[h=3]Simeone Museum celebrates “The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive” with upcoming Subaru exhibit[/h]
1968 Subaru 360. Images courtesy Subaru America.
Vintage Japanese vehicle enthusiasts aside, Subaru isn’t a brand that most Americans associate with collectible cars. Perhaps that’s a testament to the brand’s reputation for building sensible, go-anywhere transportation, or perhaps it’s due to Subaru’s relatively short 48-year history in the U.S. market. In either case, Philadelphia’s Simeone Automotive Museum is looking to shine a spotlight on the Japanese brand with a new temporary exhibit, running April 16 – May 1, 2016, entitled “Subaru: The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive.”
Plans call for the display to include 18 road-going and competition cars from Subaru’s past, including seven pulled from Subaru America’s collection, housed at the company’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey, headquarters. The oldest Subaru on loan from the collection will be a rear-drive 1968 360, the microcar that simultaneously introduced Americans to the brand and nearly doomed its future in North America.
The 1978 Subaru BRAT.
Blame it on automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, who viewed the Japanese market bestseller as a funky and cost-effective alternative to the Volkswagen Beetle. Like the Beetle, the 360 used an air-cooled and rear-mounted engine, but unlike its German counterpart the Subaru used a two-stroke twin instead of a four-stroke four-cylinder. Output from the Subaru was modest, with the 360 making just 25 horsepower, enough to achieve a top speed of 60 MPH as long as the driver was patient. With a curb weight below 1,000 pounds, the Subaru 360 was exempt from the same safety regulations that applied to more conventional automobiles, something that Consumer Reports pointed out to readers when it dubbed the car “Not Acceptable” in a 1969 article.
Despite the bad press, Bricklin imported and sold 10,000 Subaru 360s, paving the way for the Japanese automaker’s more sophisticated (and U.S. market-friendly) products. By the late 1970s, Subaru was well-established on these shores, and rapidly building a reputation for doing things just a bit differently. One such think-outside-the-box exercise, the Subaru BRAT, arrived here in 1978 and presented a novel way of avoiding the U.S. government’s tariff on imported pickups, known as the “Chicken Tax.”
The BRAT’s rear jump seats classified it as a passenger vehicle, not a pickup.
The BRAT, which stood for “Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter” circumvented the Chicken Tax by adding a pair of rear-facing, open air seats, complete with seat belts, in the bed. With seating for four in two rows, the BRAT was no longer a pickup in the eyes of the feds, but a passenger vehicle (albeit an unconventional one). Though most owners panned the rear jump seats as being half-scale, that in no way diminished the appeal of the sporty station wagon-based compact pickup, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the BRAT made Subaru a household name, at least in some parts of the country. It’s fitting, then, that the exhibit will include Subaru’s own 1978 BRAT.
The brand’s innovative spirit will be on display with several other models as well, including a 1980 Subaru GL wagon, complete with its “Cyclops” third headlamp. Hidden behind the Subaru logo on the grille (representing the stars of the Pleiades), the miniature “passing lamp” could be illuminated by a switch on the turn signal stalk to provide ancillary low-beam-only lighting.
1991 Subaru XT.
1991 Subaru SVX CART PPG IndyCar World Series pace car.
Subaru’s wedge-shaped, go anywhere XT will be on loan from the Cherry Hill collection, too. Part sports car, part SUV, the coupe featured an available height-adjustable pneumatic suspension, push-button four wheel drive (later replaced by all-wheel drive) and aircraft-inspired instrumentation. Not necessarily a sales success, the XT still paved the way for Subaru’s first “halo car,” the futuristic SVX. More of a grand-tourer than a car with sporting intentions, a 1991 Subaru SVX (one of the models displayed) was repainted by PPG, fitted with safety equipment and used as a pace car for several seasons with the CART PPG IndyCar World Series.
1996 Subaru Impreza Colin McRae replica.
No discussion of Subaru would be complete without a nod to the brand’s Impreza WRX, the turbocharged all-wheel drive hot hatch (and sedan) that brought new levels of affordable performance into dealer showrooms. The Simeone will be displaying a 1996 Impreza Colin McRae Replica, a production model based upon the WRC car campaigned by the Scottish rally superstar during the 1996 season, as well as a 1998 Impreza 22B STi. Built in a limited production run of just 424 units, the 22B marked both Subaru’s 40[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary as an automaker and its third consecutive manufacturer’s championship in WRC competition, and was dubbed “the Subaru from hell” by Car and Driver for its performance (and, perhaps, for its not-for-U.S.-consumption status).
1998 Subaru Impreza 22B STi.
The Simeone is also taking nominations for other Subaru models to be included in the exhibit. Do you have a pristine first-generation Legacy, or perhaps a well-preserved early-1970s GL wagon? If so, you can contact the Simeone via the exhibit’s webpage.
For more information on upcoming events, visit SimeoneMuseum.org.
See original article at" http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...all-wheel-drive-with-upcoming-subaru-exhibit/
Posted by Raymond Arsenault at 6:22 AM
source - http://raymondarsenault.blogspot.ie/2016/03/simeone-museum-celebrates-beauty-of-all.html
1968 Subaru 360. Images courtesy Subaru America.
Vintage Japanese vehicle enthusiasts aside, Subaru isn’t a brand that most Americans associate with collectible cars. Perhaps that’s a testament to the brand’s reputation for building sensible, go-anywhere transportation, or perhaps it’s due to Subaru’s relatively short 48-year history in the U.S. market. In either case, Philadelphia’s Simeone Automotive Museum is looking to shine a spotlight on the Japanese brand with a new temporary exhibit, running April 16 – May 1, 2016, entitled “Subaru: The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive.”
Plans call for the display to include 18 road-going and competition cars from Subaru’s past, including seven pulled from Subaru America’s collection, housed at the company’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey, headquarters. The oldest Subaru on loan from the collection will be a rear-drive 1968 360, the microcar that simultaneously introduced Americans to the brand and nearly doomed its future in North America.
The 1978 Subaru BRAT.
Blame it on automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, who viewed the Japanese market bestseller as a funky and cost-effective alternative to the Volkswagen Beetle. Like the Beetle, the 360 used an air-cooled and rear-mounted engine, but unlike its German counterpart the Subaru used a two-stroke twin instead of a four-stroke four-cylinder. Output from the Subaru was modest, with the 360 making just 25 horsepower, enough to achieve a top speed of 60 MPH as long as the driver was patient. With a curb weight below 1,000 pounds, the Subaru 360 was exempt from the same safety regulations that applied to more conventional automobiles, something that Consumer Reports pointed out to readers when it dubbed the car “Not Acceptable” in a 1969 article.
Despite the bad press, Bricklin imported and sold 10,000 Subaru 360s, paving the way for the Japanese automaker’s more sophisticated (and U.S. market-friendly) products. By the late 1970s, Subaru was well-established on these shores, and rapidly building a reputation for doing things just a bit differently. One such think-outside-the-box exercise, the Subaru BRAT, arrived here in 1978 and presented a novel way of avoiding the U.S. government’s tariff on imported pickups, known as the “Chicken Tax.”
The BRAT’s rear jump seats classified it as a passenger vehicle, not a pickup.
The BRAT, which stood for “Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter” circumvented the Chicken Tax by adding a pair of rear-facing, open air seats, complete with seat belts, in the bed. With seating for four in two rows, the BRAT was no longer a pickup in the eyes of the feds, but a passenger vehicle (albeit an unconventional one). Though most owners panned the rear jump seats as being half-scale, that in no way diminished the appeal of the sporty station wagon-based compact pickup, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the BRAT made Subaru a household name, at least in some parts of the country. It’s fitting, then, that the exhibit will include Subaru’s own 1978 BRAT.
The brand’s innovative spirit will be on display with several other models as well, including a 1980 Subaru GL wagon, complete with its “Cyclops” third headlamp. Hidden behind the Subaru logo on the grille (representing the stars of the Pleiades), the miniature “passing lamp” could be illuminated by a switch on the turn signal stalk to provide ancillary low-beam-only lighting.
1991 Subaru XT.
1991 Subaru SVX CART PPG IndyCar World Series pace car.
Subaru’s wedge-shaped, go anywhere XT will be on loan from the Cherry Hill collection, too. Part sports car, part SUV, the coupe featured an available height-adjustable pneumatic suspension, push-button four wheel drive (later replaced by all-wheel drive) and aircraft-inspired instrumentation. Not necessarily a sales success, the XT still paved the way for Subaru’s first “halo car,” the futuristic SVX. More of a grand-tourer than a car with sporting intentions, a 1991 Subaru SVX (one of the models displayed) was repainted by PPG, fitted with safety equipment and used as a pace car for several seasons with the CART PPG IndyCar World Series.
1996 Subaru Impreza Colin McRae replica.
No discussion of Subaru would be complete without a nod to the brand’s Impreza WRX, the turbocharged all-wheel drive hot hatch (and sedan) that brought new levels of affordable performance into dealer showrooms. The Simeone will be displaying a 1996 Impreza Colin McRae Replica, a production model based upon the WRC car campaigned by the Scottish rally superstar during the 1996 season, as well as a 1998 Impreza 22B STi. Built in a limited production run of just 424 units, the 22B marked both Subaru’s 40[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary as an automaker and its third consecutive manufacturer’s championship in WRC competition, and was dubbed “the Subaru from hell” by Car and Driver for its performance (and, perhaps, for its not-for-U.S.-consumption status).
1998 Subaru Impreza 22B STi.
The Simeone is also taking nominations for other Subaru models to be included in the exhibit. Do you have a pristine first-generation Legacy, or perhaps a well-preserved early-1970s GL wagon? If so, you can contact the Simeone via the exhibit’s webpage.
For more information on upcoming events, visit SimeoneMuseum.org.
See original article at" http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...all-wheel-drive-with-upcoming-subaru-exhibit/
Posted by Raymond Arsenault at 6:22 AM
source - http://raymondarsenault.blogspot.ie/2016/03/simeone-museum-celebrates-beauty-of-all.html
