Modern interpretation of the Piazza

[Piazza_man]

So here they are guys. Had my creative juices flowing the other day. Just some ideas to hopefully inspire others who are searching for ways to modernise or freshen up their own cars (time and money permitting of course).




Basically the front and rear bumpers were smoothed out to follow the body's contour, and enhance the existing beautiful shape. The 'groove' (that runs around the entire car) is retained as one of the key Giugiaro design elements. The groove now also holds small but powerful LEDs to help achieve an uncluttered and slick looking shape. LED technology is now used extensively in this day and age. The advent of smaller Halogen light clusters could mean the narrowing of the front grill area, and hence making it closer to the original Giugiaro concept:


I also mention 'angel eyes', which is something becoming more common these days. This gives a really modern look, not to mention the WOW factor. The angel eyes below is actually off my own car, which is connected to a 3-way switch. It gives me amber, or white, or normal parklight mode:



The rear lights on the Piazza are now dated and have been deleted/relocated using LED replacements. Custom Harleys and hot rods have been using this technology:



Guys, I realise this is my interpretation, but I welcome any feedback, good or bad. If there are ways to improve upon it then let me know. I'm open to your suggestions/ideas. Now that I've got the ball rolling I want this to be of benefit to fellow Piazza/Impulse lovers on this forum.

Oh and let us not forget those 'Lambo' doors.

[Ghost]

The rear LED lights do look good and the twin exhausts (Fig C) really tidy up the rear.

I think the front (Fig D) may be a little bit too "narrow".
Needs taller lights.

[Piazza_man]

Thanks for your input Ghost. Maybe the original headlight height should stay for Fig D with just the front bar to be altered.

[sbs]

Hi there Eyecon,

Here's something new then, an owner of an Isuzu Impulse / Holden Piazza who really is smarter than the average bunny! I am only kidding around, I think that anyone recognising just how advanced the styling of our cars are proves that they were decades ahead of their time.
I had young folk coming up to look at my Holden Piazza at a local car show and asking me "Is this a new release mate?" They were drooling and I haven't seen that reaction for a stock standard car in years.
I like your ideas and concepts but I have always been partial to the thin original frontend as per the concept of Giugiaro. The very same idea was used in the very early 1980's on an Australian concept car caaled (I think) the X7 project. Now if their was a replacement panel available to fit straight on..... your ideas about using thin LED's within the groove are reminiscent of the reflective inserts used on the DMC DeLorean - wasn't that also a creation of Giugiaro?
Here is a thought for you eyecon, the accessory spoiler that we have here are of a rubber construction bolted straight through the top of the rear bootlid and are inevitably the worst area for rust. Could your spoiler design be mounted using high-powered magnets recessed into the bottom of the spoiler and some type of clips turning down over the lip of the bootlid? Anyway your ideas are sound and it is nice to see such enthusiasm.
Good luck to you, best wishes from Western Australia, sbs.

[sbs]

Hi again eyecon,

Just a quick correction to something I wasn't sure about above. The Holden concept car that I tried to remember was called the Holden Torana GTR-X Concept car and was designed in 1970. It was so futuristic and radical for its day that the Holden people never believed it would sell, just like the Holden Piazza sixteen years later.
Do a google search on the above car eyecon, I think you might like it. Regards, sbs.

[Piazza_man]

I'll have another look sbs, but from memory the car was designed by Phil Zmood, who still head of design when I did work experience at GMH. I met the guy. From recollection the fame that he received from his drawings led him to start work at GMH as chief designer, or something like that. I believe that was his only claim to fame.

But I reckon the Piazza shape is still better looking. I'm actually working on an evolutionary futuristic Piazza concept, which will see a departure from the current shape, but hopefully retain a unique Giugiaro design appeal that still says Piazza. I've just got to find some time. There's never enuff of the stuff...

[Piazza_man]

And by the way I really appreciate your earlier comments.

I'm aware of the those crappy foam smaller Oz spec rear spoilers. I'm with you, terrible. The one I sketched in Fig A is actually nothing new, as it is an existing spoiler design found on some Oz cars (eg. yellow Piazza from Vic), but mostly are from USA. So these are presumably still available and I think still cool looking. That's why I included it in Fig A, and has the least amount of cosmetic alterations (ie. Still retaining the factory bumper). I haven't thought too much about add-ons like spoilers to be honest sbs because I've been focusing on smoother lines and cosmetic changes, rather than after-market add-on parts.

That's interesting you brought up the DeLorian using some sort of reflective inserts. I wasn't aware of that. Regardless of that my design rationale was different when it came to utilising LED technology. The LEDs in the above concepts serve to enhance the existing beautiful wedge form, not to detract from it. Unfortunately all I'm seeing from a DeLorian is a very cluttered and fussy shape, and way too 'mechanical' looking (sorry to any Delorian owners out there if you're offended). That's probably why it looks more dated than the Impulse/Piazza.

[wedgenut]

The rubber spoiler is the most common, early model specials like the Nero in Japan had the two leg spoiler quite early, later model specials like the Nero then got the three leg spoiler and some standard models got the two leg. The later three leg also had the built in high stop light.

[Piazza_man]

And of course you can boast you have both versions. Don't worry I would boast having those cars too. Lucky barstad.

[wedgenut]

Not any more, the white was my sons car, used to be gold (see the banner at top of page) Just after the repaint the little bastard sold it complete with my latest model spoiler. I have two cars with the two leg type, also have a couple of those nasty rubber ones in my shed. better off without them unless the drain holes are enlarged

[Piazza_man]

Are those type of spoilers still available? I can only guess they're predominant in Japan and US of A.

[wedgenut]

I doubt it very much but I could try and track down a part number for you if you are keen to ask your local GM idiots to check with Japan

Update

I think the part number for the two leg is 8-94146415-0, you could also try

8-94145164-1. I don't know if this is the later three leg or not as I don't have any illustrations but GM should.
The two leg spoiler attaches with two fixings that line up with the outer two holes of the old rubber spoilers but also have two screws that attach into the hatch that on later models has two capture nuts. You can always use PK screws but you need plastic cup wahers with plastic cover caps as well. Part numbers for the cup is 8-94422713-0 and the cap is 8-94422712-1, two of each needed. You can get similar things from hardware stores if stuck. The three leg is the same but has one extra fixing for the centre leg. I didn't bother with a screw on this leg I drilled one hole for the lamp wiring and used body mounting tape which is fine for the centre leg.

[Piazza_man]

Cool, thanks. Something to look into in the future.

[Piazza_man]

Bit overdue for an update since starting this thread but better late than never hey. These days we have AI to do a fair amount of the grunt work in many facets of our daily lives. So with a bit of help from an AI render/design tool called Viscom, I have put together some AI concept renders from my own concept sketches. A render AI tool like Viscom was used because I couldn’t be bothered rendering them in Photoshop or manually.

The AI renders that I have chosen here aren’t a perfect interpretation of my concepts but I guess they’re close enough to convey the intent and ethos of my designs. I haven’t touched them up in Photoshop in any way to peg them back to align with the original sketches. Straight off the gun, so to speak.

The design brief was fairly straightforward - design a modern looking interpretation of the Isuzu Piazza and as though it was designed by Giugiaro and his ItalDesign team. To achieve this several design cues from the original design were carried over, waffle wheels included haha. A couple of things I felt to address was a more wider stance, and a lower rear apron.