Subaru Sambar: Chassis

As a break from the two American trucks on the bench, I decided to tackle Aoshima's Subaru Sambar. The kit comes with a flyer for the 2011 Sambar recognising 50 years of production. Prices are listed as well, ranging from 899,000 Yen for a basic 2WD truck to 1,408,950 Yen for the fully loaded 4WD version of the van. The kit models the 4WD truck which (if I interpret the flyer properly) went for just over 1 million Yen for the 5-speed version.



What a detailed little kit! Some Aoshima kits are pretty basic but this one involves plenty of teensy weensie little bits. A certain amount of fiddling arises due to the very small dowel and socket joints.



The present version has a 658 cc inline 4 making 48 hp. It's mounted transversly and tipped over on its side, behind the rear wheels. The cam cover and spark plugs face rearwards. 



The 4WD system is well modeled. The chassis includes a large number of coolant and other pipes from front to rear.



The inevitable comparison with the Suburban shows the huge difference in size, which is actually worse in real life because the Suburban is 1/25 while the Sambar is 1/24.



The chassis is essentially done. Stay tuned!