Motori Moderni, Enzo Coloni and Subaru, or why engine development cannot be trusted to outsource.
Subaru’s step into F1 was important and an attempt was failed. But only the weak-willed do not make mistakes.
It was the end of the 1980s, and Subaru, wanting to show off its engineering prowess to the world and compete with Yamaha and Honda in Formula 1. After all, Yamaha and Honda have already paved the way to Formula One’s doors, with some success. It seemed reasonable for and only Subaru that their boxer engine philosophy could bring them success too.
The Japanese automaker partnered with Italian engine manufacturer Motori Moderni, owned by legendary engine builder Carlo Chiti, who has had success with Alfa Romeo and Ferrari.
Chiti, who had been working on the development of the 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine, soon succumbed to Subaru’s desire to demonstrate their (almost) unique advantage in engine concepts. The financial part of the rapidly growing Japanese company during the golden era also played an important role.
A 3.5-liter flat-12 engine complied with Formula 1 regulations of the time. Because turbocharging was banned at the end of the 1988 season, new 1989 regulations specified a maximum naturally aspirated engine displacement of 3.5 liters. The number of cylinders and configuration were not limited.
Honda was the fastest to adapt: its 680 hp 3.5-liter V10 helped Alain Prost win the third of four world championships in 1989.
Renault’s 65-degree V10 produced 660 hp, while Ferrari squeezed 620 hp from its V12.
It was in 1989 May at Misano, Italy, when codenamed Subaru 1235, was first born. The victim (that’s the only way to describe the attempt in hindsight) was the small but resilient Minardi F1 team.
History doesn’t know which Minardi driver – Pierluigi Martini or Luis Pérez-Sala – drove the car that day, but they were unimpressed by the Subaru’s meager 560bhp output, significantly less than the Formula 1 leaders of the era, and even less than the aging Cosworth V8 with 590 hp.
Chiti and Subaru initially hoped to collaborate with Minardi, but the lackluster flat-12 engine proved too hopeless even for the small Italian team. Even Subaru’s factory support wasn’t enough to get Minardi over the line, and Subaru had to look for a Plan B.
This Plan B came in the form of Coloni.
In 1982, racing driver Enzo “Wolf” Coloni founded his own team, Coloni Motorsport. That same year, he won the Italian Formula 3 title, immediately retired and refocused his efforts on becoming a team manager. The team competed in Formula 3 before making the big move into Formula 1 in 1987, when the FIA announced the end of the very expensive “turbo era”.
And by the start of the 1990 Formula 1 season, Subaru had acquired a 51 percent stake in the Italian team.
In March 1990, the Coloni Subaru C3B was introduced at the United States Grand Prix. With wide and long side suspensions, the car differed from traditional designs of the time and did not have a central airbox due to the unique engine architecture. The boxer engine was the link between Subaru’s road cars in the dealership and the race cars on the track. Unfortunately, the Motori Moderni Subaru 1235 engine was cumbersomely heavy, awkward to install and underpowered.
At the time, it was said that the engine weighed more than 100 kg more than its competitors. And in a sport where weight is everything, where grams saved can mean the difference between success and failure, a 100kg gap to the competition was simply too much to overcome.
Formula 1 then was not what it is now, with its strict 20-car grid fielded by 10 teams. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as many as 39 cars attempted to compete for the 26 available grid positions at each Grand Prix.
Additionally, only 30 cars could compete in actual qualifying, meaning that one pre-qualifying session on Friday morning would eliminate the nine slowest cars. The Subaru Coloni never got any further than this Friday pre-Q session, falling not tenths of a second off the pace, but a full 17 seconds (!) off the final pole time.
There was little improvement as the season progressed and results remained dismal.
The relationship, like ordinary arranged weddings, stalled, never moving forward until the inevitable quick divorce.
By May 1990, Enzo Coloni was fired from the team, but even his replacement did not bring any improvement. In June 1990, Subaru completely withdrew from Formula 1 and sold the team back to Enzo Coloni without sponsors and engines, without sponsors, but also without debt.
It was an inglorious but entertaining attempt, and just eight races into the 16-race 1990 season, Subaru had extinguished its Formula One dream, leaving Colony without an engine and a board at Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru’s parent company) wondering why everything went so horribly wrong…
However, Subaru’s terrible gamble in Formula 1 led to a dynasty of dominance. With the Formula 1 dreams gone, the Japanese automaker instead focused all its energy (and money) on the world of rallying, and just two years later the Subaru WRX was born.
Perhaps if Subaru had built the engine themselves, and not custom-made in Italy, everything would have been different.
Later, the 1235 engine found a place in the Jiotto Caspita supercar, but that’s another story.
The Subaru Coloni F1 1/43 scale model
Model by Spark. Photos and diorama by Scalecuda
