Considering its engine choices–either a 1.0-liter three-cylinder or a 1.3-liter four–this Chevrolet Metro sedan isn’t likely to be going anywhere fast. What’s more, it isn’t even the slightly lighter and sportier-looking three-door hatchback version. What is your most oddly striped find?
Chrysler Tc by Maserati.
Presumably in a zoo parking lot…
I guess Ted Nugent had to scale back a bit.
Suzuki one make race series have been popular for some time no they arent fast and even the newer swift has mediocre cornering abilities but put 20 of them on a race grid and let the fun begin matched racing produces some awesome skill contests on proper race circuits with left and right corners not the pathetic nascar style parades.
Sounds like a fun and relatively low cost way to go racing.
Apart from the panel damage. They were racing at an event I went to last year and 3 cars were crashed bordering on re-shell material – from a field of about 10!
I feel like I’ve seen a striped Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, and I’m pretty sure there is a striped 1990s Lincoln Town Car nearby, but I can’t say for certain. People do a lot of terrible things to cars in Houston, so it’s hard to keep track.
Yup, a Google search shows that even if I’m imagining the one I saw, at least one person decided that their Cutlass Ciera needed a racing stripe.
There was a guy in Atlanta who had a collection of Metro EVs, the official factory built version made by Solectria. He had them all stripped in different colors with stripes just like this one. He sold most of them off a year ago, so I wonder if this was one of his. If it is, its got a three-phase AC motor and a NiCd battery pack, good for about 70 miles of range.
Right, that would be the Solectria Force. GM delivered new Geo Metro “rollers” to Solectria in Mass., who installed a state-of-the-art electric drive train. One of the best EVs offered until the Tesla came along. They delivered about 400 cars over several years in the late 1990s.
Here’s a good one from the EV Album.
I always thought the name “Force” was hilarious, given how gutless the 156 volt DMOC455 inverter was. A friend of mine owns one of these. It can pump out 65 kilowatts for a few of seconds with cooling fans whipping up a tornado. The motor can take it longer than the inverter can dish it out until it gets heat soaked. That said, the bottle neck at the inverter means that the rest of the car is never under any significant stress, leading to amazing reliability and great range. 50 miles on lead is pretty amazing. The slightly lighter NiCd version could do 70 miles, even in sub-zero weather, and the much lighter SAFT NiMh version could surpass 100 miles.
All that said, compared to the gasoline buzzbombs, the lightweight (and extremely rare) NiMh Force/Metro is probably a rocketship. 65 Kilowatts works out to about 90 horsepower. While that isn’t much at all, its a heck of a lot more than the 50 hp three or the 67 hp four.
Pretty impressive technology, considering it was designed by MIT students around 1988. I’d pick one up if I had the chance.
I just followed your link, Mike. The car you featured has a weird, non-standard inverter. I think its a derivative of the really old BLDC controller they made for super high efficiency specialty applications (like solar race cars). It has a limit of 240 amps, which at 156 volts puts it at a glacially slow 49 horsepower. Oofda!
Maybe the green stripe indicates that its menthol?
Kool.
1994-5 Ford Taurus; white with a blue racing stripe, slightly offset to the left, and
1992 Oldsmobile Delta 88; burgandy with a white racing stripe.
There is a yellow Chevy Aveo in my area that has the Charlie Brown “zigzag” stripes along the sides. The obviously intentional effect is Charlie’s shirt on wheels.
It also has a smiley face on the hood–definitely noticeable in traffic…
Neither one of these are inappropriate stripes, but they are so wrong:
1) A 2 door S-10 Blazer with Z-28 style air extractors installed IN THE DOORS.
2) A Ford Explorer with stick on JC Whitney style flames. Stick on flames are bad enough, but this set had the tips of the flames pointing towards the FRONT OF THE CAR.
I don’t want to feed the stereotype, but I spotted both these cars in Riverside, California. Just saying…
How about a Geo Metro w/ a Mercedes badge on the trunk?
I saw one of those a few months ago…. very disconcerting.
Shouldn’t that Metro have a JC Whitney rear spoiler, along with some Big Lots ‘mag’ wheel covers?
Beat me to it; I was going to post this one I found just Friday night:
Lets turn this into a game.
Step 1: try to imagine the worst offender possible.
Step 2: do a Google search to see if it has actually been done before.
I’ll take Round 1.
Bonus points for owner listing incorrect year?
Too busy seeking sight of curb feelers to notice stripes, flames, etc.
Inappropriate…
Okay…. back in the late 70s when I was still in high school, I had a friend who painted a red stripe down the driver’s side of the hood on his grandmother’s completely original 1947 Plymouth sedan. Parallel to the stripe, he also painted the engine size, which was “192 c. i.” if I recall correctly. Oddly enough, he didn’t get into trouble; his grandmother had given up driving by then, and the car was just sitting in a barn where she never saw it. I am happy to say that I did not take any pictures of this.
How about this one, folks? Racing stripes and landau roofs should never mix!
Ouch. They look like suspenders.
But there is one of those pretty rare LeSabre T-type coupes in the back ground.
I believe, verily, that as a sedan the subject vehicle would have the 4 cylinder, with a stonking 67 bhp.
Yes, IIRC the NA sedan was only available with the 4 cyl (or the ‘big block’, as no one said ever).
‘Never mind the hp figure, it’s got a 20% power boost over the base model!’
I knew a kid in high school who put homemade racing stripes on his ’85 Crown Vic. He also spray painted himself some “chrome” rims to go with them. Pretty tasteless, but then again I also HAD to have those GTO headlight blackouts and neon lights on my car, so….
Not sure where they were going with this, but I dont want to go there……
I once saw a green 1996 Taurus with a large ugly red racing stripe. Not even centered…….it was a lefty stripe…..
Camry sedan as per the beige one the other day, it was grey if I remember with other tacky spoilers, hood scoop etc plus hubcaps.