Kei cars, or in Japanese ”軽自動車” (Romaji: Kei-jidousha), is a Japan-specific vehicle category which classifies cars within a certain dimension and engine displacement category. Usually characterized by its strict 660cc engine size regulation, kei cars have been around long enough for even the Japanese themselves to remember, providing cheap, efficient alternatives to full-size automobiles which can not only be expensive to purchase, but also expensive to maintain in some cases. In the 1980s, the demand for more lifestyle-oriented kei cars skyrocketed, and such gave birth to the many sports kei of its era, most notably the Daihatsu Mira TR-XX, Subaru Rex Combi, and the undeniable king of sports kei hatchbacks, the Suzuki Alto Works. For years, the Alto Works has become a staple of fast compact keis, and to this day, it still holds that title very well. However, during the 1990s, its reputation was given a good run for its money by what was possibly one of the best engineered kei cars to have been introduced in Japanese soil, at least for its time. This is the story of the Subaru Vivio, one of the prime examples of how a cheap, affordable kei car can also match the quality of a regular, full-size automobile.
During the 80s, Fuji Heavy Industries, or what would later be known as Subaru, were having hard times with the sales of their Rex kei car line-up, being somewhat inferior to the success of the Daihatsu Mira and the Suzuki Alto. Mediocre sales figures and a lack of popularity compared to Daihatsu's and Suzuki's A-game entries pushed Subaru into making a kei car that not only was better than the two kei car company giants, but would later set the standard for future kei cars to come. In 1992, the regulations now allowed an increase of engine displacement from 550cc to 660cc, and in March of the same year, FHI unveiled their Vivio kei compact, being a direct successor to the Rex. Under its theme of "Simple Rich", Subaru wanted to achieve and create a kei car that was both "simple" yet "rich" with the latest technology and features of the 1990s. Hence, many breakthroughs not seen before in kei cars were adopted into the Vivio. First, the body has been given extensive strengthening to ensure that it does well in 40 km/h collision safety crashes, a standard which was only supposed to be applied to ordinary cars, yet with its high strength and rigidity, the Vivio passed with flying colors, as such becoming the strongest kei car for impact collision safety during its time.
Then the suspension, which was another turning point of the Vivio, and something that was completely unheard of during its time. When other kei car makers were still using live axle systems on their kei vehicles, Subaru revolutionized the game by using 4-wheel independent strut suspension on all corners, with the front being Subaru Legacy-derived L-shaped struts and the rear being a dual-link system equipped with semi-trailing arms to provide additional suspension stroke. This allowed for better cornering prowess as well as the ability to surpress understeer and promote stability by reducing dynamic toe changes, something that many kei cars of the time period severely lacked, and certainly far more advanced than almost every offering of its day. Having the front suspension bushings harder than the rear also contributed to the reduction of vehicle vibration and noise, increasing driver and passenger ride comfort, a quality that was again not seen in many kei cars of this time period. As if the genius suspension system was already a breakthrough in kei car development, Subaru's Vivio still had a couple of tricks up its sleeve, particularly its engine.
A newly developed EN07-type engine was used for the Vivio, taken from the very last generation of the Rex. Being yet another breakthrough in its class, though not as apparent as its suspension system, the then-new engine used a 4-cylinder layout and was offered in either a single-overhead cam or a double-overhead cam layout. This was applied on all Vivio ranges from its most basic model to its high performance, top-of-the-line trim (which we'll get to in a bit). When other kei manufacturers were still relying on judder-prone 3-cylinders, Subaru basically offered a standard of added luxury and comfort with its 4-cylinder engine, something which yet again no kei car manufacturer has dared to touch. In addition to an offset valve lifter which can increase lift on the engine, the EN07X, Subaru's highest grade engine model on the Vivio, was also equipped with a mechanical roots-style supercharger, producing 64PS at 7200 RPM and 9.0 kg-m of torque at 4000 RPM. However, some claimed this figure to be a lot higher than advertised, with third-party dyno tests clocking the power in at almost 80PS, 16PS more than the advertised horsepower and the official kei car standard. With this overpowered engine, the little Subaru could reportedly propel itself above 180 km/h de-restricted, making it allegedly the fastest kei car for its time. Yet another outstanding achievement by the small Subaru that could.
Along with its luxuriously (almost) judder-free engine also came two transmission options; a basic 5-speed MT, 3-speed AT, or an E-CVT transmission. Yes, this kei car from 1992 already utilized continuous variable transmission technology, something in which even full-sized cars of its day still struggled to adopt. Using an early Fandon pulley belt design with hydraulic pressure control, the E-CVT transmission would automatically control the clutch via electromagnetic action, prompting seamless shift changes without the need of a clutch pedal. However, due to the system being very early on its development stage, its operation was far from smooth, with owners complaining about the extremely jerky behavior of gear changes unless driven smoothly, and not to mention the electromagnetic clutch wearing down prematurely before its recommended service time, most commonly due to extreme workloads by the "van" Vivios, a type of base model "workhorse" Vivio. However, the system would soon be improved by 1995, introducing a new 6-speed "sports mode" manual shift function co-developed with Porsche to allow manual shifting in the case that the CVT's jerkiness might be too much to handle. All three transmission options are either paired to a traditional front-wheel-drive, front-engined drivetrain, a part-time 4WD system, or a full-time 4WD system with a viscous center-differential, adopted from the Legacy itself.
The interior was also given extensive treatment to introduce a sportier, driver-oriented feeling. Under the concept of "Driver's Mini", special attention was made to focus the interior on the driver alone. Compared to the Rex, the Vivio's front seats was moved back by about 40 mm, the seat base surface has been lowered by 21 mm, the driver seats were moved to the center by as much as 12 mm, and accompanying this is the transmission tunnel which was now offset to the left. The steering wheel itself was moved back by 21 mm and down by 14.5 mm, and finally the pedal position has been moved 13 mm to the outside. This very driver-focused cabin alongside with the Vivio's low center of gravity body design made for a well-balanced driver's car, emphasizing on driving pleasure and excitement. Speaking of which, there are three different body types that were offered on the Vivio, the first is a conventional 3-door and 5-door hatchback, and then a special edition 2-door T-top convertible to commemorate Subaru's 40th anniversary, and later as the limited run GX-T trim model, limited to only 3000 and 1000 units respectively. This became the only convertible car that Subaru made, where due to their strict safety standards, convertible automobiles were a far cry from any of Subaru's vehicle line-up, but in May of 1993, this became the only exception. Other "trim" models include the "pike car" Vivio Bistro, a weird, stylized Vivio with a 60's vintage era inspired bodykit.
Of course, no Vivio discussion would be complete without the mention of its top-grade model, the RX-R and RX-RA, in which the latter became a motorsports race base model for motorsport competitions. With its high-power supercharged engine and rigid body, the Vivio became a force to be reckoned with on local JAF rallies of its time, going neck to neck against Suzuki's best, the Alto Works. However, this wasn't to be the Vivio's greatest achievement, rather, it was something rather unexpected, something a whole lot more unforgiving and a whole lot more tough. In 1993, Subaru rally works teams entered the Vivio on what was believed to be the toughest rally competition known to man; the Safari Rally. Endless stretches of scorching hot Kenyan deserts which tested quite literally every nut and bolt the car has to offer to such an unrelenting environment. The Vivio, classed under Group A5 regulations, was faced against the likes of turbo 4WD behemoths such as Subaru's own Impreza Turbo Group A, or Toyota's championship-winning ST185 Celica GT-Fours. The competition certainly wasn't easy to begin with, let alone possible to beat by chance analysis. However, driven by Mr. McCrash himself, Colin McRae, along with Masafumi Ishida, Fransisco Vilazner and local native Patrick Gilles, the wee Subaru showed its unprecedented might by scoring a 5th overall on a particular Safari stage, in fact sources claiming that it allegedly beat the ST185s to the finish line, and finally finishing with a 12th overall best and a class win.
Despite the chassis cracking due to the intense stress of the Safari Rally, it was nonetheless a monumental success for Subaru, while also proving the Vivio's over-engineered greatness. Who would've known that a small 660cc compact car which by chances alone are less likely to even cross a fourth of the stage to make it down to the finish line and grab a class win? By all accounts it could be considered both a miracle and the fruit of Subaru's extensive efforts and engineering with the Vivio. To this day, the Vivio remains the only kei car to challenge the Safari rally, and win a class victory, not to mention finish among the tens of cars that remained throughout a rally which originally consisted of hundreds of cars. But if the Safari rally wasn't good enough of a performance parameter, the kei Subaru also posted a 1:13:35 lap time on Tsukuba Circuit 2000, a good THREE seconds faster than the 1983 Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX, yes the AE86! Considering that it only had almost a third in engine displacement of what the AE86 had, the Vivio RX-R's Tsukuba lap time is nothing short of phenomenal, and yet is another testament to Subaru's over-engineering for the Vivio, in fact, it was called as the "mini Impreza WRX" due to its similar "style" to its 4door sedan big brother and similar inner workings as well as outstanding performance.
In 1998 the Subaru Vivio was finally retired, now replaced with the Subaru Pleo which ditched the compact dimensions of the Vivio in turn for a tall-wagon style body shape, due to a shift in consumer preferences, in which the tall-wagon style ultimately became a popular choice back then. By 2003, the Pleo was supposedly replaced by the R3. However, due to declining sales of its successor, the car continued to be produced alongside the R3 until their discontinuation in 2010. Since then, Subaru announced that they would be pulling away from the kei car segment once and for all, focusing on their more popular full-size car lineups, and that fact still remains as of this post's writing. Despite this, the Vivio became an excellent example of a well-engineered, well-built, and well-thought of kei car, something that could actually rival real automobiles that had proper engines and proper sizes. To this day, the Alto Works remains to be the only sports kei left in existence, but the adoption of MacPherson struts in its design clearly shows the influence the Vivio had on future kei cars. Today, the Vivio is all but forgotten, even by Subaru fans themselves, but it cannot be denied the fact that it quite literally, changed the game for kei cars and inspired better development of Japan's "low cost car" segment today.
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