The story
History
Suzuki Michio founded Suzuki Shiki Shokki in 1909 to make looms. In 1936 the firm studied the Austin Seven and built a few prototypes of its own, until the war stopped the plan. After the war the demand for looms fell away, and Suzuki turned to engines for bicycles, the Power Free of 1952 and the Diamond Free, then to the 90 cc Colleda motorcycle in 1954. That June it became Suzuki Jidōsha Kōgyō, the Suzuki Motor Company.source 1
Suzuki Michio wanted a car. His son-in-law Shunzō, the managing director, and others thought it too soon.source 1 Research began in January 1954, by Suzuki’s own date.source 2 Three young engineers were chosen from the production side, men who knew how looms were designed but not motorcycles: Inagawa Seiichi, Suzuki Hiroshi and Shima Kenji. A board member, Suzuki Saburō, who had worked on the pre-war Austin study, backed them.source 1 Inagawa led the development, and later became Suzuki’s chairman.source 1
Four cars taken apart
From February 1954 the company bought a Volkswagen Beetle, a Renault 4CV, a Lloyd LP400 and a Citroën 2CV, drove them and took them apart. Four-stroke engines and in-line layouts were out, because Suzuki had no machines to grind camshafts or cut hypoid gears, and a monocoque body was beyond it. What remained was the Lloyd: a two-stroke twin, set across the car so that it needed no special gears, a simple backbone frame, and front-wheel drive, which left room for a load space in a van.source 1
The engine was drawn from March 1954, from a prototype based on the Lloyd’s.source 3 It was planned at 240 cc, then the limit for two-strokes in the kei class, with a Lloyd-style fan. Suzuki’s foundry could not cast the twin block, so the early blocks came from Naka-Nihon Jūkōgyō in Nagoya, and the pistons were bought in too. In October 1954 the authorities decided that two-strokes would be allowed 360 cc from April 1955, and the engine grew.source 1 The Lloyd’s L-shaped drive joints were copied, with rubber boots that were new in Japan; keyed drive shafts broke and were replaced by splined ones.source 1
The night run to Tokyo
Prototype No. 1 was completed on 1 September 1954 and No. 2 on 25 October, by Suzuki’s account; Japanese Wikipedia has both ready in September. Both were left-hand drive and very like the Lloyd.source 1source 2 On 25 October the team set off from Suzuki Michio’s house in Hamamatsu at two in the morning, in both prototypes, with Michio following in a Volkswagen. No. 2, driven by Suzuki Saburō, seized on the climb over the Hakone pass; Inagawa blamed him for labouring it in low gears. Inagawa and a colleague got out, the luggage came off, and the car climbed with its silencer removed.source 1 At eleven at night they reached the Shibaura works of the importer Yanase. Yanase Jirō drove a prototype round the streets until after midnight, and his verdict was largely favourable.source 1
A third prototype, with Suzuki’s own two-stroke, followed in April 1955. Van and pickup bodies were added, and the cars went over to right-hand drive.source 1 On 20 July 1955 the saloon, van and truck were approved, the 23rd kei type approval.source 1source 4
October 1955
The Suzulight went on sale in October 1955 as the SS saloon, the SL light van and the SP pickup, at ¥420,000, ¥390,000 and ¥370,000 in Tokyo; the SD delivery van followed in November.source 1source 2source 4 The name joined Suzu, for Suzuki, to “light”, meaning both light in weight and light as in hope.source 5source 2 It was the first serious four-wheeled kei passenger car, in JSAE’s words, and by Suzuki’s and JSAE’s count Japan’s first front-wheel-drive car; English Wikipedia gives that title to the pre-war Tsukuba, built in small numbers, so the Suzulight was the first built in series.source 5source 2source 4 At first Suzuki made three or four a month, and about 30 a month by February 1956.source 4
A rival’s history was less kind. As Japanese Wikipedia’s history of the Subaru 360 tells it, the Suzulight was in essence a Lloyd scaled down to kei limits, a four-seater whose rear seat suited only children, heavy at 520 kg and slow to accelerate, and its Lloyd-type joints were its main weakness on the road.source 6 The coil-and-wishbone suspension could not cope with Japan’s roads, and leaf springs replaced it within months: at the front from February 1956, all round from July (April, by English Wikipedia).source 1source 4 In April 1956 power rose from 15.1 to 18 PS, and that November the 16-inch tyres gave way to 14-inch ones.source 1source 4 Suzuki Michio retired as president in February 1957, aged 70, and Shunzō succeeded him.source 1
The van that beat the tax
In January 1958 a new commodity tax of 15 per cent on passenger cars made the saloon unsaleable, and the Suzulight became a van only. The SL escaped the tax: Suzuki says it was designed to, with a load floor of a square metre for 200 kg and a folding seat for a third person.source 1source 2source 4 A final version with two-tone paint came in October 1958; production ended in January 1959, and sales that July.source 1source 2
The new TL of July 1959 was a van too, for the same tax reason: lower, boxy, on 12-inch wheels, with a curved windscreen. It looked like a Mini, but its development had begun in August 1957, before the Mini’s.source 1source 2 It made Suzuki a volume maker: 200 a month by December 1959 and 5,824 in 1960, though Typhoon Vera destroyed the assembly plant on 26 November 1959 and a new line took four months.source 2source 4 The TL III of October 1961 had a fully synchronised four-speed gearbox, and the Suzulight Fronte TLA of March 1962 was the TL as a passenger car.source 1source 2source 4 The FE van of 1963 brought a new engine and Selmix automatic oil mixing, and the FE II of 1965 separate lubrication and 22 PS.source 2source 4 Saloon sales ended in 1967 and van sales in December 1968, after 13 years; the passenger line went on as the Suzuki Fronte, and the Carry name began on the Suzulight Carry of 1961.source 1source 2source 4
