(By Greg Rourke) – Show of hands everyone! Who doesn’t like a big motor in a small car? Hmm…zero, just as I thought. After Brian’s story about the small block powered Fiat 124, we were reminded of Roger Davis and his badass Geo Metro.
The Metro was manufactured by a joint venture of GM and Suzuki. Perhaps Suzuki should have stuck with motorcycles so their name wouldn’t be associated with these econoboxes. From the factory were equipped with a wet paper bag 1.0 liter 3 cylinder engine. Suzuki later upped the choice to a 4 cylinder 1.3 liter producing an underwhelming 70 horsepower. Neither of these choices was suitable for ol’ Roger Davis. He built a V6 Buick starting with a Stage 1 block. He added tricked out heads, some GNX parts for good measure, a larger than stock turbo capable of 30 pounds of boost and a conservative 50hp shot of nitrous to really wake things up (nitrous is our favorite intercooler). Davis got a circle track chassis builder to build a complete chassis and cage, with a four link rear suspension and Ford 9 inch axle. The whole deal weighs 2400 pounds with Roger belted in.
In the video we see the snotty little car run a mid 9 at 146. That was with the boost dialed back to 24 PSI to keep from blowing the 28×10.50’s off of it. Nitrous is activated in high gear for the same reason. Roger reports a best of 9.27 at 151 while shaking the car down, but feels 8’s are in it. He also remarked the car handles the dragstrip like it was a slot car. Once the car blew out a freeze plug at the top end, driving through its own water and the little Metro didn’t get out of shape.
Did we mention the lights, horn and license plates? Roger enjoys running down to Menards for lumber and such in the Geo, returning home with a couple 2×4’s hanging out the hatchback. We’d be returning home with a different sort of lumber.
PRESS PLAY BELOW AND WATCHING THIS LITTLE WRECKING MACHINE IN ACTION AT CORDOVA!
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA… HAHAHHAHAH… C OUGH… HAHAHAHA… OMFG. HAHAHAHAHAHA.
like.
Anyone have a spare Fiat 500 and a WWII Allison V-12 kicking around? Some 2×4 rec. tubing, Mustang II front end……Hmmmmm.
HAHAHA, that last line is classic!
Love it! His R/T is not very good
that little s.o.b. was gone – is it still alive? – this looks like an older video…..
Still around. It’s garage mate will be on here in the future.
Pick a small car, any car, Roger will throw boost at it.
Just gonna leave this here… Not drag oriented but its a fiat 500 +a v12.
http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/01/murcialago-mix-up-the-fiat-that-ate-a-lamborghini/
I just LOVE turbo’d Buick V6s. They make silly horsepower for such a tiny block (or for any size block for that matter).
Don’t even need a trailer for that one. it”ll fit in the back of a full size truck.
It gets trailered, it just doesn’t take up much room. Neither does the Volvo. He’s building a Mustang II right now. He used to drive GN’s and GTO’s… We don’t know what happened.
or a tilt deck riding mower trailer
Somewhere, Buddy Ingersoll is smiling.