That Time Isuzu Made A Formula One Engine And Put It In A Pickup

That Time Isuzu Made A Formula One Engine And Put It In A Pickup

What happens when you put a 3.5-liter V12 race motor into an ute? You get this - the Isuzu Como F1 Super Truck

Starting late, Isuzu's product offering has turned somewhat dreary and utilitarian. In any case, that doesn't mean the organization hasn't been in charge of some genuinely unusual manifestations all through its history. Albeit the vast majority connect Isuzu with diesel motors and tried and true utility vehicles, the Japanese maker had somewhat of a distraught streak from the late 1980s into the mid '90s. Alongside a progression of over the top idea autos (counting the peculiar VehiCross SUV, which inevitably entered creation), Isuzu had yearnings of entering a world with which it wasn't at all natural: Formula One dashing.

Isuzu's short attack into motorsport appeared to be no less dazing in 1991 than it does today. Be that as it may, in the background at Isuzu was a skunkworks venture went for punting the organization to the cutting edge of open-wheel hustling. Isuzu had subtly built up a 3.5-liter DOHC V12 race motor that wrenched out around 640bhp at 12,500rpm. The motor, codenamed P799WE, was intended to agree to Formula One details. All it required was an auto.

In the meantime, Team Lotus was searching for a motor to control their 102C racer. It looked like Isuzu would be the organization to supply Team Lotus with a motor for the 1992 Formula One season. Amid testing at Silverstone, the P799WE-controlled 102C demonstrated a great deal of guarantee on the track, and sounded stunningly better. Obviously, intense diesels weren't the main motors Isuzu could construct.

Tragically, the Formula One wander never happened as intended. The flying of Japan's monetary air pocket hurt Isuzu Motors seriously, constraining it to pull the attachment on its association with Team Lotus. This left Isuzu with a fantastic V12 motor that had no valuable reason at all. Not needing their endeavors to go to squander, the organization chose to feature the P799WE in the most stunning route conceivable: by placing it in a pickup truck.

Truly, you read that last sentence accurately. The 1991 Isuzu Como F1 Super Truck was an apropos named slip by of rational soundness. Outlined by Simon Cox, who might later draft the similarly bonkers Cadillac Cien, the Como F1 was everything that a certifiable pickup truck isn't. It had scissor entryways, smooth streamlined features and a mid-mounted P799WE V12 with more power than the future McLaren F1. Albeit official execution figures are nonexistent, it's implied this souped-up ute could fly like a bat out of hellfire. In addition, the back load compartment implied the Como wasn't totally illogical, either.

Of course, the Como F1 Super Truck wasn't industrially practical. It was, be that as it may, one of the coolest idea autos of the 1990s. On paper, the idea of a pickup truck fueled by a Formula One-spec V12 motor appears to be totally strange, and conceivably even profane. In any case, the Como F1 was extremely a demonstration of Isuzu's undiscovered potential as a carmaker. By displaying the organization's building ability alongside its vanguard inventiveness, the Como F1 influences you to ponder what might have happened if Isuzu put more in its traveler auto tasks. For the occasion, notwithstanding, the main way you'll likely have the capacity to drive a mid-engined Isuzu is whether you seek after a vocation as a transport driver.