jetmechanic2004 wrote:
Known facts about car:
-Only made one year; 1991. Leftovers were sold in 1992 as well.
Not accurate. Manufacturing began in June of 1990 and continued past January of 1993. Your misconception is based on the car only being offered as a 1991 model year car.
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-Less than 800 left-hand quad-headlight US models were ever produced.
4,500-5,000 Impulse RS AWD Turbo cars sold in North America. Misconception based on rice boy editing of Wikipedia.
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Because of the valve shim adjustment requirement, and the performance, most were, abused and trashed. Very few remain. Even fewer are original.
Valve adjustment increment is 80,000 miles and no damage will be done to the valvetrain if driven past 200,000 miles without adjustment, though a loss of engine power will be quite noticeable. Thermometer failure at 120,000+ miles is the primary cause of engine failure in these vehicles (and their non-turbo counterparts). These vehicles require regular maintenance and the demographic of buyers/owners do not do maintenance. They put in gas and drive until something falls off, which is usually after major damage has occurred. Most of these cars come in one of two forms: blown engine or wrapped around a tree.
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I believe Jay Leno may have owned one.
Someone posted their Impulse in the "Reader's Rides" portion of the Jay Leno's Garage website. Jay did not ever own one.
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-AWD, intercooled, KYB/Lotus Suspension,
Lotus Suspension provides close to neutral handling, much more so than the moderate to severe understeer of the other suspensions offered, but excessive body roll, resulting in higher lap times than the other sport model suspension options for this chassis.
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4 wheel discs, ABS, 16V DOHC 1.6L 7750rpm, dual intake runners with VSV's, water & oil cooled IHI turbo, engine oil cooler,
Engine oil cooler was added as a band aid because the radiator is too small.
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factory seats look exactly like Recaros,
Seats are likely licensed by Recaro, genuine Recaro LSB and SR seats available in other trim levels outside the US.
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NACA style hood duct, factory rear LSD with 4:10 final drive,
Factory front and rear viscous coupling differentials and gear type center differential. Unfortunately, the viscous coupling units leak and require replacement every two or so years or they effectively become open differentials.
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factory forged & nitrided crank and rods w/supplemental under-piston skirt squirters, under 1.8 second 60-ft times stock.
Replacement pistons and rods have been discontinued.
Probably also worth noting that rear bearings have been discontinued, and in most cases should have been changed every four years. By this time, there may be more cars parked for lack of rear wheel bearings than warped heads due to failed thermostats.
Rust prone areas: left, right and rear floor pan seams, rear wheel arches, left, right and rear along the base of the trunk walls. No relacement panels available.
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-This car is disassembled, all original, with factory window sticker, is 100% parts complete, and has glovebox and factory technician's manuals. Needs restored and assembled.
-This was the highest performing Isuzu in history
No. Close but slower than the four door flagship model sold in Japan.
Collect ability will not be established for another 10+ years. Right now, plenty of these are being killed off by rice boys.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The previous Impulse was an Italian design, inside and out, matched the performance of the AE86 Corolla, but lacked a highly developed chassis or brute power to match the looks and handling. The second generation carries some of the Italian design over to a newly developed chassis built for handling and power efficiency that allows the car to perform as good or better than larger displacement and higher power competition. In the Best Car video magazine review, the Japanese four door flagship model was .11 second slower in lap time behind the Civic SiR, and beat the 180SX Type II, Famalia GT-X, and Mirage Cyborg Turbo. While the first generation was designed to be a rolling work of art, the second generation was designed for class beating performance. The Impreza and Lancer have been depending on performance rather than beauty for the last several generations. The second generation Impulse is quite the same, and certainly not as aesthetically challenged as the Integra Type R, fourth generation Civic, bug eye Impreza GD, or the 323/Protege BF and BG.
Marketability of your vehicle?
The minimum requirement for selling a car is that it be a working vehicle that moves under its own power. An unmolested (not screwed up with a bunch of rice boy garbage) car in decent 20 year old shape would be worth several thousand dollars. A fully assembled, unmolested, not running car might get up into that range if in rust free condition. A riced out car that has been run into the ground has a zero dollar value, because finding the original parts and fixing all the problems would cost $5,000-10,000.
A car with a blown engine that has been disassembled and half the parts lost is a parts car. This is the one described as "bring a trailer, the head is in the trunk".
A car that is described as "bring a trailer for the chassis and a commercial truck to carry the boxes and bushel baskets of parts", would be valued equal to the value of the larger decent condition used parts on top of the pile.
These are very impressive, well built, and dependable cars, if maintained correctly. They received poor media reviews in the US. The buyer demographic was people buying a transportation appliance to be discarded upon failure.
Current owner demographic is unemployed/underemployed rice boys with the mechanical sense and ability of an orangutan and the taste of an eastern European mobster. They are thankfully moving on to Kias when they blow up and junk their fifth or sixth Isuzu car. A couple more years and they may all be gone.
Those of us who are real fans of the vehicles already have several. We won't be affected by the number of cars the rice boys trash.
These cars are much less about investing to sell for a profit, and much more about finding a gem that no one else has ever seen, then going out on the track and pounding Loti and BMWs into dust.
But seriously if there's any way you can plug away at this and slowly get it rebuilt, go for it.
