Autobacs was founded by Toshio Sumino in 1947 in
Fukushima-ku,
Osaka as
Suehiro Shokai Co., Ltd., which was reorganized into
Fuji Shokai Co., Ltd. a year later. The company's name was officially changed from Fuji Shokai to Autobacs in March of 1980. On 13 December 2005, Autobacs acquired 5% of the company (11,400,000 shares) at approximately ¥7.5 billion.
ASL In the late 1990s, specialty car manufacturer
Tommykaira ran into financial difficulties as a result of the
Lost Decade. In 2001, it was acquired by Autobacs, which renamed its car manufacturing arm
ASL (Autobacs Sportscar Laboratory), thus allowing the aftermarket parts manufacturer to continue trading with its usual name. , Tokyo) featuring an Autobacs Garaiya GT300 and the 1969 Carman-Apache The first car planned to be produced by ASL was the
Garaiya. As none were sold, there is not much known about ASL nor the Garaiya, only that it is a small sports car based on the
Tommykaira ZZ, with an output of around from a
Nissan SR20VE engine and a weight of approximately . Customers would take part in the final development of their car's suspension to tailor it to their preferences or driving style. The prototype was fitted with a modified
RB26DETT engine producing and also featured the
R34 Skyline GT-R's
ATTESA E-TS Pro all-wheel drive system. ==References==