Strip the Suzuki Lapin back to its specification sheet and the character is already there: 657 , 40 kW. Suzuki built from 2002 to 2008, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids.
The background
The Suzuki Alto Lapin (Japanese: スズキ アルト ラパン, Hepburn: Suzuki Aruto Rapan) (or simply called Suzuki Lapin) is a kei car with a five-door hatchback body, manufactured since 2002 by Suzuki for the Japanese market only, and it is based on Suzuki's popular Alto kei car. The name "Lapin" stems from the French word for "rabbit", and the car sports rabbit-head badges.
The engineering
Power comes from 657 40 kW is the published figure; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 780 kg-850 kg. Work it out per tonne and you get about 51 horsepower — unhurried — enough for the job, not for the bragging. It shifts through a 4-speed automatic transmission / automatic / 5-speed manual transmission / manual / Continuously variable transmission / CVT. The wheelbase is 2360 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Kosai, Shizuoka, Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Toyota Ist, the Opel Frogster, the Daihatsu Tanto — show what else the money bought that year. Its Suzuki stablemates include the Suzuki XL-7 and the Suzuki Landy.