cool pic of VX catching mad air

[Catch77]

I've chatted with with an ex-Isuzu rep when he spotted my VX. He mentioned that VXs were originally built for rallies, specifically the one across Africa (can't remember the name). But someone came up with the idea of making it street legal by slapping on the required parts. So for me it explains why these ride like jeeps...or rougher.

[tbigity]

at first glance it looks photoshopped. The car is too "clean" with everything else being so out of focus. Hard to catch a moving object in that sharp of a focus, but the lighting under it looks pretty spot-on and would be hard to emmulate that well in PS. My $.02

[Joe_Black]

The rally that Isuzu corporate has been involved with is the Dakar Rally, one of the most grueling long distance rallies on the planet. It used to run from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal but now starts from Lisbon, Portugal.



In 1994 Isuzu won the "Marathon" class with practically off-the-showroom-floor Trooper, which is why you'll see Dakar grill badges on some '95 Troopers. Isuzu also was actively achieving victories in other rallies around this time period:

1992 - Trooper won class victory in '92 Australlion Safari.
1993 - UCS (Mu, Amigo in US) took the prototype diesel class victory in the Paris-Dakar Rally.
1993 - Troopers took first and second place in the class of '93 Australian Safari.
1994 - Trooper won the Marathon class victory at the 1994 Paris-Dakar Rally.
1994 - Trooper finished first in its class at the Pharaoh Rally.
1994 - The Rodeo became the first SUV to win the Alcan Winter Rally.

The VehiCROSS was "rally inspired" and it was hoped, as Isuzu was not actively involved as a participating manufacturer, that private teams would campaign the VX with success.

[tbigity]

god, Isuzus rock. It is a shame that GM bought them, a company that recently filed for bankruptcy, and are going to eventually, in the not too distant future, phase out the Isuzus. Or at least, as a good GM-employee friend of mine thinks, they will phase out all original Isuzu designs. Which they kinda already have. All they have now are trailblazers and colorados with isuzu badges, iirc.

[nfpgasmask]

jeep

chevy

Mitsu

Another jeep, madder air

If you look at the URL for the above links, and want to look at more pics from this Japanese site, just change the number around for the jpg up or down 1 to see some of the other pics. I cannot find out how to browse this site normally...

Bart

[JHarris1385]

tbigity = God i wish they didnt turn into GM now they dont even have the Axiom......

[Joe_Black]

GM never bought Isuzu. Isuzu entered into an agreement that provided GM with the worlds best diesel engines after they spun off their own Detroit Diesel division to Mercedes. Duramax? That's right, Isuzu is the heartbeat of today's Chevrolet!

Unfortunately, Isuzu's rising popularity in the 80's led GM to hamstring their American operations by dictating how dealerships they could have and the size of their advertising budget. GM attempted to garner some control with a 51% stock purchase, but Japanese law didn't give them the control they sought and Isuzu corporate made the GM representative essentially sit in the corner during board meetings.

Several years ago Isuzu began a stock buy-back plan to wrest any and all interest from GM. I posted some interesting news on this a while back. They got all but 12% back, then with the recent financial troubles at GM they snapped up all the remaining stock. Some may note or point out that Fuji Heavy (Subaru) and Mitsubishi got some of it, I think about 8%, but these were from divisions that are actively partnered with Isuzu on various projects.

So Isuzu is now 100% GM free, although they still do business with them. The "talk" has been that Isuzu will return to the US and set up new dealerships and market their domestic models, especially diesels, with an eye to be competitive and aggressive. So let's all keep our collective fingers crossed!

[Raque Thomas]

god, Isuzus rock. It is a shame that GM bought them, a company that recently filed for bankruptcy, and are going to eventually, in the not too distant future, phase out the Isuzus. Or at least, as a good GM-employee friend of mine thinks, they will phase out all original Isuzu designs. Which they kinda already have. All they have now are trailblazers and colorados with isuzu badges, iirc.

I believe that Colorados are actually rebadged Izusu's instead of the other way around.

[JHarris1385]

So will Isuzu go back to great styling or stick with the bland Ascender look?

[Joe_Black]

So will Isuzu go back to great styling or stick with the bland Ascender look?

They had absolutely nothing to do with the Ascender. It's just a Trailblazer that gets Isuzu stickers at the end of the assembly line, plain and simple.

Oh, it's also responsible for the only recall to ever be issued against Isuzu. Which really is an injustice since they didn't design or manufacture the abomination. GMAC = Grotesquely Misengineered American Cars.

[tbigity]

I believe that Colorados are actually rebadged Izusu's instead of the other way around.

Are you serious? Coz I have a colorado...and got it at the end of '04 and the i350, or whatever the heck they call it, just came out, in this market at least, less than a year ago.

So Isuzu is now 100% GM free, although they still do business with them

[Isuzu] had absolutely nothing to do with the Ascender. It's just a Trailblazer that gets Isuzu stickers at the end of the assembly line

...sooo, which is it?

[Joe_Black]

...sooo, which is it?

The business they continue in revolves around the Colorado/i350 and diesel engines. But they do it at their own discretion and are not beholden to GM.

As for the Ascender, I can't verify this but my understanding is that there are contractual obligations and Isuzu wants to maintain some type of market presence until their plan unfolds.

[nfpgasmask]

It is tough to catch fast moving objects in focus, but with a motor drive on your camera and a proper lens with the right film speed it can be done pretty easily...especially if you are a professional photographer shooting a race...although, PS does have some nice "motion blur" fx that can emmulate this exact type of thing....but like you said, way to spot-on to be fake...

at first glance it looks photoshopped. The car is too "clean" with everything else being so out of focus. Hard to catch a moving object in that sharp of a focus, but the lighting under it looks pretty spot-on and would be hard to emmulate that well in PS. My $.02

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

It is tough to catch fast moving objects in focus, but with a motor drive on your camera and a proper lens with the right film speed it can be done pretty easily...especially if you are a professional photographer shooting a race...although, PS does have some nice "motion blur" fx that can emmulate this exact type of thing....but like you said, way to spot-on to be fake...

I took my buddy to see NHRA Drag Racing at Columbus, OHio and he is into photography. He snapped alot of pictures of dragsters on their way to 300+mph in the 1/4 mile and you can read the sponsorship decals on the car along with the drivers name when it was half-way down the track (probably in excess of 200mph at that point!) I was impressed!