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hey guys , I dont no if the isuzu impulse 1991/1992 awd turbo was sold in the states, but if any of you are familiar with this car please any info or opinions , saposidly they are very rare with only 800 in north america they are 160 hp with 150torque very similar to the leggy but 1000 pounds lighter. the engine is from a lotus elan 1.6 turbo , it has lotus handling. it has 200kms on it for a decent price. i dont no how reliable they are or if they are real expensive to fix with lotus suuspension? 0-60mph in 7.7sec , with computer chip 7sec.

Yeah, they were sold in the States, and are indeed very rare. I've seen one that I can think of off the top of my head.

I don't know a whole bunch about them, although they intrigue me somewhat.

The engine is not from a Lotus Elan, the Lotus Elan's engine is from the Isuzu.

I want to say that the intake manifold has 8 runners, one for every intake valve, although I could be thinking of the I-Mark instead.

Your biggest hurdle will be parts. First, find an Isuzu dealership. That will be hard enough. Second, see if they have any parts for it still. You might get lucky, you might not.

body parts - asuna sunfire, geo storm, the guy says stock turbo will handle 20psi but only runs stock 10psi. what turbo do you think it has.

They are major pimp

A friend of mine had an I-mark RS and that was a sweet car. Not a turbo or awd, but Lotus suspension tuning and a DOHC 1.6. I also knew a kid in high school who had the turbo Impulse. I think it was only fwd, but it still got up and moved. I didn't like the kid so I don't know as much about it.

Isuzu should bring that back, building a small coupe off the GM Solstace/Sky platform. Enthusiasts would line up for a small rwd 4-seat/2+2. They need to do something drastic to save themselves from a quiet death nobody will notice.

the guy says bigger injectors and a tdo4 is already installed in it 200hp awd in a 2700 pound car sweet. i just wish the seller wasnt such a dick.

everytime i ask him something else is a little broken . he says he just paid to get new clutch but they installed the throw out bearing wrong . and the mechanic wont do anything about it? does this seem fish to u? yet hes seen multiple other mechanics and they say it will last forever.



mabe i should just buy it properly make it 250hp and list it on ebay . and hopefully some rich person makes a large bid

If it sounds fishy, it probably is. Always best to listen to your gut. Unless this thing's dirt cheap and you plan on doing everything over, there are other cars out there. It's almost always best to wait and buy the best you can than buy a cheap bucket you'll always be putting money into. And I advise never to buy a weirdo car with the hopes of selling it for profit. Buy it because you want it first, then if you can make some money great. I learned this the hard way so I hope others won't have to. Mass market weirdos have little to no chance of appreciation - they have little appeal (as most people buy to show off and you can't show off a car nobody heard of), are more difficult to maintain due to the rarity, and are usually not particularly beautiful or luxurious (and certainly not beyond what else could reasonably be bought within the price range you'd want to sell it for).

I happen to love the odd balls, but that's because I also am one. Even the exotic weirdos don't get nearly any love and take forever to get it when they do, from Isos, Intermeccanicas, Jensens, Facel Vegas, Monteverdis; to odd balls from known names like Lamborghini (Espada, Jarama, Uracco, Silhouette, Jalpa, Islero), Ferrari (308 GT4, Mondial, 400), and Maserati (Indy, Mistral, Khamsin, Mexico). Some of these have only gone up recently after decades in affordable obscurity which saw them bought by people who couldn't afford them and subsequently saw them horribly neglected. That in spite of drop-dead-gorgeousness in many cases.

Definitely. I do this whole old Subaru thing because I like it, not because I expect to make any money off of it. I'm considering keeping my 79 at least now because it's going to be extremely hard to sell it, and I'm guaranteed to lose money on it.

There was a REALLY nice blue Impulse that was on AutoTrader for the longest time, want to say it was in Wisconsin. 112k miles, owner had it appraised at $12k, was asking $5k for it last I looked. But it's gone now. I wouldn't doubt if that guy took a bath on that car, and if you get involved in this one, you most likely will too.

Steve? Ferrari 400?? I like underdogs too, but I always though the 400 was a rather poor example of a GT car.

The 400/412 were nightmares (the engine was very close to the Lamborghini's V12 in design), weren't that fast, and most of them came with autos, but they rode decent (Espada still ruled over it). Regardless, they're still Ferraris and they're not worth much. Not all of the cars I listed were great, just rare/exotic to make a point that odd balls aren't usually good investments no matter the name or quality. Buy an Intermeccanica Spyder because it's the match of any old Ferrari for looks with a much easier American powerplant to deal with, not because you plan to make money. Though, finally, those cars are appreciating and are worth some decent money now. It's just that for years they languished in the affordable-toy-any-middle-class-man-without-kids-could-afford-to-buy niche like the rest of the cars in the list. Then these guys bought one, like I almost did with an Espada, and found out they couldn't afford to run them, but they were now worth even less on the market since their services weren't kept up with and the whole situation spiralled downward for an unfortunate many cars. Lots of them didn't make it to their day of appreciation, which is maybe partly why the survivors are worth more when the market decides to notice them. Look at the ridiculous muscle car market - many of those cars are so expensive because so many ended up merged with trees when they were cheap enough for kids to buy them.

ok after a couple days of not hearing from the guy with the car. i see an ad on classifieds .from same number he was trying to sell to me for $1500 last herd from him friday

his ad below 2day

i suzu impulse awd turbo, motor blown, everything else good, turbo recently rebuiln new , rad, breaks, tons of parts, great for a donor tu turbo ur isuzu impulse $400

hmm good thing i didnt buy this last week lol. i hate people who sell cars that wouldnt last a week .

on an unrelated note, I had an 88 Impulse RS. it was RWD turbo. think chevette coupe done right.
bought it for $100 sold it for $200 after it stopped running.

subyluvr2212 wrote:First, find an Isuzu dealership. That will be hard enough.

Ain't that the damn truth Part of the reason I don't have my Trooper anymore. I always did kinda like the Impulse though, both versions. I do remember hearing that there were only 800 RS's in North America, don't remember where though.

my local subaru dealer is also an isuzu dealer

My brother had an 88 non turbo with the lotus suspension packge, that car was SWEET. It had a very simple cockpit, you were surrounded by controls all at your fingertips. It also had funky waffle pattern wheels. It had some severe electrical gremlins and it eventually got replaced and fell into disrepair... shame i wish i took that off his hands

I consider these cars Japanese classics! I think this particular model is being used as a drift car. Is this the only car that Isuzu ever produced besides the Isuzu Gemini?

i love the impulse turbo cars, they are fantastic to mod if you are a DIY kind of person. i had a white rs that i bought for $800 i while back. i did some basic mods and the car was exteremely fun to drive. i will buy another one when i get room for the parking. FYI- the impulse is the piazza in japan, try looking for those parts as well.

as far as the ferrari 400, they are great cars if you have the money and mechanic skills to keep them going. i helped a friend of mine restore one that was a 5spd. after we finished the car, he handed me the keyes and said "break it in for me". i then had the car for 1 month as a daily driver. it may not be a desirable or iconic ferrari, but it sure turns heads and is blast to drive. in comparison to my 308 gts quattrovalve, it was a torque monster. that is about it because it didnt handle or brake very well. ahhh, wish i still had my 308 but i couldnt turn down 80k.

i had an 89 I-Mark with Lotus Suspension back in the day. fun little car and handled like a dream.

You got 80k for a 308?! What, was it an early glass one with delivery mileage? Those 400s with sticks are pretty rare.

it was a 86 grey market car. i personally went to italy to visit my family and bought it from a ferrari dealer with only 12,363km on it for only $45k and spent $5k on shipping and import fee. the car was mint silver with black interior hardtop model, super rare. in the 3 years i had the car, i only put 6300km on it. i miss it but my next italian car will be a lamborghini. ive always liked lambos better.

I came close to buying an Espada and the maintenance manual was enough to change my mind. The 308's V8 is a Honda compared to that V12. I still really like the cars, but I'll never be able to think that kind of money and aggravation is worth it for anything. I don't know anything about Lamborghini's V8's. The one car I wish I bought anyway (damn the timing on buying my house!) was a Maserati Khamsin. Fully restored and fettled by a Citroen hydraulics specialist, Euro bumpers, black with red interior and I think the interior was better than original (but I've only ever seen two of those cars and I don't remember the 1st from when I was a kid). Absolutely gorgeous, very rare, and the guy was only looking for $32k. I'm not so big on other peoples' cars anymore, but someday I'd like to have an Alfa Romeo Montreal. With the updates to the SPICA FI, I've heard they're not too bad to run. As I guess you can tell, I'm a big fan of Gandini's work.

yeah you are. another car i have always loved is the pantera. came close to buying 2 of them in my life. some day, i will sack up and buy one.