1989 Yugo GVL: Performance Testing
edmunds.com
edmunds.com
The clerk thinks for a minute and then says "Seems like a fair trade to me".
$0 * 2 = $0
In the 1980 there were plenty of variations of Zastavas, Yugos, Fiats, Ladas, VW, Trabants, Citroens, Skodas, Varburgs, Renaults, Opels around.
While Yugo was certainly popular enough because it was supposed to be really cheap, I think I used to see a lot more Fiat 500s and Zastava 101 around back in the days. Yugo is just known more internationally because it was actually exported to the US.
The thing I remember about Fićo was its poor gearbox, where sometimes you had to hold it in gear to catch, and constant synchronizer failures. I also remember the Stojadin had a butter-smooth shifter that allegedly was a Porsche design :-)
They definitely weren't set up for racing -- the whole front of the chassis would bend under hard braking. That hasn't stopped anyone from trying, though.
Perhaps the most inpressive group ever to race a Metro is the Knoxvegas Lowballers, who race in the 24 Hours of Lemons. They swapped a V6 from a Ford Contour and made the car rear engine and rear wheel drive. There aren't very many cars on the track who can keep up with a car with that power to weight ratio. It's a beautiful machine.
A friend of mine had two Yugos in the late 1980s and was able to achieve a short burnout on one of them. It might have involved jacking up the car, or holding up the rear bumper while someone else revved it up (He had the height and physique of a Kobold)
They were so cheap in every sense of the word. Sticker price was like $4000 or $5000 IIRC for the base model with nothing included.
Only slightly joking, though I seriously cannot imagine spending that much on a Yugo lol
Saved the best for last.
That's pretty interesting really. Good work tyre engineers!
HA. I love it. It's like taking a VW beetle and removing one of the spark plugs.