CC Outtake: The Missing 1986 Chevrolet Sprint – Somebody Got Their Money’s Worth

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In the eight years I’ve been shooting cars in Eugene, I’ve seen many come and go. And it appears that one of my favorites has finally gone. I first shot it almost six years, when it lived in my neighborhood and it was for sale. I never wrote it up, but I’ve seen it in daily front-line (ab)use ever since, by whoever bought it and moved it to the Whitaker Neighborhood. And I shot it several times since, always planning to write it up. Now that it has disappeared, it’s time to honor another fallen CC.

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Here’s how it looked back in the spring of 2010, a bit fresher than now. Its custom paint job is what first caught my eye, and then I noticed the For Sale sign on the back.

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$1200 OBO.  Well, if we assume that the buyer got it for an even $1000, they got their money’s worth for cheap and reliable transportation for almost six years. These Sprints (Suzuki Cultus) have developed a rep for being hard to kill, and the new owner worked at it pretty hard.

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And here’s how it looked the last time I saw it earlier this year. A bit worse for wear, but I kept seeing it either here or in front of the Laughing Planet Cafe or elsewhere, and often on the go, being worked for all it was worth. Its 993 cc three-pot made all of 48 hp, but with a weight of 1,488 lbs, the Sprint wasn’t named all that ironically. Its 0-60 time of 14.5 seconds, not all that bad at all for the  mid-80s. As in only two seconds slower than a 7.5 L Mark IV.

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It sports a Wandering Goat sticker; that’s a destination in the Whit, and was once a hangout for the handful of anarchists that have survived here.

I’m going to miss its distinctive ‘W’ and the blubbering bleat of its less-than original exhaust, but this car has earned its rest, as an ingot of steel. Now watch it pop up again, after having taken its owner on a cross-country trip.

An even faster Sprint: CC: 1987 Sprint Turbo