Subaru 450 Sports

The Subaru 450 Sports was a compact, rear-engined sports car prototype unveiled at the 8th Tokyo Motor Show in 1961.

Developed from the Subaru 360—the brand’s popular kei car of that time—it was intended to demonstrate a livelier, more performance-oriented take on the tiny platform.

Power came from a 0.4-liter two-cylinder engine with 22.5 hp, mounted at the rear to enhance balance and handling.

Though the design was promising, the 450 Sports never moved past the prototype stage.

Few prototypes were built before the project was abandoned, leaving the 450 Sports as a brief early chapter in Subaru’s experiments with small sporting vehicles.