Monday 20 February 2012

Fast Rabbit from Japan


This is a Fuji Rabbit Superflow S601, displayed at the Museo Scooter & Lambretta in Rodano, near Milan.
The model was built between 1961 and 1968, the last year Fuji built a scooter.
The first Fuji Rabbit, the S-1, was built in June 1946! The company, Fuji Sangyo Co, was founded in 1945 after the second world war. It replaced the Nakajima Aircraft company since the peace treaty forbid Japanese companies to build weapons and war vehicles. The plan was to get Japan on it's feet again by supplying cheap transporation. Sounds a bit like Piaggio, doesn't it?
The Fuji company was inspired by the american Powell scooter. The front wheel of the S-1 was actually a tail landing gear from a Nakajima bomber.
The Superflow above is probably a 200 cc, and 74 694 of them was built. Look's quite a bit more advanced than the S-2 from 1947 below.
Unfortunately I've never seen a Fuji Rabbit in Sweden.

This is a Fuji Rabbit S-2 from 1947, also at Tessera's museum.

1 comment:

  1. The Superflow was a pretty advanced scooter. It had much more luxurious features than a contemporary Vespa. Fuji also made a smaller 150cc scooter. Both are fairly rare in the US as well. That '47 Rabbit is amazing. I can't believe that one survived.

    -Paul

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