Isuzu Aska Ceramic

Before the Isuzu Aska was a badge-engineered version of the Honda Accord, it was a badge-engineered version of a General Motors J-body car. Think Chevrolet Cavalier. Buick Skyhawk. Cadillac Cimarron. Holden Camira. Pontiac Sunbird.

Legendary cars, all. No problems with reliability, recalls, build quality, or competitiveness against the onslaught of competition from Japan. At least, that's what GM had wanted.

The reality? You end up at the end of the decade with Michael Moore satisfyingly sticking a camera in the faces of GM execs while asking, paraphrasing here, "How'd you mess this company up so badly?"

Make no mistake, some J-body cars were perfectly fine. Some were trash. But the reputation of any car on the J platform was mixed, at best.

Having said that, Isuzu's version was strangely…and subtly different. Its versions used Isuzu engines, both gasoline and diesel.

It seems as though Isuzu wanted more. Turning to research from Kyocera, both ceramic coatings and engine parts were made from the specially-developed materials.

You'd think this would be promising technology, but there's little information out there about the Isuzu Aska Ceramic concept.

Closest I could find to a press release was an archived news story from 1983 that spoke of a '1,994 cc turbo-charged diesel model' to be shown at a future Tokyo Motor Show.

It goes on to report, "the combustion chamber of the ceramic engine is built with the highly heat-resistant material that is capable of withstanding up to 2,000 degrees (C) of heat without a cooling system, Isuzu officials said." A silicon nitride glaze for the cylinder linings, pistons, and head was reportedly a main part of the innovations being tested.