I wasn’t around yesterday, because yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, and, boy did I have a lot of atoning to do. I needed to make amends to David for so openly letting the world know what a filthy animal he was in his former life, for example, and perhaps all of you for exposing you to it. I had a massive list of failings and shortcomings and wrongdoings to work through, and the truth is I barely scratched the surface. The good news is that I’m pretty sure I’ll still have a nice bounty of terrible choices and significant interpersonal missteps to work with next year, so no real loss there. But, at least to all of you I can start to make things up by showing you treasures like this old Subaru 360 ad that looks like some sort of Japanese action movie that Quentin Tarantino would be copying scenes from, shot by shot, to this day.
What’s the text say there? It’s a bit unexpected to see a woman holding a machine gun by such a friendly little car like a Subaru 360, even the version that makes a ravenous 25 hp. Here’s what my phone tells me it says:
Ah yes, that clears it up! Aim for the overtop! And, as I look at this more carefully, I see “OVER TOP” in the little seal down below our armed friend, there. It looks like Overtop or Over Top was some sort of trim level of the 360, but I’m not exactly clear on what that exactly entails. Oh wait, I just found out: it means overdrive! So this was a four speed, with fourth gear being what would be an extremely useful overdrive. I also notice that this version doesn’t have the little vents in the front hood, but all those really would do is make sure the spare tire and jack have plenty of air, so I’m guessing that’s no big loss.
I really like these 360s, with their shrunken-Beetle design and the confusion I have about whether or not I think they actually have a trunk.The fact these were imported to America (thanks to Malcom Bricklin) is pretty amazing, as are the old commercials made for the US market:
There’s so much here: the weird pronunciation of SuBAHru, that snifter full of gasoline, and the whole tagline being “Wow,” which could mean really pretty much anything, even in the way that woman delivers it. These were charming little cars and extremely well adapted to life in Japan, but really weren’t a great fit in America. I mean, unless you bought your gas by the snifter and liked to drive directly onto your yacht, through restaurants.
Wow.
You triggered my brain to release some obscure memory of Overtop and Subaru 360. Many years ago I watched a Subaru 360 Young SS ad and it also had this weird “overtop” exclaimation in it. Here is is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrVjwPA0ncA
At 0:27 you can find it: “ready, start, second, third, there we go! OVERTOP!”
Back then it didn’t make sense to me either, but now it does. Thank you very much for clearing up that’s actually an overdrive! 🙂
What are those green porkchops on the x-ray drawing? Some kind of door padding? And then why is there one in the engine compartment? Or some kind of secret cooling duct? So many questions… 😉
I think that’s actually a girl.The lengths they went to to make the car look bigger…
No, I think this is the lost album cover from the 1960’s Japanese punk rock band Machine Gun 360.
Remember their title song “aim for the Overtop”?
Interesting also that punk rock originated in Japan in the 60ies, and not in the UK in the 70ies, as everybody believes 🙂
(Thumbs up emoji)
Zoom & Boom 3: Go-Go Gun Gals in Overdrive!
She looks like a woman on a mission to rescue the stolen egg salad recipe!
“Would you like to see my collection of off-color Italian hand gestures?”
Saracen dog!
Russian snake!
She looks like she is part of the neighborhood watch program.
Serving her shift protecting her tiny village from Godzilla.
BTW, should we be writing sympathy cards to DT for the fact that you ratted him out? Seriously, I knew there was a lot wrong with the boy LONG before you two started up this little dog and pony show here. When my wife first saw DT’s photo, she asked “what’s wrong with him?” “And do you think that will scrub off?”
Thanks Torch, and I hope you reached a sufficient level of atonement.
Favorite bumper sticker: JESUS saves. But everyone else thinks you’re an asshole.
After perhaps sampling a bunch of it, I can’t help but wonder if the marketing folks got “Sapporo” mixed up with “SuBAHru” while going about their due diligence Japanese product market research and just ran with it.
Also, is the guy in the car in the ad telling her to Aim? Seems like a solid idea, ’cause right now it looks like Vixen McGunnyhands up there is about to just squeeze a few rounds into whatever happens to be located off to the left of her.
The Taillights of Death. A woman scorn and a gun. She jumps in her 360 for round the clock justice.
The Subaru 360 would get hot at highway speeds and the engine would seize. If I remember correctly, Consumer Reports called it the first truly disposable automobile.
Consumer Reports if full of crap though. They have been caught fabricating data and changing tests out of spite numerous times. There’s no way a bunch of 1950s Consumer Reports employees didn’t take one look at this car so far removed from conventional American tastes and decide to dunk on it mercilessly no matter if it was good or not. They wanted to hate this from the get go and wrote whatever they wanted to about it.
I agree with your view, but this is one of those times that I think CR’s take is largely correct. FWIW, this in no way affects my desire for owning a 1960’s kei car.
I love this ad so much. It looks like something they cooked up for the US market (“What do Americans like? Girls? Weird clothing? Guns? Just toss them all in and call it good”), but it’s not for the US market. Were they trying to make her look like a Bond Girl to tie into pop culture? Honestly that’s the best I can come up with unless psychedelics were as popular in Japan as they were in the US at the time.
“It looks like something they cooked up for the US market (“What do Americans like? Girls? Weird clothing? Guns? Just toss them all in and call it good”)”
Today it would be angry, tactical pedestrian smashers.
This would have probably been an improvement over the Doyle Dane Bernbach Volkswagen ripoff ads Malcolm Bricklin actually went with. “The Little Su-BAR-u, cheap and ugly does it”
Volkswagen could get away with being self-deprecating, people were already predisposed to like them, with the 360, people just said, yep, that does look ugly, agreed, I’m not buying one.
I don’t know about this ad being aimed at the US market in the 1960s. First, the submachine gun is all wrong; it would be a Colt M1928A “Tommy Gun,” not a Nazi MP40 “Schmeisser.” Second, the female model would be displaying a lot more Overtop.
It’s Revolutionary Chic™! Probably didn’t play all that well after the Japanese radical left started bringing it on with sieges and hijackings and airport massacres, but that wasn’t until after 1971.
A modern take on this would be interesting. I think a sub-$15,000 rear-engine RWD new car that gets 66 mpg and is ironclad-reliable would have a niche in the USA.
I’d design it somewhat like the Volkhart V2 Sagitta, slightly scaled up just enough to meet FMVSS. You’d probably end up with a 1,900 lb vehicle with a CdA of around 0.35 m^2. With a 78 horsepower engine from a Mitsubishi Mirage, such a slippery thing would probably still top out at around 140 mph with proper gearing.
It would also open the door up to a hybrid “performance” version that weighs maybe 150-200 lbs more, but uses a small electric drive system and LiTO battery to boost the horsepower count to over 300, without greatly adding to the production cost, allowing a very competent enthusiast’s vehicle to be economically built on an economy car platform and offering fuel economy in the 80 mpg range.
You’d probably have to build it with 3 wheels and class it as a cyclecar, since I don’t think any of that is really possible with FMVSS anymore. Maybe just barely, if you sold the base model as a loss leader without radio, automatic transmission, or air conditioning, and hoped and expected 90% of buyers would step up to the $7,000 more expensive next trim level to get all that
If the Mirage can do it, then something built very similarly to it could also.
The entire point of the base model would be to come without any extras, and a manual transmission. The idea would be to let the buyer pick and choose what added features they wanted, and not package them all in expensive trim packages. Want a barebones car with no radio, but decided you have to have AC and heated seats? Done. Want everything stripped but you must have an auto trans? Done. Want the performance package with a manual, and no add-ons? Done. The dealerships may not like it, but screw them.
The idea is to offer a unique value proposition that gives the buyer good value for the money, rather than trying to nickel and dime them. Since such a thing doesn’t exist in today’s market, I think it’s low-hanging fruit waiting to be plucked. So what if the margins are narrow thin, as long as there is some profit at all? The point should be having a satisfied customer, not milking them for cash every step of the way.
If this is done with an ultra-lightweight and aerodynamically-efficient platform, just the fuel economy that would result from that offers a very unique proposition to buyers that nowhere else on the market would have. Same with having such a low price tag. Why spend $25k on a used car with no warranty when you can spend $15k on a new car that not only has a warranty, but will also save buttloads of money on fueling costs? And if you want something that can hoon on a budget, that could be available too, and cannibalize the sales of vehicles that cost 5x as much(nickel and diming people for wanting a fun car is especially egregious, and intentional on part of manufacturers because they want more margin).
A 3-wheeled vehicle not bound by FMVSS could be something much more radical than what I propose above. With today’s technology, we could have one-seater enclosed microcars that cost as much as a moped to buy, accelerate like supercars, are safer than a motorcycle, and have operating costs comparable to an ebike. If I had both the time/money, I’d pursue this, because the multiple resource crisis staring us in the face coupled with potential for a massive energy crisis in the future would not only make such a thing viable, but also necessary for individual mobility to be retained.
I love this in theory, but in reality even a Mirage doesn’t work for me, I’ve got two teenagers, cramming them into one and then piling on anything like backpacks or groceries makes it unusable, forget about bringing my SO along too.. My Wrangler is similarly compromised in that respect, the 4 door Civic works, barely and if we want to take a road trip, well it’s gonna be a pickle jar.
I work from home, but even then a microcar won’t do the basic things I use a car for on a semi-daily basis. Can’t pickup the kids in it, can’t go across town (which requires freeway driving here) to a movie; and the occasional trip to my actual office, a 2.5 hour drive, would be absolutely miserable in something that small, forget about trying to use it during any appreciable snow we get around here.
There is no public transport option here, so clapped out 20 year old Civic for me is the best answer. Up side I don’t care what cars cost because I’ve opted out (ignore the low-level anxiety I have about it rusting to irreparable pieces)
yeah but what’s the drag co ratio on the chick?
That’s the true question here.
I own a small and rather useless – but fun – Pike car, but nevertheless I find the Subaru 360 extremely scary, the way they have taken all the worst from an old Fiat 500 and just enhanced that, and then also incorporated something that looks like an AI drawn VW Beetle.. Ughhh (shivers)
I do love semi old Subarus, and I would love to have the silver and green stationwagon one, the divorced quirky mom always drives in the movies, if she hasn’t got a curry colored Volvo.
Isn’t it the poster for the Kill Bill movie? Could have sworn that it looked like this.
As noted in the article:
“looks like some sort of Japanese action movie that Quentin Tarantino would be copying scenes from, shot by shot, to this day.”
Fox Force Five
Ketchup!