V8 Monster Sub-Compact! 1996 Geo Metro
The Geo Metro was a spin-off of the sub-compact Suzuki Cultus and was sold in North America between 1989-01. It was a joint venture between General Motors and the Japanese company, which included production in Canada for a while. What we have here is a one-of-a-kind monster car. Someone decided to take an ordinary 1996 Geo Metro and sandwich a 5.3-liter LS4 V8 in the back of the car where the cargo area once was (the gas tank is now where the stock I-4 engine used to be). Once you get past the question of “why” you’ll want to know the car is in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, and available here on Facebook Marketplace for $7,000 OBO. Thanks for this crazy tip, Rocco B.!
Beginning in 1990, the Geo Metro and other Suzuki-sourced cars were built at CAMI Automotive in Ingersoll, Ontario. CAMI production never reached GM and Suzuki’s production expectations, peaking at 100,000 vehicles, and declining after that. In 1996, they built 88,700 Chevy/Geo Metros, dropping to 55,600 in 1997, and 32,000 by 2000.
We don’t know exactly how this transformation came about or how successful it was, but the project is most interesting, nevertheless. There is evidence this Geo Metro was white initially but now wears red paint. The interior looks good and routine except for the transmission shifter. On the exterior, the car looks routine from the front back until you get past the doors. Then the physical changes start to be noticeable, including the repositioning of the rear wheels and the addition of air portals over the rear wheels to feed where the engine is now.
Once the car was stripped of its original drivetrain, a 2006-vintage 5.3-liter LS4 V8 was installed in the rear. It has a truck intake with an electric water pump, with the alternator being the only item that’s now crank-pulley driven. A Cadillac 4t80e transaxle has been mounted which requires an oil pan mounted starter. An automatic transmission is now in place long with a Caddy brake master cylinder. Other changes have also been made to accommodate the metamorphosis.
The car has been test-driven for up to 500 miles and we’re told it starts to oversteer at about 65 mph, so it’s a handful at those speeds and you must maintain your concentration behind the wheel. The seller has run out of time to sort these issues out and will leave it up to the next owner. We’re guessing a pile of money was poured into this automobile to make all this happen, so once you get past the question of “why,” is $7,000 too much for an interesting find such as this? Two videos are provided to further demonstrate what must be the hottest Geo Metro around. Video 1 Video 2
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Comments
Wow, pretty cool Metro. “Needs sorting out” is an understatement. I’d try making a front air damn and a rear spoiler to start. Copy what you would find on a 911. And keep the gas tank full
I guess you could use it to pull trailers .
What a mess!
I bit warm in the Summer
Sweet Lord of Insanity ! You can’t beat a motivated redneck with mechanical ability.
If you can’t afford a Renalt R5 Turbo, or a Ford Shogun, build something like it yourself.
A little more sorting out, and this thing would be an absolute terror on the streets.
I pity the poor fireman who is going to try and scrape your remains out of this thing after you wrap it around a tree. The answer to the question no one was asking.
“Just because you CAN…”
A Cheesehead Redneck, in this case.
With that power and weight distribution, “oversteer” is an understatement. The torque-steering effect must be amazing! Any bump in the road will cause it to handle like a ricocheting bullet.
I was thinking the issue would be too much understeer. The front end is too light, the tires too skinny and no front air dam makes it lift up over 60mph and you lose steering
“Starts getting excessive oversteer around 65mph- it starts to take concentration to keep it in its lane”
“I’m here for a good time, not a long time”
Or the last time!
Redneck Engineering for sure, but very cool. Better than wasting $70,000 on a new Ram pickup and the cam and lifters are wiped at 40,000 miles. Oh, exhaust manifold bolts are broken too.
I inherited a 1943 MB Jeep that my Cousin built. It has a small block Chevy motor with some mod’s, 6″ lift kit and 36″ Desert Dog tires. I drive it VERY CAREFULLY to shows and once in a while around the ‘hood.
I hope whoever ends up with this thing has enough sense to know that it’s a death trap looking for a place to happen. The next owner needs to treat it like it could bite you at any time if you do something stupid with it, and you’ll be fine.
Hopefully it’s nothing that nobody esle shows up at the car show with.
“The next owner needs to treat it like it could bite you at any time if you do something stupid with it,”
That’s what they used to say about the Porsche 911 Turbo.
How many beers were held during its creation?
Mike .. 2 cases of beer and playing Lynyrd Skynyrd all weekend especially freebird. They probably had the Geo with a blown engine .
Then they had the V8 on the engine stand in a garage …and they looked at each other the five of them and said let’s go for it. That’s my guess.. 😂🐻🇺🇸
Looks like any new or late mode vehicle to me. Another piece of WAY-OVER PRICED PIECE OF PIECE OF JUNK OFF THE ASSEMBLY LINE—people go way in debt for every day.
2 words before driving…
ROLL CAGE!!
and Life insurance policy!
Um, no.
Can u imagine how much heat is coming in the inside of that THING? Better have the windows all down!!!
What, he’s got insulation in there and a Plexiglas barrier. And a sunroof!
I think it’s pretty cool. Just needs some further development and finishing. For all the haters on it, how is this really any different than early hot rodders stuffing a blown Hemi into a ’32 Ford?
How long can it run without overheating?
Absolutely worthless. If you can’t drive it over 65 without “excessive oversteer”, it doesn’t matter how much horsepower you have. And good luck
“sorting it out”. I doubt that’s even possible.
I do admire the guy for his ability to make it “driveable”. Putting that thing together took some real work and “engineering” I hope his next project is more realistic in the real world.
Actually, they did LS it!
Duh, Dennis. Because it has a hole cut in the cargo area and a motor put in means what? It is right? It isn’t finished. Never will be and is not safe to drive.
What a serious waste of effort.
Seriously, this thing is a danger to all other vehicles on the road. Looks like it is registered, but I just hope someone is not stupid enough to endanger other drivers.
Waste of time and energy! Been better off V8ing a 65-69 Corvair, which there were actually kits for (including the monster 427 Vette Eater kit) if you had to V8 something I guess. Or….. just buy a nice GM with a bad V8 and drop this engine in there & drive the Toyota Echo equaling mpg Metro.
Um, no.
Hold my beer !!
The metro was a cheap piece of crap
If you are taller than 5’6” it won’t fit you.
What a waste of time and money to try to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear
For the price not that bad. I do not see obo, it says $7,000 firm.
I’m betting a few hundred pounds of ballast up front would tame this quite a bit
You could…………WILL die.
AMCFAN – You are entitled to your opinions, but please keep politics off of this site.
Didn’t know we had comment police here. Thought all the police were defunded. Sorry you took offense.
Maybe you live under a rock and or don’t read the current events. I am still working driving an hour one way.
It isn’t a secret Americans are paying more for for everything especially at the pump. It is a sin to say it would be nice to have a 50 mpg vehicle option like the Geo? Or would I then it be a slam to the American Automakers because only the Japanese are the only ones that make them?
Can’t have it both ways.
The owner stated that the rear quarters were rotted before he cut them off so it doesn’t sound like it may have been a good Geo to start with. And you might wind up safer driving this incarnation rarely and carefully than driving it stock as a daily driver. As a recycled beer can that it was with probably a 2 star crash rating. Put it another way, I wouldn’t want my kids driving one as a daily driver. Too flimsy
AMC, the inflation is from greed, not a senile old man. If an equally senile, though more boastful, old man was still around, it would be no different. I am an old fart myself and have watched this economy for decades, this is pure greed. If we had proper leadership the past 40 years, it would be a different world, with stability, fairness, and opportunity…not to mention, no inflation.
Gary I am from the same era and I don’t see any quick fix nor anything getting “better”. Not soon and possibly not ever in our remaining lifetime. lifetime. It is a very different time we live in compared to the last 40 years.
Too bad the new jack@ss movie already came out. JK and the crew would have had fun with this!
Pull any reusable parts and scrap it. Just because you doesn’t mean you should.
great listing, fires up da crowd
Great reply
Great improvement
Good comment
Nice to understand what you write
Ernest K. Gann, noted aviation author, referred to the C-87 (the cargo conversion of the B-24 Liberator) as “an evil bastard contraption”. I believe this is the distant ancestor of that satanic device.
The issue with stability above 65 MPH may be due to the fact that the back end, powered by a big ol’ lump of V8 goodness, is attempting to pass the lil’ weenie Suzuki front end, designed for speeds ato or approaching a walking pace.
I have owned 4 metros of the 3 cylinder 1 liter variety. They were considered a disposable vehicle because the resale value was less than most common repairs. I saw the value in them because they all gave me superior service, each having more than 250k miles before the inevitable ECU failed.
The reason GM contracted with Suzuki to build them with a Chevy badge was to bring their fleet average fuel mileage up. CAFE combined average fuel efficiency. They never paid for an add that I know of because they didn’t care. It’s value was that 54 MPG not it’s sale value, so the car sold itself during high gas prices but as fuel came down so did people looking for good economy. 200 hp V8 cars were getting close to 30mpg so the little engine that could was fazed out. I loved my Metros but as a car guy I don’t really miss them.
They don’t really look safe but I bet they had a much longer range than say a Tesla.
So Kim, you drove over a million miles – in a Metro. I’m truly interested in what you did for a living. Or, if not using them to make a living, why the long distance driving? It’s taken me over 20 years to drive a million miles, and I am a traveling salesman.
Ken. That is a fair question. Actually the first metro was a 92 4 door that I bought for $3000 from a body shop that bought it at an insurance auction. It had 1500 miles on it, a welcome addition to a (at the time) struggling budget. My wife was going to college 67 miles away and drove it daily to school for 5 years. Others were bought and driven by our adult children. Whenever one of them had car troubles the metro was sent to provide coverage. My son was sent one of them to commute 35 miles to work (70 miles a day). He had it for 2 years until they moved back to our city. We didn’t own them all at the same time. The newest was a 2000 Chevy metro that my son in law is still driving. I called him tonight to see how many miles it has and he checked, 274k and counting. I drove one of them to work 37 mile each way commuting for a few years. Anyway the bottom line is since 1992 four metros went well over a million miles, we live in rural Idaho. Our lives have settled down a bit but those efficient little metros carried us through some tough times comfortably.
I don’t want to own it but I would love to drive it this looks like fun
Needs more cowbell…….
My first new car was a 1988 Metro. it was the cheapest new car you could buy in Canada at the time. 3 cylinders of fun and a stick! I beat on that car for about 5 years, and it never once cost me a penny outside of regular service or let me down. No AC, no power anything – no radio either! It was a great machine for the times and for my budget.
As a side note, Suzuki/GM offered me a job in late 1988 in this joint venture. after I was called with a few hundred other applicants to the Oshawa auto complex to take part in a day-long manufacturing/marketing simulation that Suzuki puts all perspective young managers through. It was a simulation of a new car venture that was to sell product in North America. Hundreds of us were split into groups randomly, and we were issued the same manufacturing “materials”, but allowed to build/price/sell the car using any parameters we chose. They would then throw curve balls mid simulation like a labour strike etc that resulted in increased costs/loss of market share etc.
I figured that all the engineers present were more likely to get the job than me (business grad) and I fortunately had a group that was pretty malleable. So I figured, with nothing to lose, I’d go over-the-top aggressive. By design, we lost money on every car early on and gobbled up market share. Cut corners on inputs, and spent heavy on marketing. My goal was to drive the other groups bankrupt as quickly as possible, and then swoop in and take their market share with “repriced” product (ie higher retail prices) than we had used to date. We’d make out like bandits in the back half…..
About half way through the day, a group of Suzuki and GM execs came over and asked me wtf I thought I was doing. “Winning” was my smart ass answer. As it turns out, we posted the second highest profitability in the simulation ever (and it had been used by Suzuki for many years globally).
I never went into the car business after all, declined their job offer. Probably a good thing for all of us :)
Even though it had nothing to do with the original car, this is the best post of the bunch.
Thanks for sharing.
Okay, now for another Metro story:
My father in law was a single dad who had to raise 3 girls. It was a struggle, but for his youngest who was the first to go away to college, he had a few bucks saved up, so he went to the local Chevy dealer and traded his pickup and told them he needed to buy 2 brand new cars as cheaply as possible.
He ended up with 2 Metros, both stripped and manual. Both ran them for almost 10 years, high miles, and never a major problem.
This car is way better built that you think! Look at the front and side photos. You can see side scopes, about 4″x 12″. Look at the motor view, there is insulation on the “firewall” to the seats plus a plastic barrier above the seats. Also you can see thru the side vent on the passenger side, very big opening with about 6″” vent ducts from both side going to the rad behind the back bumper with air holes drilled for more air circulation. This car I don’t think would ever get hot driving. I would love to drive it !!!
“More cowbell…”…love it!
I guaranty this is the result of too much beer in a rural Wisconsin mind. I live in Milwaukee, but I have family in Hayward, Tomahawk, and Steven’s Point. I could see this coming out of any of their workshops, along with a killer hangover lol.
As for legal liability for selling a contraption like this, in Wisconsin it is “buyer beware”. There isn’t even a lemon law on used cars here. So there would be no legal liability here, just possibly ethical.
I would buy and drive it. I am smart enough to know when to let off the throttle. I wouldn’t buy it for this price, because I am cheap lol. But I would buy it.
Would make an awesome short distance towing car, like at a marina or even an RV/mobile home park.