CarBrandLogos archive · Mitsubishi · 1960

MitsubishiMitsubishi 500

A tiny rear-engined saloon built to answer a government call for a national car.

Photo: Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Mitsubishi history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Mitsubishi 500, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry wanted a national car: cheap, small, and able to carry four people at reasonable speed. The Mitsubishi 500, shown in 1959 and sold from 1960, was Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries' answer and the company's first postwar passenger car.

1960 Mitsubishi 500 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The layout was of its moment. A two-door monocoque saloon with an air-cooled twin in the tail driving the rear wheels through a three-speed gearbox, in the manner of the small European cars of the day. It started at 493cc, just above kei class, and later grew to 594cc.

In production

It went racing almost immediately. Mitsubishi entered a team in the 1962 Macau Grand Prix and took the first four places in the 750cc class, which was precisely the sort of result a new manufacturer needed. The 500 gave way to the Colt 600 and then to a whole Colt family, and it set Mitsubishi on the road from heavy industry conglomerate to car company.

At a glance