esanmiguel

Just bought one for my niece. Got this car from an old man who took good care of it and did not put much miles on the car. Only 60K miles and everything on it looks like new. Pretty crude 2.0 liter Intercooled turbo (which is basically Isuzu's truck engine). Suspension tuned by Lotus, hence the "tuned by Lotus " badges. Pretty rare to find one in this condition. I used to own a non-turbo model when I was in college, pretty reliable car.
Now about parts for this car..

Damian in NJ

Designed by Guigaro, from a design car called the 'Ace of Spades' I believe. It went almost directly from the show design to production.

esanmiguel

Giorgio Guigaro designed it in the early 80's known to Europe and Japan as the Piazza. Production car was almost like the concept. Its design was pretty advanced for that time and it influenced other car makers design.
Its interior is pretty cool, even by today's standards, it looks modern.

Damian in NJ

He had done a series of "Ace" cars, ace of clubs, ace of spades, etc, for various manufacturers. Piazza was the production model name in europe. Very low coefficient of drag, too, from what I remember.

Dave

Part credit for Damian. It was indeed designed by Guigaro but there was another step on the way to production. The design was intended to be the replacement for the first generation VW Scirocco (which was also a Guigaro design), but VW decided to go with an in-house design instead for (allegedly) cost reasons. The design was quickly snapped up by Isuzu.
It would have been a sweet car with the VW 16v 1.8 that it had been designed for, the engine didn't make it into production until '85 though and the gen 2 Scirocco was by then too heavy to put it to good use.

Edit: Danm, I type too slowly. I started after Damian's first reply.

Marc Gelefsky

Didn't that design almost become a Scirocco?

don't see many on the easy coast, they rust to oblivion

Marc Gelefsky

Dave, guess I was writing my reply while you were posting.

esanmiguel

Not true about the Scirocco Design:

Now here this article explains how the 1'st Generation Isuzu Impulse came into production. And also included are its sister cars the DMC Delorean and Volkswagen Scirocco all of these cars were designed by one person for all 3 car manufacturers. These vehicles all share the same designer Georgetto Giugiaro ( in the article The Impulse was originally named the Isuzu Piazza in Japan from 1981 and was renamed the Impulse when imported into the u.s from 1983 forward )

Isuzu Motors Limited commissioned Georgetto Giugiaro in 1978 to create the replacement for their sporty model 117 Coupe, which was also designed by Giugiaro in 1966. Giugiaro was presented with a rear wheel drive Isuzu Gemini (I-Mark) rolling pan and was given carte blanche to design the new sporty model Isuzu. In the late 1970's, Giugiaro had been experimenting with variations of a wedge shaped design, and had named several successive wedge designs for the aces of the four houses in a deck of cards (hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades). These are throught to be the Audi Quatro, Delorean DMC, BMW M1, and the fourth and final of the series, the Ace of Clubs, was the prototype that would become the Isuzu Piazza and Impulse.

Giugiaro had previously penned the original design of the VW Scirocco in 1974, though it was extremely primitive by comparison to the Aces cars, especially the Clubs car, which incorporated much more sophisticated styling cues including radiator grille with incorporated headlights, bonded windows, aircraft style flush mounted glass, limosine style doors, built-in painted bumpers, hidden body seams, cut of the hatch wrapping into the sides, exterior drip channels eliminated, most sharply raked winshield of any mass production vehicle at design time, aircraft style instrument cluster with adjustable pods, and digital instrumentation.
VW, redesigned the Scirocco in house, in 1982, three years after the Isuzu Piazza went into production.
The design for the Clubs car and the Isuzu Piazza and Impulse was never, at any time, submitted to VW, because it was commissioned by Isuzu. In addition, it was rear wheel drive and powered by an Isuzu engine, none of which would be of any benifit to VW. Automotive designers such as Giugiaro do not make submissions to automobile manufacturers that are not commissioned, and if that work is refused by the manufacturer, that work remains the property of that manufacturer, paid for by the commission. No rejected design is ever presented to another car manufacturer. Such an action would be considered theft and fraud and and the idea of Giugiaro or any other designer engaging in such unethical and illegal actions is totally absurd.

odie

I always liked the Impulse Turbos. If I ever come across a nice one at a good price I just might have to buy it.

Damian in NJ

Well, I knew it was the Ace of Something!

inactiveuser92616

an isuzu was my first car, I loved it. Took me 3 years to get bored of it, and it was an economy car. I had a geo storm, which shared the platform of the 2nd gen Isuzu impulse. I still want to pick up a 2nd gen Isuzu Impulse RS, which was AWD turbo, and rally it.

Tom R.

I believe it was mechanically based on the chevette. At least an alternator shuould be available.

esanmiguel

The 2nd Gen is totally different from the 1st gen. But yes, and RS Turbo and AWD is pretty advanced for that time. I have experience with a Geo storm and the quality is so much crappier than the first gen.

jason952

looks similar to a corrado of a few years later, nice find. how much?

esanmiguel

$2700. Car looks like it just rolled out of the showroom.