1984 Bubu 501 – Mitsuoka’s Mysterious Moped-Propelled Pyramid

I had to take a couple weeks off CC for some (thankfully pleasant) family matters, so here’s something from way out of left field to kick-start the ‘80s Extravaganza that will be March and April. Mitsuoka may have started selling cars under their own name in the ‘90s, but they started manufacturing vehicles in the early ‘80s. Behold, the bizarre Bubu, a 50cc bubble car that went triangular!

Japan’s youngest carmaker began as a humble body repair shop in February 1968, headed by Susumu Mitsuoka. In 1979, the business was incorporated as Mitsuoka Motor Co., Ltd., as the plan was to expand to become a full-fledged manufacturer of the one type of car that Japan’s nine other carmakers neglected – namely, microcars.

In early 1982, the Bubu Shuttle 50 four-wheeler was launched, featuring a 50cc Honda engine. It was followed by our triangular three-wheeled Bubu 501, launched later the very same year. The 502 three-wheeled van (with the single wheel in front, this time) arrived in 1983; the 503 (middle left), a more bubbly version of the 502, landed in 1984. In 1985, the four-wheeled 504 (middle right) was unveiled. The sexier Lime was also introduced that year, as was the 505-C, a miniature 50cc version of the Jaguar SS-100.

This last model, a tiny and affordable classic-styled vehicle, was to be the way of the immediate future for Mitsuoka. Circa 1986, Japan’s hitherto tolerant laws on microcars were tightened: no longer could one just pilot a Bubu out on the open road with a mere scooter license. The market quickly cratered and the little Bubus gradually retrenched, then disappeared altogether.

In their stead, Mitsuoka developed several larger models based on VW Beetle mechanicals, including a clone of the Gazelle SSK (the one in that post may well be a Bubu, now that I think about it…) and a Porsche 356 Speedster replica. Then came the 1990 LeSeyde and the 1993 Viewt, the first cars bearing the Mitsuoka name proper. So what we have here is the very lowest form of Mitsuoka, the one that crawled out of the primordial ooze. Single celled, single-seater, single-powered, but not exactly uninteresting, as an archaeological artefact.

Visiting the pyramid’s interior, we can see that the 501 has a Honda-branded speedo to go with its motor. Another notable finding is the steering wheel: some Bubus, including the Shuttle and the 502, made do with handlebars.

But then, the 501 was the sportier of the Bubus, if such a term can be deemed appropriate. Sporty and deluxe: it costs about 10% more than the 502 or the 503. Max speed was quoted as 50kph for a total weight of 185kgs. People who have had the temerity of piloting these machines on the open road say it is possible to reach over 60kph when going downhill, but that the stability of the whole vehicle in those conditions is on the precarious side. And the crumple zone is the driver’s rib cage…

There is not a whole lot of concrete information out there about Bubus, no matter the model. Production numbers are unknown (probably in the hundreds, like all Mitsuoka products) and not many cars have made it to their fifth decade on this turbulent planet. Given the state of the one I managed to discover, the plastic they were made with seems to be halfway biodegradable. A green vehicle before green vehicles were a thing…

It’s difficult to imagine how this initial experiment can have been a financial success: Mitsuoka engineered at least four different chassis (two four-wheelers and two three-wheelers) and only had a few short years to amortize these platforms before the market collapsed. Nonetheless, the Bubu was instrumental in launching Mitsuoka as a car manufacturer, so the Bubu experiment cannot be called a complete failure.

Mitsuoka abandoned the Bubu marque by 1990, but they never really left the microcar market, manufacturing the MC-1 from 1998 to 2007, among others. Nor did they abandon the replica field, come to that: I recently found one at a local car meet that emulated the four-wheeled Messerschmitt. Japan’s smallest carmaker now sees those as side projects more than anything else, focusing on oddly-modified regular-sized production cars instead. Good to see that Mitsuokas were never boring, even before their time.