Super Subaru is 'most improved'

By Alastair Sloane

Subaru's balance sheet for the 1998-99 year showed it finished third on the Japan money list behind Toyota and Honda - a result which prompted London's Financial Times to name it the world's most improved car company.

But in a motoring world of takeovers and targets, Subaru's parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, says it is in no hurry to join forces with another company. Nissan already owns 5 per cent of Subaru.

Subaru says it wants to remain a niche carmaker of all-wheel-drive vehicles which have their own brand identity.

"But if there are areas of new technology where Subaru can form co-alliances with benefits to both parties, it will do so," the carmaker said.

The first indication it would branch out was the development with Porsche Design of the Legacy B4 Blitzen (pictured), a swept-up version of the Legacy RKS B4, which sells in New Zealand.

Porsche Design is part of the Porsche empire but is separate from the car company. One of its top designers is New Zealander Simon Fraser.

The design team reworked the Legacy, giving it special front and rear bumpers and spoilers and 17in aluminium wheels.

The RKS and the B4 Blitzen are powered by a 2-litre four-cylinder 205kW turbocharged engine, the same engine found under the bonnet of Subaru's STi Impreza.