2002 Isuzu Trooper S 3.5l V6 Auto Low Mileage 1 Owner Sunroof Clean Carfax on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Porsche revives Pink Pig and Rothman's liveries for Le Mans

Long-time fans of Porsche, particularly its motorsports history, are in for a treat at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The company took two of its 911 RSR race cars and gave each of them a famous color scheme from the past. The designs are part of the company's 70th anniversary celebration. The first and most unusual paint scheme is a modern rendition of the "Pink Pig." The design was used on a Porsche 917/20 in 1971. Just like the original, it's finished in a pale shade of pink with dotted lines marking out sections of the car. Each of these sections has a label for a different cut of meat from a pig. The other livery isn't as strange, but it's no less recognizable. It features a blue, red and gold color scheme of tobacco company Rothmans. Rothmans was a sponsor of many racing Porsches over the years, and the colors appeared on everything from Le Mans racers to the Paris-Dakar 959. This version on the 911 RSR notably lacks any tobacco branding or advertising. The two 911s with the retro colors will be competing alongside 8 additional 911s with more modern liveries. They will compete in the GTE classes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

16 things I learned about the Isuzu VehiCROSS

There are plenty of cars I remember existing, but actually know very little about due to the passage of time or just not particularly caring when they were new. Take the Isuzu VehiCROSS, which I fondly recall as this wackadoo off-roader from the late 1990s and early 2000s. But honestly, that's about it. So, since I've got a little extra time kicking about, I decided to fall into the rabbit hole labeled Isuzu VehiCROSS for an hour to see how much I could find out about this SUV (or "sport/utility" in 1999 parlance) that shared labeling with the watch I wore in 1999. Enjoy. 1) The VehiCROSS was not based on the Rodeo, as I always assumed, but rather the Trooper RS. Oh, so that bigger, boxier Isuzu they turned into an Acura? No, no, no. The RS was the two-door Trooper, and specifically the second-generation two-door Trooper, which I just discovered was a thing. And what a gawky, dorky, that-has-to-be-Photoshopped thing it was. Apparently, the Trooper RS was sold in the United States from 1993 to 1995, and in very small numbers. That is not surprising. 2) It was probably obvious, but the VehiCROSS was based on a concept car. Specifically, a concept car shown at the 1993 Tokyo auto show.  3) The quick turnaround from concept to its Japanese market introduction for 1997 was the result of some innovative manufacturing methods at the time (it arrived in the United States in 1999). According to the Motor Trend first drive, "There would be no time-consuming clinics, no 'courtroom drama' with the finance department, and to oversee the project, a 'Zip Team' consisting of 15-20 members was given the task of developing the vehicle in about half the normal time." Among its accomplishments, the team came up with a way to more quickly and cheaply produce the VehiCROSS' unique body pieces. Again according to Motor Trend, Isuzu used carbon stamping dies inside of the conventional cast iron dies. Though the carbon could be used far fewer times and result in a reduced overall capacity, they cost one-third to one-half as much and could be made in about six weeks – the cast iron ones would take four months and run about $1.5 million in 1990s dollars. Isuzu estimated they'd only be able to produce 2,400 VehiCROSSes per year until the carbon dies wore out. Then that would be it. According to sales data on Wikipedia, Isuzu managed to sell 2,005 in the U.S. alone in year 1 and 4,153 in total. In Japan, there were 1,805 sold in total.

Junkyard Gem: 2000 Honda Passport 4WD

The suits at American Honda Motor Company must have spent the bulk of the 1990s tearing out their hair in frustration as their rivals raked in big money from the sales of ever-more-profitable SUVs, even as American car shoppers lost interest in sedans and hatchbacks. Oh, sure, the Civic-based CR-V appeared here for the 1997 model year and sold well enough, but the lack of a larger SUV pained Honda more with each passing year. With the Acura MDX and Honda Pilot not ready for showrooms until the 2001 and 2002 model years, respectively, some stopgap had to be found. Isuzu stepped up and made a deal with Honda: the Rodeo would get Honda badges and become the Passport, while the Trooper would show up in Acura showrooms with SLX badges (for the 1994 and 1995 model years, respectively). Here's one of those Passports, found in a Denver-area self-service yard. Things got even weirder in the Isuzu/Honda world around the turn of the century, with the Honda Odyssey getting Isuzu badges and being sold as the Oasis. Fast-forward to 2009, and the only Isuzu-badged vehicles available new here were rebadged Chevrolets: the I-Series pickup (Chevy Colorado) and the Ascender (Chevy Trailblazer). The Passport name has some interesting American Honda history, stretching back to the first Honda vehicle sold here (and the biggest-selling motor vehicle in human history): the Super Cub. American Honda Motor Company couldn't use the Super Cub name on our shores, because Piper Aircraft had been selling a small plane called the Super Cub since 1949, so the motorcycle was called the Honda 50 over here. Eventually, this bike got a 70cc engine and became the Honda C70 Passport, sales of which continued through the middle 1980s. That means the Passports sitting in your local Honda dealership right now got their name from a one-cylinder motorcycle. General Motors has a Passport connection as well; when GM created the Geo brand to sell rebadged Isuzus, Suzukis, and Toyotas in the United States, it created a marque called Passport to sell the Daewoo LeMans as the Optima in Canada (all the other vehicles sold by Passport dealers were Isuzus). So, Honda's need to offer SUVs in its American dealerships led to an arrangement with GM-connected Isuzu to sell these trucks with a model name bearing links to both companies. So much history in the junkyard! Just as Geo-badged Toyota Corollas (mostly) got Delco radios, so did the Passport get Honda radios.