I moved over from Switzerland to Canada in February 97 .
And what does a guy like my needs first ?... A car, that is for sure !!!
First I checked out some VW Golf and similar but there was no good one around.
I almost gave up and made myself ready to buy one of those regular boring cars but then ....
there was this sporty little car on a 2nd-hand dealers lot. I never saw a car like that before in europe. I took a test-drive and just was impressed about the performance as the salesman told me that it is only a 1 liter 3 cylinder engine. The body showed some rust but it had only 100,000 km.
(the rust was worse than I thought what I figured out later)
Anyway, an hour later, I was the owner of a blue 89 Chevrolet Sprint Turbo.

I drive my Sprint every day (usually too fast and hard in corners thought) It has now 180,000 km and actually i don`t take too much care of that poor thing. Sometimes i have to take out the passangerseat to get a place for my toolbox. (carenthusiasts will forgive me)
Everything is still stock what performance belongs and i never had any problems with the engine itself but the body and drivetrain gave me some bad headache.
I went through several axles, lower controlarms and wheelbearings. That is everything else than normal. At least i saved some money by making it myself. I am machinist but a friend who is mechanic helped me well.
One evening as i drove over to a friend, i took a curve (too hard i guess) and the whole suspension-support broke. That was the reason for a little project.....
We cut out the whole floorpanel and suspension-support and welded 1/8" stainless sheetmetal in place. That wont break anymore. (check out the pic 's)

More later ... enjoy the photos !!!!

These cars where actually built by Suzuki and imported by GM as Chevrolet Sprint,
Pontiac Firefly, Geo Metro, Chevrolet Metro and Suzuki Swift.
All of them were available with several engineoptions. Such as 1, 1.3 and even 1.6 liter for sedan models.
Some of them were imported as Chevrolet Sprint Turbo and Pontiac Firefly Turbo.
The Suzuki Swift GTi got here with a 4cyl. 100 hp 16V DOHC engine. === pocket rocket
Sad but true they stopped building the Turbos in 1991.

To drive a Turbo model is an experience for itself. It is like you are one part with the car and road. It gives you a great response over the seat, steeringwheel and the sound. Its torquey engine runs very strong. (more torque at much lower rpm than the 4cyl. 100 hp 16V DOHC !!!)
It is much fun if you pull in a corner, press down the pedal and wait 'till the turbo spools up, the radius gets bigger and you have to handle the unexpected powerplus.
You can easily burn Honda Civic Si 's and similar from a standing start but they will pull ahead on topspeed.
The suspension is a bit stiffer then the one of the 'regular' Sprint, but it is still comfortable enough for a smoth ride. It is also very well balanced:
As soon as you will loose the grip in a curve, it will rather oversteer but i experienced more a neutral sidwaysmotion that is very easy to handle.
These cars also offer a very good space for the driver and passanger.I am almost 6 feet and have plenty of space. Only the guys in the back will have some trouble to find a place behind a tall frontpassanger.
Otherwhise, if you fold down the rear seats ther is a big cargoroom with enough space for loads of stuff.
I often loaded things, You wouldnt even beleive it will fit in bevore it actually was in without any problems. (that was bevore the Sound was in the trunk tho :o)
Turbos are pretty rare. I'll try to figure out how many were built or imported to north america

I also made a few changes on the look myself like:

• single-arm windshieldwhiper
• tinted windows
• foglights (HELLA)
• wheels
• short shift (my own construction)
• exhaustpipe-tips brand: do-it-yourself (bent 60 degree upwards) --- cool look for less money
• Pioneer InDash CD player and loads of speakers amplified with 800 watt RMS / changed rear seat for 4 SONY 15inch subs and X-force box / pair of pioneer 8inch 3-way`s and a pair of (cheap) Pyramid tweeter mounted on the top of the A-pillar. Had to hook up a second battery in the trunk to keep the power up. Note: the stockspeakers still do a very good job in the front !!

...and last but not least...... myself

I am sitting here on my 83 Honda Ascot VT500, a great bike !!!

I hope you have enjoyed my page and I would like to get your opinion about it.
Anything you think I might not know about these cars yet ?
Do you have a pic of your Sprint or any other car you might wanna show on my page ?
I opened a galery, so go ahead and send me your photo and a few words with it !!!
My Email adress is : [email protected]
I also try to keep this page up to date, so come again and see what is new !!!!