The Engineers' Lounge
 

[IMG]http://www.fhi.co.jp/philosophy/img/130405.jpg[/IMG]

In Cartopia Vol. 141 presented last week
there was a column entitled “The Engineers’ Lounge” at the start of the issue. Included in this column were the comments of future Fuji Heavy Industries President Kyoji Takenaka. We are reproducing this extremely interesting discussion where he talked about the approach to car design and production at Subaru, and from there, his thoughts regarding the newly introduced Justy.

[B]The Engineers’ Lounge: Expecting Creative Usage of the Justy[/B]

[B]Kyoji Takenaka, Sect. 2, Product Planning Dept., Subaru Planning Div.[/B]

I started at Subaru in 1969, spending my first four years in the Auto Body Research/Experiment Dept. performing tasks such as performance testing of vehicles, after which I was transferred to mechanism design where I spent some two years designing brake-related equipment. After that, I became involved in new product planning in the Product Planning Dept. where I am currently working. In this department, I have had a hand in the Rex 5, FF Rex, Rex Combi, and the new Justy.

Usually the specific development of new products starts some three years prior to release. During this period we have been developing new models. The case of the Justy is different from the previous Leone and Rex models in that we had to send a completely new product out into the world resulting in it being thoroughly different from the very start of the project itself. It was the three years prior to the release when we had finally reached a concept that allowed us to say “This is it” with conviction, after refining the concept over and over again and holding discussions among young engineers. For this reason, Justy is an extremely important large project.

Although the introduction of the Subaru 1000 in 1966 was a revolutionary product that put Subaru technology to the test on the world stage, the Justy is in no manner just a normal car within the current 1,000-cc car class, and so we had to think about ways to emphasize the originality of Subaru. A 1,000-cc car provides no real value by simply existing in the middle of the line drawn between light cars and compacts. For that reason, we introduced 4WD into the design as a strong point, while also combining a high-power engine with economical performance in order to develop a two-box 1.0 liter car that pursues a new way of driving. Of course, we also integrated Subaru’s ECVT, a ground-breaking easy driving system, into our plans.

To be continued next week…



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So wrong was I.

Thought there would be beer in here....

Engineers beer = Wine Cooler :p