Subaru Vivio RX-R ‘Super KK’
This isn’t a story, yet, about the neoclassic Subaru Vivio Bistro, Bistro Chiffon, Bistro SS, Bistro B-Custom, Bistro White Edition, L Bistro, Club Bistro, or Sport Bistro trim levels.
It’s also not about the Subaru Vivio T-Top, one of the few ways to get an actual targa top in a kei car.
Subaru Vivio, Vivio Bistro, Vivio RX-A, and Vivio GX-T ‘Targa’ • Subaru
This is all about the 1993 Safari Rally, and how Subaru, with Subaru Technica International (STi) founder Noriyuki Koseki, decided to enter three Vivio RX-R kei cars — just for kicks, you understand — and that one of them was piloted by Colin McRae. Another was driven by Masashi Ishida, with Patrick Njiru at the wheel of the third car.
If you wanted a small-but-comically-fast Japanese hatchback, the quick teams were in Daihatsu Charades. Seriously: those cars finished 5, 6, 7; right behind the factory Toyota team.
The best-placed Vivio Super KK, and the only factory car that finished? Njiru’s, in 12th. According to DirtFish, a Mexican privateer named Francisco Villasenor also finished the rally in a Vivio, placing 15th.
Period Safari Rally footage — yes, those Vivios really were THAT loud, holy hell
McRae’s car broke, yes, but he apparently set a fastest stage time along the way. This is likely a time set for his class, unless McRae somehow conjured up a few thousand more cc to aid the Vivio‘s count of just 658cc.
This kei car is supercharged, which is cool, but the result was just 85 horsepower. All-wheel-drive? Of course. Weight? 700 kg (1,543 lbs) — 2 kg below minimum weight for a mid-2010s Formula 1 car!
The yellow Subaru Vivio ‘Super KK’ models from the 1993 Safari Rally. Colin McRae’s car was blue (see below) • Subaru, source(s) unknown
Why do I call it the ‘Super KK’, when Subaru never actually built a car called the Vivio Super KK? Because that’s what Subaru wrote on both of the original FIA Group N and FIA Group A homologation forms that I’d found…on FIA’s website.
Rare Subaru factory footage from the 1992 Paris-Moscow-Beijing Rally/Raid! Yes, a Vivio RX-R competed in this long-distance trial also!
Notice…anything…different…? (Also, the aero appendage up top looks to be unique to this particular race car.
Logically, ‘KK’ is also the car’s internal designation within Subaru.
At Subaru, rally is how and, importantly, why it created the super KK.
Indeed, thanks to period FIA documentation, all of this super kei car’s parameters are outlined in great detail, from engine modifications to bodywork and roll bar specifications. I’ve included them here.
