We see more than our fair share of weird cars around these parts, and one might think that familiarity would jade us. Then you see a Geo Metro stretched like a bad furnace repair and your heart goes aflutter.

What's purple, costs less than $500 and has box flares like a Renault 5 Turbo 2? Yes, it's a trick question because you haven't yet seen how this 24 Hours of LeMons racecar went from Geo Metro to SHO-powered sicko.

The LS-powered Geo from earlier today got me thinking about old Geo commercials. Which is how I found myself on YouTube looking for the old "No Matter What" commercial as well as finding sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison.

What did The General need most of all in the late 1980s? You got it, another marque! All those Suzukis and Toyotas being built in California and Ontario needed friendly Detroit-style badging, not to mention those Japan-built Isuzus.

One year ago, Darin Cosgrove of Metrompg.com entered his Geo Metro in the Green Grand Prix fuel-economy competition. Over the course of the event, he coaxed his 12-year-old car to almost 100 mpg! Here's how he did it. —Ed.

The Geo Metro often serves as a punch line for small-car jokes, but even modest machines have their benefits. To illustrate this, we've invited Jalopnik reader Matt Moore to speak about the distinguished joys of the sweet Met life.

Thanks to 25 MPG fuel economy and a $22K price, the Ford Transit Connect is being sold as an affordable, efficient commercial vehicle. Pshaw. The Metro-amino will get twice the mileage for a tenth of the price.

Darin Cosgrove, the founder of hypermiling site Ecomodder, has built himself a boattailed Pontiac Firefly, a.k.a. the Canadian-market Geo Metro. The result? 64 mpg and all the rubbernecking he can stand. [Ecomodder via Wired]

We've seen fake Ferraris, but few as bold as this convertible Geo Metro redubbed the "Dino GT 760." The attention to detail is admirable, but we're sure every dead Italian is spinning in their graves like a twin-turbo V8.

You've seen the Angry Hamster Racing V65 Magna-powered Honda Z600 under construction, and of course you're familiar with the LeMons-winning CBR900-powered Geo Metro-Gnome… but the engineering behind these two machines pushes the LeMons Insane-O-Meter™ into the red numbers.