ISUZU MOMENTS
When Isuzu met Lotus at the Ace of Clubs.
The Isuzu Piazza ‘Handling by Lotus’ was one of God’s own prototypes: too weird to live, and too rare to die.
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t’s a collaboration that seems impossibly strange today: Isuzu, a ute and SUV marque with a bulletproof reputation for reliability, and Lotus, creator of twitchy, hyperlight sportscars known for disassembling themselves in your driveway. But the 1980s was a different time: more unconventional, sexier, and much more bizarre. The brands from Shinagawa City, Tokyo, and Norfolk, England, would birth their first collaboration in 1987. But the roots of their union go back to the previous decade. In 1978, Isuzu looked to legendary Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to craft a compact rear-wheel-drive hatchback for the international (and
mostly, American) market. Debuting at the 1979 Tokyo Show, the result was wedge-shaped three-door liftback coupé called the Asso di Fiori—or the ‘Ace of Clubs’. Critics were entranced and the public enraptured. Its development was green-lit almost immediately, arriving as the Isuzu Piazza, with a choice of 88kW or 99kW engines. Laxer emissions rules meant the UK ended up with a boosted 110kW turbo version—and a subsequent hankering for improved handling. As it happened, General Motors then both owned Lotus and had a controlling interest in Isuzu. GM tapped Norfolk’s canniest boffins to do their magic, and in 1987, a
‘Handling by Lotus’-badged Isuzu Piazza was born. In the USA, it was called the Impulse. “Lotus is famous for building great handling sports cars,” said American engineer Damon Delorenzis, of the Isuzu Technical Centre. “We have tremendous respect for what they do, so we wanted to work together.” A second generation followed in 1990, and—in the US—included magical mutations such as the Isuzu Impulse XS ‘Wagonback’, which had totally removable rear windows for awesome but slightly impractical open-air running. The model’s production run finished in 1993, and pristine examples remain rare.
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