Rusty But Trusty

Okay, so I’m making that claim out of the blue, but I’d guess it’s a pretty close race between a stock Camaro from a few years earlier and this car, with less than half the displacement, cylinders, etc. Before I decided to buy a new car (and ended up with my ’97 Golf), I was test driving some “sensible” used cars and saw one of these on a dealer’s lot. Hey, it’s Japanese, economical, and at the time was only about 10 years old. Even though I realized it was a turbo, I was amazed at how readily it would spin its wheels in second gear. Much like any earlier turbocharged car, the power was only available in a short band and quite explosive when it came on, so I probably would have gone through a lot of clutches trying to accelerate with the turbo spooled up. That said, with its size in mind, it was a real kick to drive.

Check out this specimen on eBay in Fontana, CA, at $1775 with the reserve not yet met. This car actually looks remarkably good, as most of these have been beaten to death in the last 22 years. I’d almost suspect the seller of photochopping the color on the pictures, since the red looks so saturated in some pics, but overall the condition makes it look like the color is really that shiny. Looking at the picture, you can also see he’s got the original wheel covers, spoilers, and turbo sprint graphics on the car, and that the panels all look straight.

The right side is also just as good, though it has been bumped slightly on the hatch just under the back window, and there’s also some rust nearby. There is apparently also some damage on the right rear fender above the wheel, although this is hard to see. With the paint in such good shape, it shouldn’t be too hard to do the repair and properly color-match… he must have accidentally triggered the turbo while in reverse!

Even the engine compartment looks pretty tidy. Everything looks to be present, and this little thing even has an intercooler to go with the turbo! With 126K miles on an early turbocharged car, you’d want to ask a lot of questions about recent maintenance, or expect to spend some time here doing catch-up and repairs on the items stressed by being turbocharged.

Here’s an honest shot of the interior. So many sellers who have some minor damage to things like side bolsters sneakily hide that damage by taking a shot from the passenger side. As you can see, there’s some tearing on the bolsters, the carpet’s a bit brownish, and the steering wheel has (probably) oxidized a bit. Nonetheless, the condition is still pretty remarkable for a car of this age.

Overall, this could be a fun, reliable toy for someone looking to carve up corners during the weekend, and maybe even drive it to work during the week, without worrying about the repairs and attention cars from earlier decades require. Have you owned one? Let me know what living with one of these is really like.

Tags: american, chevrolet, Feature, japanese, sprint, turbo

This entry was posted on October 15, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.