Square Is Fair - 1987 Isuzu Piazza Turbo

[dugong]

Here's Piazza Turbo number three. This one isn't going anywhere. It's taken me nearly 18 months to broker the deal which put the keys in my hand.

 

 

 

 

Updates soon. Hang tight.

[sporty-shite]

Loving this Jon. Eager to see more.

[Jim Bell]

That looks amazing.

[dugong]

That looks amazing.

It has quite a few rust blebs and a few cosmetic issues - most of them scabs. The front bumper has dropped and the paint's a bit flat. Normally Piazzas are gopping or ball-shatteringly mint; this one's in the middle. It's beautiful under the bonnet and straight underneath. Most cars rotted away because of Isuzu's cute insistence of obviation wherever underseal was required.

 

It needs storing out of the bad weather but luckily I have the space to do this.

 

Needless to say, I love it.

[wuvvum]

Excelsior.  Pre-HBL too for even more OMGDRIFTYO action.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

These cars are such lookers. I love them!!!

[trigger]

Bringing it to Shotley on Thursday Jon?

[dugong]

Bringing it to Shotley on Thursday Jon?

Er.....it has a crap range. That's probably a full tank for there and back.

[trigger]

It be worth it though!

[Coprolalia]

God damn I adore these.

I would love one, if only to turn up to Scirocco meetings and confuse them all.

[dugong]

 

With Retro Cars' Manta A 1900 SR.

 

LOL GR8 AXLE DONER? Not quite. The half shafts on a Piazza are wider and the pick up points are different, requiring relocation. Then there's the small issue of the final drive ratio, which will give you a 90 mph top speed at a bollock-shattering 5700 rpm in a shove-it. The diff casing is also incompatible. Other than that, the rear axles drop straight in.

 

It has a piece of floor pan section in common with the GM T-Car - otherwise, it's more or less bespoke apart from the engine (from the Isuzu Fargo \ Bedford Midi - the bottom and oil pumps are the same) and the drop links, which are from a MkII Astra for some reason.

 

What's gone wrong so far? Er, quite a bit. The fuel sender occasionally cuts out and flashes the low tank level on and off, the throttle's a bit soft...and it sometimes cuts out at junctions. The engine fires straight back up again with a graunch from one of the drive belts. I think something needs re tensioning.

[dugong]

With the glorious leader's MR2.

 

[Felly Magic]

With the glorious leader's MR2.

 

 

 

Is that a Carlton estate in the background? Top shiteing btw

[dugong]

Yes, it's a Carlton estate in that there background.

[dugong]

I need some interior shots. I wanted to hoy the Manta in the windscreen, but m'esteemed colleague preferred doing this instead:

 

 

Yes, the diff on mine does work; several boost filled trials on grass and gravel confirmed it.

Thing is, it'd be churlish to push it. The layshaft bearing on 4th needs attention - it's done 150k and is getting a bit tired. It has a proper tight-throw, English sports car shift quality, though (even if mine baulks sometimes coming down from top). Interesting fact: it uses engine oil.

[xtriple]

My Mum had a grey one (C reg I think) for years. I hated my Mum but I loved borrowing the car and thrashing the tits off it. Shame really, it wasn't the cars fault!

 

My step Dad liked it so much he bought a white one, auto and mint. His was a 'D' reg and he seemed to have a few problems with it.

 

I never thought they were all that quick and my Mums certainly didn't handle well when you got a bit brutal with it! But, they are lovely looking things and the dash' is a thing of beauty.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I had one for a while as well, about 2002. A blue F-reg HBL. Did shedloads of welding on it after buying it out of the yellow paper for about 250 quid. Drove it around for ages and it was fun but never a great drive really, had a bit of the 'morris Marina' about its chassis I thought, still loved the car though mainly for the looks and the barmy dashboard. Sold it to an Asian lad in Manchester when the cooling system started playing games.

[dugong]

My Mum had a grey one (C reg I think) for years. I hated my Mum but I loved borrowing the car and thrashing the tits off it. Shame really, it wasn't the cars fault!

 

My step Dad liked it so much he bought a white one, auto and mint. His was a 'D' reg and he seemed to have a few problems with it.

 

I never thought they were all that quick and my Mums certainly didn't handle well when you got a bit brutal with it! But, they are lovely looking things and the dash' is a thing of beauty.

Can you remember the reg plates? The Owners' Club tries to keep a tab on the 1662 imported - it knows the whereabouts of about half, (including the 1981 Bella XE that was brought in from Malaysia by an American serviceman and the Rinspeed show car).

 

They're not stupidly quick but they've got a useful slug of torque low down which is good for overtaking. A pity the engine gets rough if you paste it - then again, it started life in the 'Fifties and ended up under the load floor of a van before being stuffed under the nose of a concept car that was never a VW Scirocco replacement.

 

Yeah. The handling is...OK, considering its a narrow tracked, five linked, live axled car with 170 lb/ft of torque under the driver's right foot. It understeers a lot and has this weird out of phase float over motorway expansion joints. Thing is, I know the shocks on this one are good; XJM, my biblically shagged pre Lotus, did the same thing. I can only assume its a quirk of the chassis.

 

The lads from Gaz are 'quite interested' in making up a set of front coilovers and prog rear shocks and springs for it. I'm thinking of doing the East Coast Retros meet tomorrow; if I do I definitely need the wheels balancing because they sat in my garage under a sheet for four years. The tyres were brand new at the time and I won them on eBay for £1 - the seller didn't put a reserve on them.

 

I had one for a while as well, about 2002. A blue F-reg HBL. Did shedloads of welding on it after buying it out of the yellow paper for about 250 quid. Drove it around for ages and it was fun but never a great drive really, had a bit of the 'morris Marina' about its chassis I thought, still loved the car though mainly for the looks and the barmy dashboard. Sold it to an Asian lad in Manchester when the cooling system started playing games.

They're a (very) comfy GT rather than a balls-out speed machine, really - except the range is pathetic. I like it for what it is (a gloriously over-styled failure) and the fact it still exists; there's about 20 left on the road at the moment.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

if you hear of a crispy one going cheap that needs a good home, give me a shout

[dugong]

if you hear of a crispy one going cheap that needs a good home, give me a shout

You can have what's left of HUL for scrap money if you want? I can get parts from the IPTOC for £not much if you want to slowly bring it back to life?

[jonny69]

Stiffen the back end up a bit if it's understeer-tastic, or is there any chance of fitting a rear anti-roll bar? It might even have the bonus of eliminating that float you said it does on motorway joints because it'll change the front-to-rear balance a little bit.

 

Edit: great looking car btw. I'd heard of Piazzas but I don't think I've ever seen one before.

[dugong]

It has a rear anti roll bar fitted already, and from what I understand, humping a Handling By Lotus car involves rather a lot of work; lots of things were changed.

[xtriple]

Sorry, I really cannot recall number plates of either. I recall my own cars (sometimes) but others....

 

The old mans was a white auto, there can't have been that many of them as he had a struggle to get an auto. My Mums had all its tyres slashed in a carpark (she upset someone obviously and it wasn't me! Honest!) and because she was a blind old piss head she didn't notice four flat tyres and drove it a fair few hundred yards before it clicked that something was amiss...

 

Four new wheels and tyres! Genuine ones that cost a fortune!

[garethj]

It looks great, boxy yet pointy.

[Lord Sterling]

Looks great man. How many cars do you have in your fleet now?

[dugong]

Looks great man. How many cars do you have in your fleet now?

Too many! Reductions are in progress.

 

Piazza is having leccy issues at the moment.

[Hertz]

I love these too. My mum had a Black D reg one in the late 80's, they were so futuristic back then.

 

Was that 1600 imported into the UK then? What's the survival rate now?

[dugong]

I love these too. My mum had a Black D reg one in the late 80's, they were so futuristic back then.

 

Was that 1600 imported into the UK then? What's the survival rate now?

1662 came in between 1986-1990. There were two importers involved and Lotus was commissioned in 1987 to tweak the handling for the last couple of years of production.

 

The survival rate depends on who you speak to. The very first cars on a 1986 C plate are few and far between - probably a handful still in existence, mostly with registrations ending 'TPG'. None of the 'BYV' press launch cars survive and the whereabouts of the Space Sport concept is unknown.

 

How Many Left reckons there's 6 licensed manual pre-Lotus Turbos on the road with 25 on SORN. There are no roadworthy pre-Lotus autos but there's 5 on SORN somewhere.

The Handling By Lotus figures are slightly better; 5 manuals on the road with 13 on SORN and 4 licenced autos with 9 tucked away on notification. Take those figures with a pinch of salt.

 

Have a poor quality picture of the interior as a bonus.

 

 

The steering wheel I want to use (from a Japanese market HBL) has gone walkabout so I've got another on order.

[dugong]

Another one of the interior in all of its Fiat Uno on drugs glory:

 

 

It kept a colleague's Manta A company when ALL THE RUST was discovered on the front valance:

 

[Essex V6]

I must have seen about five Piazzas on the road out here in the last month or so!