Subaru’s signature Boxer engine was introduced on the Subaru 1000 compact passenger car on May 14, 1966.
Since then, Subaru has pursued to maximize the advantages of its Boxer engines and continuously enhanced them to power its vehicles.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of its horizontally-opposed “Boxer” engine and today, every vehicle sold by Subaru is fitted with a Boxer engine and its total production tops 16 million units.
In a horizontally-opposed design of the Boxer engine, the pistons face each other in a side-to-side symmetrical layout. The opposing pistons work to cancel out the inertia force of each other, resulting in less vibration and superb rotational balance which provide a smooth feel right up to the high rev range.
The Boxer engine is one of the key components that comprise Subaru’s distinctive Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive (AWD) system. Subaru Symmetrical AWD offers a combination of superior stability and traction intrinsic to AWD and balanced distribution of weight provided by the symmetrically-laid-out drivetrain with a longitudinally-mounted Boxer engine positioned in line with it; the synergy delivers excellent performance such as stability at high speeds and brisk cornering.
