Who knows what this is?

"JDMatt" (JDMatt) 02/21/2014 at 01:32 • Filed to: None

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While hunting for a free parking space at my school, I drove past a car that I didn't recognize before. I just looked it up on the internet, and apparently what I saw was an 1987 Chevy Sprint Turbo. I'm guessing it was still on the road for 2 reasons: 1) it's small, and in San Francisco it helps with parking and 2) California doesn't salt it's roads, otherwise this 1980's chevy would have been so rusty it would split in half if the driver hit a pot h0le fast enough.

Write up:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/auth…

Funny motorweek review:

lonestranger > JDMatt 02/21/2014 at 02:14

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I didn't know that they were ever called Chevy Sprints in the U.S., I thought they were all Geo Metros or Suzuki Swifts.

Here in Canada where we love small shitboxes, we also got the bubble-bodied 2nd-gen ones as Chevy Sprints and Pontiac Fireflys, both available in Turbo versions. In the last few weeks, I've even seen one teal Turbo Firely, and one Swift GTi.

(not my pic, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/7182626… )

The Swift GTi didn't have a turbo. Instead, it had twin cams operating 16 valves across four whole cylinders.

JDMatt > lonestranger 02/21/2014 at 02:20

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Yeah, I've seen Suzuki swifts and geo metros since I was a little american kid, but the first time I saw the chevy version was this tuesday.

Thank you captive imports!

D > JDMatt 02/21/2014 at 02:38

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cletus44, come back to us...

cletus had a swift gti

UZPWR > JDMatt 02/21/2014 at 03:53

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It was also sold in Canada as a Suzuki Forsa

A friend of mine had one briefly, went pretty good then the trans crapped out. Same guy also has a Sprint Turbo (2nd gen), that became a joke that went too far. I built an equal length manifold out of cast steel plumbing elbows and stuck a K03 off a VW on it, straight piped to a side dump. Then he ghetto painted it pink. Then came some Super Advans, refinished with purple lips and gunmetal faces. Then he found a convertible for cheap, and all the running gear got swapped over, and he had a multi stage purple pearl applied to it. Things got wayyyyy out of hand.

UZPWR > UZPWR 02/21/2014 at 03:59

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JDMatt > UZPWR 02/21/2014 at 04:21

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oh josh, that's car really looks like a joke that went to far! how long did it take from the time the first car was bought for your friend to end up with the pink convertible?

fhrblig > JDMatt 02/21/2014 at 08:33

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I've owned 2 Chevy Sprints, unfortunately they were not the turbo. Both were silver 5-doors with manual transmissions. They had a whopping 48 HP. They were still fun little cars in their own way.

RazoE > lonestranger 02/21/2014 at 10:01

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Sprints were pre-Metros. I love them to be honest. GM's version of the GLH (but much slower)

lonestranger > RazoE 02/21/2014 at 12:54

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In most cases, much, much slower than an Omni GLH.

RazoE > lonestranger 02/21/2014 at 12:55

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I meant the turbo ones..:D

UZPWR > JDMatt 02/24/2014 at 23:47

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I think it spanned 2-3 years in total. The VW turbo went on shortly after the car was bought because the stock turbo was seized. Then it got painted, then the FMIC happened. It lived like that for quite awhile, then all the convertible stuff came, and that took forever because the shop doing it was only working on it in their spare time.

Shouldn't need Facebook to view these.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set…

JDMatt > UZPWR 02/25/2014 at 19:50

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have you made a post on oppo for this build? that album would make a more substantial post than everything I've posted so far (rare cars i find around the northern california)