Remember when Ford was making Focus STs and RSes, and folks were begging Chevrolet to give the Cruze hatch a performance trim to match? Okay, maybe it was mostly just me pleading with GM, but I really thought I was on to something there. As it turns out, there was a time when Chevy may well have agreed — 1987, when GM started importing turbocharged Suzuki Cultus hatchbacks as the Chevrolet Sprint Turbo. One of those Sprints just hit Hagerty’s auction marketplace, and it has all the hallmarks of a truly great hot hatch: Three doors, four not-quite-turbofan wheels, and one engine bay full of truly absurd intake plumbing. I love it.
Chevy didn’t bring the Sprint Turbo to the states for very long — the entire Sprint model was gone after 1988, replaced by the Geo Metro as our captive-import Cultus — but what a beauty it was while we got it. It weighed less than 1,650 pounds, made a truly face-melting 70 horsepower, and could do a full 104 miles per hour according to Hagerty. Plus, its engine bay was inscrutable and almost organic-looking in a way that only ’80s turbo cars seem to manage. This is truly what hot hatches should be.
Look at this
Look at these vacuum lines, this cable-actuated throttle, the intake piping that runs from an airbox down to a low mounted turbo then back up to a top-mount intercooler. This is an organ, a beating heart, and it propels a lightweight little hatchback with most of the urgency of a modern minivan. This might be the perfect car, if only because I imagine it’s about as characterful as four wheels will ever get. Can you smell the old GM interior off these photos, or off the videos embedded in the Hagerty auction listing? Doesn’t it smell good?
This Sprint Turbo may not meet the modern hot-hatch standards needed to go up against a Focus RS, but it looks like an absolute joy to wring out. Slow cars are always more fun, and this one gives you all the enjoyment of bringing a turbocharged engine to redline without the risk of speeding tickets — what’s a better driving experience than that? Sure, those cool wheels are just hubcaps over cheap steel, but do you really care in a car that will put this much of a grin on your face? Get yourself over to the auction, put a bid down, and get a fun car as your next daily driver.
