1994 Subaru Vivio T-Top GX-T – Small Luxuries

It may be lonely at the top, but it’s not always a barrel of laughs at the bottom, either. Kei cars are usually rather timid and boring little JDM conveyances, bought by folks who don’t have the means or the space to get anything else. So the carmakers who manufacture them (in the early ‘90s, that meant Autozam, Daihatsu, Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Suzuki) have a tendency to start off with the most basic two-box design and add things to make them more interesting. In the Subaru Vivio’s case though, they could also take things off.

Subaru were born in the kei car business. Their first production four-wheeler was one, way back in the ‘50s, having tried and aborted a “large” 1500cc car a few years earlier. From the 360 (1959-70) onward, there was always a kei quietly sitting in Subaru’s range, though the marque’s larger boxer-engined AWD offerings were the shiny object that gave the carmaker their international stripes.

In March 1992, the old Rex was given the boot as Subaru launched the Vivio, their new kei car. It came in three- or five-door hatchback flavours, got a bunch of unfathomable trim differentiations as per JDM customer demand (one presumes), independent suspension front and rear and featured a 658cc OHC water-cooled 4-cyl. providing anywhere from 42hp (for base vans only) to 64hp, the legally-mandated maximum.

Some Vivios were exported, like the UK-registered one above, but those usually featured a special 758cc engine. No point on following kei car specs in places where they don’t apply.

The hotter cars had the 64hp supercharged engine, identifiable by their hood scoop. Some grades were available with Subaru’s own CVT, some with a 5-speed manual. AWD transmission was also available. So there were a number of options for folks who wanted a little more performance, but Subaru saw fit to add a new body variant as well.

In May 1993, the T-Top was added to the range as a limited-production special. It was based on the three-door Vivio, but the whole body aft of the A-pillar was made by Takada Kogyo, a Yokohama-based firm that was hitherto chiefly in business with Nissan, taking care of manufacturing their Pike Cars (BE-1, Pao, Figaro) and the S13 Silvia Convertible.

Unlike, say, the Daihatsu Leeza Spider or the Mazda Familia cabriolet, the Vivio was not a mere cut-and-soft-cover type job. It was a lot more practical in many ways, but also a lot more complex to make, with its modular roof. A very similar concept had been used on the Suzuki Cappuccino, which had been in production since 1991: the back of the greenhouse could be lowered into the body. Three roof panels directly above the driver and passenger could also be removed independently.

The T-Top was to be a relatively expensive little machine set for small production run of 3000 units. Only available in red and green, the T-Top was only available with the standard 52hp engine. But in February 1994, Subaru addressed this by launching the GX-T, which joined the T-Top with the 64hp supercharged engine. Said engine was unfortunately always paired with the CVT, but one apparently cannot have everything, even on the JDM.

These GX-Ts were given the supercharged cars’ more aggressive front end, as well as a big rear spoiler in lieu of the chromed luggage rack seen on the non-supercharged T-Tops. Just like said T-Tops, these are legally four-seater cars, as a minuscule back seat (almost always used for luggage) does exist.

The GX-T was only available in silver or black, with two-tone Recaro-type seats in both colours. Our feature car has added plastiwood inserts here and there, which may have come from the pseudo-deluxe neo-retro Vivio Bistro B-Custom (1995-98). There were so many variants of these little cars that a lot of opportunities exist for swapping trim pieces.

The Vivio carried on as Subaru’s smallest car until September 1998, when it was replaced by the Pleo. Kei class size regulations were updated that year, so most carmakers modified or completely redesigned their models at that time. Close to 750k units of the Vivio were made, proving that kei cars are a core side of Subaru’s sales, at least in Japan.

That is not the case for this particular Vivio, though. With just a thousand made, the supercharged T-Top is bona fide kei car aristocracy, albeit in the French sense: uncommon, impractical, expensive and decapitated. C’est la Vivio !

 

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Curbside Classic: Subaru Vivio Bistro – Boxster Day Find, by David Saunders