This morning’s archive road test is a rather unusual one. Paging through old road tests we discovered an Isuzu “Coupé”!
When Isuzu – also back in the early 1980s known for building bakkies and trucks – decided to built a two-door coupé, they were clever enough to let Giugiaro design the car for them. Note for instance the side mirrors positioned on the bonnet!
Underneath it was Japanese engineering and electronic technology though and we described the interior controls similar to that of a lunar module.
Equipped with a 1 949 cm3 four-cylinder engine that developed 85 kW and 150 N.m, it did 100 km/h in 12,9 seconds.
Interesting quotes from the road test included the caption: “The compact twin-cam engine is useable up to 7 000 revs in short bursts”.
At your next braai, challenge the guys with your knowledge of the Isuzu Piazza!
More archive road tests: