Fuji Heavy Industries., Tokyo, 1946-68
富士重工業
At the end of WWII, the Nakajima Aircraft Company reformed as New Fuji Industries in 1945, and then Fuji Heavy Industries in 1953. In June of 1946 they produced the 'Rabbit' scooter which was largely based on an American Powell scooter. The 'Rabbit' was quite successful with over 500,000 sold and remained in production till 1968 when it was removed from the market to allow a manufacturing transition to full Subaru production which had started in 1958. Eventually the name was changed to Subaru Co. Ltd in 2017.
Many models of 'Rabbit' were produced in 90cc, 123cc and 199cc models over the course of production. All used a 2 stroke engine, centrifugal clutch with torque converter drive. Initial test models supposedly used the wheels from the tail of the Navy Galaxy aircraft as rubber in the immediate post-war timeframe was unavailable. The first model was the S-1. As per "The Tiddler Invasion" by Floyd Orr, the Rabbit was exported to the USA between 1962 and 1968 by American Rabbit Corp., which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries.
There is an extensive Rabbit owner's club in Japan - one web site with a wealth of information is available at this link.
Fuji Heavy Industries also produced British styled motorcycles initially called the King Dyna (キングダイナ) in 1954, changing to the Hurricane (ハリケーン) in 1956 (?). These were produced at their Omiya facility outside of Tokyo. Production supposedly ran from 1951 to 1961 and included 250cc (model T92C ?), 348cc ohv single cylinder 4 stroke versions, as well as a 2 stroke version called the RK-21.
This is a video of a King Dyna in action filmed by someone called "TTURARC166" and posted on YouTube.
Fuji Heavy Industries also produced a three wheeled utility vehicle called the Dynaster (ダイナスター). between at least 1953 and 1955.
