Isuzu Piazza Turbo - HBL

[willdew]

Saw a Isuzu Piazza Turbo - Handling By Lotus this afternoon as I retuned to my car. I'd never seen one before and thought it a little out of the ordinary.

Am I right in thinking it's a 2.0l, Turbo, Lotus tweaked, rwd 80's coupe? If so, are they any good and how do they compare to the Silvias, mk1 MR2's, Corolla's etc? And how come I've never heard of them before? Are they an undiscovered gem - or a load of old rubbish?

Reason being I've got my eye out for a cheat track toy.

[Balmoral Green]

Not a bad old thing, probably a better car in its day than say a Celica or a Sylvia.

[willdew]

Very Scirocco (sp?) Lotus Excel esque. I like the idea of a cheap unrecognisable toy to play with. In my searches for info on them this evening I've come across superchips products for them, reputedly adding 40hp. Presuming they're 160bhp or so at present, 200 or so should be enough to have a laugh.

[JonRB]

I had a mate who had one.

Lots of lairy tail-out action on wet roundabouts at ridiculously low speeds (which is either bad or good, depending on what your cup of tea is) and lots of lag.

[Balmoral Green]

Just realised what it reminds me of, the old RWD Corolla GTi, now that was a highly regarded car.

[willdew]

Balmoral Green said:

Just realised what it reminds me of, the old RWD Corolla GTi, now that was a highly regarded car.

They're also £3k+ for a standard car in half decent condition though. I think these are nearer £200 - £500.

[Boxbush]

The earlier cars had very lairy handling, but the later one's ('86 on I think) had uprated suspension by Lotus and were better mannered.

Vastly underated car IMO - had a quirky steering column as I recall, with adjustable stalk positions.

>> Edited by Boxbush on Friday 10th June 08:56

[DarrenW]

From what I can gather, there's a lot of Chevette componentry underneath. Hmm... Two-tone beige and brown Chevette saloon with a Turbo transplant? Interesting!

[crankedup]

As other posters have said, handling is hairy, a bit like the 2.8 Capri. Great if thats your bag, but lets go a tad to easy me thinks. The car was never a big seller over here and I decided against after a test drive.

[Twincam16]

Designed by Giugiaro the same year he did the DeLorean DMC-12 - look at the front end and you can see the resemblance.

Wacky '80s concept car' interiors, apparently.

[matt_fp]

My Dad had a 1987 Model IIRC when I was a lad. In white with fantastic velour interior. Cracking car 170bhp IIRC but the bottom ends are a bit weak so going much above this in power terms will cause issues.

Headlights are cracking, they have 'eyebrows' that lift when the lights are on.

Check for rust and accident damage as they do go sideways very easily. Later HBL ones were much better mannered.

Edited to add: All the controls are mounted on two moveable pods either side of the steering wheel, you can pretty much do anything without taking your hands off the wheel.

Best Regards
Matt

>> Edited by matt_fp on Thursday 16th June 12:32

[cptsideways]

Noooooooooo


Bedford Midi Coupe's


Bedford Midi van engine, with a turbo lashed on, no more bhp than a non turbo of similar size, hideous reliability, starship enterprise electronics, thankfully very rare.

Only good bit is the huge LSD diff that bombproof & works quite well.

>> Edited by cptsideways on Thursday 16th June 13:02