Junkyard Find: 1987 Turbo Sprint

Now we all love the Chevy Sprint; the little rebadged Suzuki won our hearts with jumping and yet more jumping. So when I stumbled across this freshly-placed-on-yard '87 Turbo Sprint I was sorely tempted to lay down a couple hundred bucks for the complete engine, buy an early Geo Metro to put it in, and look for the nearest ramp...

In the 80s, a TURBO logo on your car was like a Members Only jacket; if you didn't have at least three emblems with the magic word adorning your ride, you could forget about catching even 1/10 the herpes that the guy in the Black Gold 280ZX was gonna get. Those babes with the Cyndi Lauper hair and pastel legwarmers were picky, you know. So it goes without saying that the decal department at GM didn't stint on the logos, even though it jacked up the cost of the car by 21 cents each.

And here it is: 3 screaming cylinders of turbocharged power. Everything is there, too, including the smallest intercooler you're ever going to see in the junkyard. Man, that setup would be fun in a Metro.

So when you got your HSV2-iffic date into the Sprint for some hot action- no doubt with a Bryan Adams soundtrack- you wanted to be sure she didn't forget she was in for some Turbo Power, baby! So GM once again overruled the bean counters and sprang for 17 cents for a TURBO logo on the horn button.

Sadly, I didn't buy this engine, partly because gas prices have really jacked up the cost of engine-recipient Metros, but mostly because if I ever do a FWD turbocharged project car it's gonna be a Lee Iacocca Special.

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