Start Your Day With A Cappuccino, Served Under A Case: Cold Start

Personally, I think there are lots of under-appreciated advantages to driving genuinely tiny cars. There’s the maneuverability, ease of parking almost anywhere, efficiency, fuel economy, fun car-as-motorized-pants feeling, and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to, if needed, drive unimpeded underneath a an agricultural sprayer, like a a Case-IH Patriot 3250. That’s what we’re seeing here, with my friend Attila wonderful little Suzuki Cappuccino, parked cozily between the wheels of this large sprayer.

The Cappuccino is a fantastic little car – made from 1991 to 1998 this was Suzuki’s diminutive halo car, a Kei-class vehicle that wasn’t designed to maximize space and utility within the restrictive volumes of the Kei class, as is usually done, but instead was part of that small subsection of Kei cars like the Honda Beat or the Autozam AZ-1 that instead tried to wring as much fun as possible out of that minuscule Kei envelope and all 660cc of engine. And that engine was a dual overhead cam 12-valve three-cylinder with an intercooled turbocharger, making the maximum allowed Kei power of 64 hp.

There’s so much to like about the little Cappuccino; it’s a front-mid engine layout, with perfect 50/50 weight distribution when at full capacity of two, the smallest possible plural number, rear-wheel drive and weighing only about 1600 pounds. It’s the Miata for people who just can’t abide the bulk of a Miata.

I really like these pics that Attila took of his car, because it shows the scale in such a nice dramatic way, and immediately forces your mind into imagining the yet-to-be-made movie that involves a car chase where a Cappuccino is being pursued across some Kansasian farmscapes and manages to evade its pursuers with some slick driving under a few of these sprayers.

Hopefully there would be a sprayer in motion that the Cap would drive under at just the right speed to hide from the chasing baddies, whomever they are.

You know what else is fun about a Cappuccino? The roof! There’s so many ways to configure that roof! Pure convertible, targa style, T-top – here, someone made a video showing all of it; I think the coolest part is how the rear window drops behind the seats so seamlessly:

These are so much fun. Oh, and get this – the Cappuccino may also hold the record for the highest ratio of brochures to cars sold, ever. You see, the Cappuccino was really only made for the Japanese domestic market, though some were sent to the UK, where the right-hand-drive design also worked. There was never an intention to sell the car in left-hand-drive markets.

For whatever reason, Suzuki decided to show the Cappuccino at the 1993 Amsterdam Motor Show, and, unsurprisingly, it generated a lot of positive attention, though all the excited journalists lamented that they’d never get the car there, something that’s very familiar to non-Japanese people when talking about Kei cars.

But those journalists were wrong! Sort of! Suzuki decided what the hell, let’s sell some Cappuccinos to the Netherlands, and by some I mean 25. Incredibly, for an entire Dutch inventory of 25 cars, Suzuki printed a whole, full-color brochure, in numbers far beyond the amount of Cappuccinos sent to the Netherlands.

It seems ridiculous, right? The car was able to meet Dutch standards, but was a RHD car in an LHD country and was really expensive compared to other cars on the market. It’s all sort of madness, which is why it’s also so wonderful.

There was a more rational reason, of course: the Cappuccino was a halo car, designed to bring positive attention to Suzuki. And it did that. Here’s a whole little video about this Dutch brochure:

Amazing, right? Halo car goals aside, this still has to be the most brochures ever made for the least amount of cars.

Anyway, if you’re expecting to be chased by people in an area with a lot of large agricultural sprayers and need to be sure you can get away, I suggest looking into importing a Suzuki Cappuccino. You’re welcome.