Hopestar and the Birth of the Samurai

"Jonee" (Jonee) 08/26/2014 at 15:24 • Filed to: Suzuki Samurai, Jimney, kei, Hopestar, microcar, microcars

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There's not much written about the Hope Motor Company, but they did produce a car that became one of the most popular and durable off-roaders in history. Shown above is the Hopestar ON360, a mini Jeep powered by a Mitsubishi 360cc two-stroke. After producing around 15, Hope lost hope, and was sold to Suzuki, who took the ON360 and morphed it into the Jimney.

Hope started out producing 3-wheeled kei trucks in the mid 1950's. Mazda and Daihatsu had similar vehicles in their fleets, but the Hopes performed well and sold into the thousands.

These little insectoid trucks were perfect for Japanese city streets and came with the kei tax break. Buoyed by the success of their three-wheelers, Hope started producing some of the most charming little 4-wheeled trucks known to man. Seriously, I want to cuddle this guy:

I mean, come on.

Unfortunately, Japan was crowded with little vehicles at this time. Honda, Daihatsu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Cony all had similar kei trucks with their ubiquitous 356cc motors and little Hope got lost. The ON360 Jeep was their last shot, but they didn't have the resources to build enough of them. They ordered 100 engines from Mitsubishi, but only produced the 15 examples. It was a great idea, though, as the world would soon find out. It's a shame they had the Jimney moniker instead of the much more inspiring Hopestar.

thebigbossyboss > Jonee 08/26/2014 at 15:27

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Thanks for this. The Jimney/Samaurai was a great little car!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jonee 08/27/2014 at 09:10

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The Hopestar ON360 is quite similar overall to the Crosley Farm-O-Road, which is the first thing I thought of when I saw it. As an aside, the bumper sticker on the hood of this one is hilarious.

minica > Jonee 12/24/2014 at 01:47

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as a former Jimny owner, 3 in fact (Jimnies? Jims?), although ours is the depowered 1.0 cc 2WD 'Katana' ones.. this is a fascinating read!

also, here, some Midgets are still trudging around!

Jonee > minica 12/24/2014 at 01:56

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That's awesome. I actually once owned a Midget. It was called the Trimobile in the U.S. I don't know how many were imported, but mine came from the Lockheed plant here in California. I sold it after a few years and it went back to Japan.

minica > Jonee 12/24/2014 at 02:08

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awesome! i only got a ride on one when i was a kid.. still fun, and i remember i have a brief period on my childhood when i'm exclusively drawing 3-wheelers.. :D

also, do you by chance have any articles on VSPs? Voiture Sans Permit IIRC? first saw it on May's Car of The People and it's quite fascinating since as far as i know the VSPs still going till this day?

Jonee > minica 12/24/2014 at 02:33

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I have a few articles on my sub-blog about some French microcars that were VSPs, like Mochet and Rovin , but I haven't done an article about VSPs in general. It'd be a good subject. There have been hundreds of them and they are still being made. They have to be 5 horsepower or under and they're mostly bought by people who have had their license revoked.

http://weird-wheels.kinja.com/