Fuchu

History

Fuchu was founded in 1920 as a cork making factory, and after several factory acquisitions, it started producing cars in 1931. During the Second World War, Fuchu produced weapons to the Japanese military as well as military vehicles. Actual full car production with the Fuchu name started in 1960.

Inspired by a now defunct West German company, Fuchu decided to create their own take of the rotary engine, naming it FRW (Fuchu Rotary Wankel). This very same company decided to be a partner to Fuchu, and this led to the cars being sold internationally. Many praised the FRW engine for being powerful and lightweight, leading to a lot of popularity and high sales figures.

In 1970, Fuchu made its official debut inside the USA, and created many USDM cars with their FRW engine due to high demand. But the 1973 oil crisis put a damper into their expansion plans and the company refocused their efforts to make the FRW engines more desirable for sport cars than common ones. This seemed to work as the new lineup from the RS series, called RS7, launched in 1978 and sold very well until its discontinuation in 2012 with the RS8 model.

In 1974, Dearborn had invested in the company, acquiring a 24.5% stake in 1979, upped to a 33.4% in 1995. This led Fuchu cars to be rebadged as Dearborn ones as well many engines being used inside of Dearborn cars. In turn, Fuchu helped Dearborn to sell their cars in Asian markets that Dearborn couldn’t get into. The world financial crisis in 2008 caused a lot of downturns and Dearborn looked to sell their investments in Fuchu, doing so in 2015.

In that same year, Koromo and Fuchu announced a ‘strategic relationship’ between them, allowing them to use technologies from each other.

Fuchu’s market presence has since retracted to a select number, being mostly Asian countries, and the USA. The company’s new focus is for Hybrid and EVs, but hasn’t been truly successful due to the aggressive competition.

TRK

TRK stands for Track Racing Spec. Created in 1967, originally a separate group outside of Fuchu, they were an independent racing team that modified Fuchu cars. Using several Fuchu cars, they raced and won multiple editions of the 24H GrinVits, as well the local JGT competitions.

Fuchu acquired the company in 1999, turning them into an aftermarket parts company for Fuchu cars, and in 2003, they started offering factory-tuned versions of their cars. The first car offered was the Latitude in 2003.