A new motor, an F1 star and the Italian job
Suzuki may be a Japanese company but it has a very British connection.
The late, great Formula 1 driver Sir Stirling Moss was chosen by the company in 1968 to test the Suzulight Fronte SS on European roads to prove its capabilities.
Stirling, who died on April 20 this year during the corona lockdown, competed in 529 races in his career across various categories and won 212 of them – an astonishing 40 per cent.
Additionally, he competed in rallies, hill climbs and record attempts.
The Fronte test was to be conducted on the Autostrada del Sol on a 462-mile stretch from Milan to Naples which, at that time, had speed limits only at bends and tunnels.
The car was already a winner in Japan but Suzuki was keen to see how it performed in Europe and under the hand of a top European driver.
Moss’s co-driver was Mitsuo Ito, a Suzuki motorcycle rider and something of a Japanese hero. He had won the Isle of Man TT 50cc class in 1963 and was the first Japanese driver to have won a TT. Moss and
Ito arrived at their first transit point, Rome, and became global news. They had managed the first leg of 338 miles in Suzuki’s “mini car” in just four hours and 27 minutes at an average speed of 77mph.
They drove the remainder of the route to Naples at an average of 75mph, proving the performance and endurance of the small car, which came with an engine capacity of 360cc, a power output of just 25PS and weighing in at just 420kg.
The Fronte SS 360 was a new concept to the market, with a rear engine and rear-wheel drive and uniquely rounded styling. The complex surface structure was known as the “coke bottle line”.
Inside, Suzuki responded to customer demand with enough space for four passengers.
In this way, it preceded much of Suzuki’s later small car output, such as the Ignis and Swift. The Swift Sport hybrid weighs in at just 1025kg.