Long before Subaru was building all-wheel drive family haulers and rally cars for the street, they were known for their micro cars. We have featured a few of these early Subarus, known as the 360, but we have never had the pleasure of featuring the company’s first factory tuned special. Long before the STi was tearing up gravel roads, the Subaru 360 Young S was tearing up the congested streets of Japan. Finding one of these performance Kei cars here in the States is nearly unheard of these days, so when I came across this listing for not one but two of them I knew they needed a mention! To make matters even more interesting, these are sequentially numbered cars, meaning they came off the production line one right after the other. The seller doesn’t want to split them up, so he is offering them as a package deal here on eBay in Gilbert, Arizona.

The Young edition cars came in two variations, the S and the SS. Obviously the SS was the more highly tuned version, but both cars used the same EK32 two stroke 2-cylinder engine. The major difference between the two was the addition of a second carburetor to the SS motor. Power of the S was around 30 horsepower while the SS was good for about 36 hp. That’s not a lot of power, but then again there isn’t a lot of car here. To make full use of the added power, the standard 3 speed was replaced with a 4 speed, which helped with top speed.

The other enhancements made to the Young S and SS were primarily cosmetic, such as the racing stripes and surf board friendly roof indent, but the interior did receive a tachometer and bucket seats. These items may not improve performance, but are welcome additions. For such a small car, the 360 looks surprisingly roomy, although I doubt I would want to make a long distance trip in one. Getting these two put back together is going to be a massive undertaking, as both have been disassembled and have some body damage.

The seller isn’t sure whether these are S or SS models, but I would assume they are the S model. Either way, there weren’t many of these built. These cars were imported to the States by Malcolm Bricklin, so only around 10k 360s were imported in total and only a small number of those were Young S or SS cars. Bidding is still quite low and seller is offering this package without a reserve, so this could be a great buy for Micro car fans or those in need of parts for their 360. Like the seller, I hope to see these cars end up staying together. You rarely, if ever, see sequential numbered cars together, especially oddballs like the 360. I would actually love to hear the story of how these cars have managed to stay together for so long. Sadly, they are in rough shape, so it’s likely that they will have to be combined to make one car.