built for private use, while the other six units were provided to the taxi companies in Isesaki, Ota and Honjo Cities for private testing, with successful results.

It was Subaru's first (and until the introduction of the BRZ in 2012), only front engine rear drive vehicle.