This was Subaru’s (and Fuji Heavy Industries) first grand touring coupe. The name Alcyone comes from the brightest star in the Pleiades star cluster on which the Subaru logo is based. The Subaru Alcyone was unveiled at the 1989 Tokyo Auto Show. Its aerodynamic shape was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign. One of the unique features of the SVXs design is its glass canopy which looked great and provided good visibility. From an investment stand point, Subaru lost approximately $3,000 on every Subaru SVX sold for a total loss of around 75,000,000.
Subaru was aiming to compete with the Mitsubishi 3000GT, Nissan Z32 300ZX, and the fourth generation Mazda Cosmo, all were fantastic Japanese grand tourers. Each of these cars showcased technology each manufacture was known for. Subaru being known for all-wheel drive vehicles and horizontally opposed (flat/boxer) 4-cylinder engines, developed the Alcyone to one up those hallmarks by making it all wheel drive and a flat 6-cylinder. The Alcyone SVX was truly Subaru’s flagship halo car. Subaru sold a total of 24,379 world wide between 19, 14,257 of those were in the United States market.
Performance.
Powering the Alcyone SVX is a DOHC 3.3L flat/boxer (EG33) 6-cylinder. This engine produced 231 horsepower @ 5,400 rpm and 228 lb-ft of torque @ 4,400 rpm. The EG33 was mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission. Unfortunately, at the time Subaru didn’t have a manual transmission strong enough to handle the torque of the 6-cylinder motor.
AWD systems.
Subaru had two different all-wheel drive systems for the SVX, one was the traditional Subaru system called ACT-4 which is used in most Subaru models at the time. It basically heavy favored front wheel drive 90/10 but if the front wheels slipped enough it could transfer up to a 50/50 front rear power split ratio. The more interesting AWD system was available in Japan, the UK, the Benelux region, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Austria, and Brazil. This AWD system was called the VTD. It had a permanent 36/64 split which is more tuned for over-steer which makes for a more sportier continuous traction delivery system.
Variants.
The “SVX L” was a Japanese spec version that was equipped with four-wheel steering. The CXL version of the SVX was a lower cost front wheel drive version of the SVX available in the United States.
Below is a Japanese advertisement for the 1991 Subaru Alcyone SVX.
The video below shows the Subaru SVX concept car as it was shown at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show.
Below is a 1992 promotional video for the Subaru Alcyone SVX.