PIAZZAworld's Australian Review Page. Last Modified: 20 April 1997

SHOWPONY
by Chris Gable
Published Pages 58 and 59 Wheels Magazine Mid 1986
Holden's new Piazza still looks as good as it first did as a show a car seven years ago. But as Chris Gable reports, no car can be judged by looks alone.

UNREQUITED EXPECTATIONS often leave the heart heavy. The imagination jilted yet again. After more than 2000 km behind the wheel of the Piazza. We're still heavy of heart and mightily disappointed. We wanted so much to like the Piazza -- Holden's Isuzu sports coupe -- and had looked forward to it since its 1979 Geneva Motor Show debut as the Giugiaro penned Ace of Clubs. WHEELS even dubbed it 'Holden's Coupe for the '80s' in a cover story which now seems to have appeared a long. long time ago. (It was seven years.) On paper in 1979. The Piazza looked to have everything: fuel-efficient two-litre sohc four with Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection. Five speed gearbox. four wheel discs and more. In the metal it had Giugiaro's unmistakable freshness and appeal. In fact. the Piazza promised a vivacity sadly lacking in Japan's mostly ordinary offerings of the time. Despite being based on the floor pan of the rear drive Gemini.

But in 1986 rather than the sprightly. exciting sports car Isuzu had promised with the Ace of Clubs. the Piazza is a disappointment. And at such a price! if it had been released when it should have been released. the Piazza would have brained every motoring journalist in Australia. Apart from the intercooled turbo. the Japanese market got such late-seventies showstoppers as micro- computer- controlled fuel injection and turbo boost. optional four-speed lock-up automatic transmission. split rear seat. Cruise control and an instruments binnacle out of Star Trek.

When the car went into production in 1981 it also had the choice of twin-cam or single overhead cam versions of Isuzu's two-litre. Iron block alloy head in-line four. The twin-cam version got the microcomputer-controlled fuel injection. While the sohc model had Bosch L-Jetronic injection.

Now it is 1996 and the sohc. L-Jetronic-injected version of the Piazza has finally made it to Australia. And it has landed square in the middle of a new era of Japanese performance coupes. Most of which are the product of later technology than the Piazza. The Piazza still has impressive technology under its shapely bonnet -- don't get us wrong. It is comfortably well appointed inside and it is quick against the stopwatch -- indeed. very quick. with its 9.6-second 0-100 km/h and 16.3-second 0-400 metre times. Yet it is not the exciting car we'd hoped it would be. The disappointment is compounded by the fact that the potential is there for it to be almost everything we'd hoped for. Though we'd still worry about the price tag: $25.000-$30.000 would be nearer the mark.)

Part of the disappointment lies in the translation from knockout showcar to production reality. But part of it possibly also lies with GM-H engineers. Local engineers are said to have contributed something to the specification of the Piazza's ride and handling package. Unfortunately. it seems. Ride ruled. The give-away is the lack of RTS badges. Maybe Holden chaps asked and nobody at Isuzu listened. The truth is that. for a car with such brisk performance, the Piazza is a real handful in performance driving, bump steer. roll oversteer, understeer and alarming nose under brakes -- it's all there.

On smooth roads with smooth corners you won't notice those faults (unless you have to panic-stop). Nor will you notice the rattles. Our five-speed manual Piazza had them in its adjustable satellite controls pods and had rattles and squeaks from the dashboard generally. And it felt 'loose' in such areas as the way the doors didn't 'clunk' shut and the rough bitumen roads up noises from the area and. Surprisingly the way road shocks fed through the otherwise-good variable ratio steering.

But let's step back for a moment and look at some of good things about the Piazza, there are many. The styling remains strong, attractive, despite the fact that it must be at least 8 years since Giugiaro presented it to Isuzu. Body panels are fairly flat and doors wrap up and over the roof rails as part of the aerodynamic treatment for a claimed 0.36 Cd. The wheelbase is long for a car which is Alfa GTV size (the GTV being another Giugiaro tour de force) and the nose with it's partially concealed headlamps, seems enormous if you look at it for too long. (Interestingly enough, the nose was shortened from the original Ace of Clubs).

The rear roofline is high by sports coupe standards and helped by reasonable rear leg room and cleverly adjustable rear seat squabs, the Piazza is probably closest its class to being a true 242. Passengers under 172 cm should be comfortable even on long trips. Provided driver and front seat passengers aren't tall enough to rob them of leg space. Rear passengers also should appreciate the 'airiness' of the Piazza's cabin by a low waistline and large rear windows which let them look at the Scenery, not an enormous B pillar and the plentiful bits-and-pieces bins.

Driver and front seat passenger sit in plush buckets (trimmed in pale gray velour in our test car) with an impressive range of adjustments. There even is a manually-adjustable version of the Supra's 'hugging' lateral support bolsters. The driver faces a windscreen that seems far too shallow and looks out over a bonnet which drops out of sight, leaving him or her wondering where the front corners of the car really are. The Gemini steering wheel (another disappointment) is adjustable for height. there is convergence adjustment for the aforementioned satellite controls pods -- which house cruise control settings, rear demister, lights. two-stage rheostat dimmer, hazards and indicators on the right and washerwipers, .aircon. and fan controls on the left. Instruments are digital and, frankly. not to our liking. It takes too long to interpret the bar graph LEDs alongside the digital numerals of the tachometer, and we find the constantly changing numbers are distracting.

Pedals are well placed for fancy footwork and reach to the excellent gear change is just about right. The Piazza is quick off the mark -- as you'll see from the performance figures - and its gearing feels well spaced. with first through fourth nicely balanced against the urge of the turbocharger and fifth a good. solid 0.78 to one overdrive. In fact, the interplay of the Isuzu engine. the turbocharger and the intelligent gearing is one of the nicest things about the Piazza.

Given its head, the Piazza has exhilarating acceleration though the engine gets coarse towards the redline. On good roads and in capable hands the car will thrill a lot of people. On bad roads and in inexperienced hands, this same Piazza will frighten a lot more people.

Specification of the suspension is impressive enough on paper but the package just doesn't work on anything but smooth bitumen. Apart from the ailments we've already mentioned, the Piazza's ride deteriorates away from the expressway. On our longest drive. Sydney to Brisbane and back. The Piazza returned best fuel economy of 10.59 km/l (29.8 mpg) when driven around 120 km/h which most owners (thankfully) might cruise at. Worst fuel economy 6.97km/I. (19.6 mpg) came from city driving.

All of which leaves us wondering if some showcars shouldn't just stay that.