Q I see. Could you talk a little more about the four features you mentioned at the start?

A First was the engine. The torque of this engine is 4.1 kg-m/5000 rpm, which is quite a lot higher than 3.8 kg-m in the air-cooled series. Therefore, the engine has good bite at both low and medium speeds and it has plenty of drive power in reserve.

Q Moreover, because rotations during the maximum torque are low at 5,000 rpm, it has excellent drivability in everyday running.

A Yes. You can say exactly the same thing about the air-cooled series too.

Q What is the cooling system like?

A An efficient design is adopted whereby the thermo switch in the radiator and the thermostat in the engine work in combination.

Q Could you give a little more detail?

A After the engine starts, cooling water doesn’t flow to the radiator until the water temperature reaches 82°C but it simply circulates through the bypass pipe that connects the cylinder to the water pump. Therefore, the engine warm-up time is short. When the water temperature reaches 82°C, the thermostat is activated causing water to flow to the radiator while ram force (car velocity wind) causes cooling to begin.

Q How does it perform on congested roads in urban areas?

A On congested city roads, when the water temperature reaches 92°C, the electric fan is activated and does its job.

Q So there is no worry about overheating, is there? Also, with this system, the cooling fan doesn’t cause any power loss in the engine.

A That’s right. Moreover, if you open the summer/winter switching cock between the cylinder and air cleaner, the winter cab hot water residual heat device works and enables first-time ignition.

Q First-time ignition as well as short engine warm-up through utilizing the bypass pipe. What more could anyone want?

A Needless to say, the cooling water is long-life coolant. There is absolutely no need to spend time on replacing antifreeze solution or cleaning the radiator and so on.

Q I see. The “L” in the water-cooled “L” series stands for the liquid cooling that utilizes long-life coolant.

A That’s right. You have good intuition. “L” also stands for Luxury.

Q What can you say about the heater that is another merit of the water-cooled series?

A In short, it is a luxurious heater system with inside air/outside air switching that adopts a powerful blower.

Q Can you give us some more information on that inside/outside air switching system?

A Simply by moving a lever, you can circulate the inside air on very cold days or dusty roads, or you can introduce outside air when running in suburban fresh air conditions.

Q Through combining this with ventilation, you can set the inside temperature as you like.

A Yes, that’s right. Moreover, the heater unit contains a lever that switches between the defroster and the compartment.

Q One final question: Why is the water-cooled engine so quiet?

A That’s because the cool water that surrounds the cylinder also serves to absorb the engine noise. However, the Subaru quiet design does not end there. As I mentioned when talking about the cooling system, fan noise isn’t a problem in the unique electric fan cooling system. Moreover, because a constant velocity joint is adopted on the rear axle (Custom L), vibration and noise are low. With the addition of the GSS and two water-cooled models, the R-2 Series has eight types in the sedan class alone, and the addition of new body colors means that there is a wide variation of types in both reality and in name. I wonder what the ideal variation for you is.

Q I’ll need some time to think about that. Thanks for all your help today.

(The above contents were excerpted from “Subaru Vol. 67.”)



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