I could go on and on about the 200-proof, clear-quill engineering geekery that went into the Angry Hamster Z600- which, by the way, has a smaller footprint than a 4x8 sheet of plywood and will thus fit in the back of an Econoline van- but the entire story is summed up by this photograph. That's the billet-machined gearbox that the Angry Hamsters whipped up from scratch, in order to reverse the direction of the engine's output shaft (which rotated the wrong way for the Mazda rear end they're using) and offset the driveshaft closer to the vehicle centerline. Just look at it! Now multiply that sort of lunacy by everything on the car and you can see why we're in awe of this machine. 110 horsepower in a 1,260-pound vehicle ought to make for some decent acceleration, eh?

When the Metro-Gnomes heard about the Hamsters, they knew they couldn't stand pat with their front-wheel-drive CBR900 setup, and they'd blown their engine to hell at the Buttonwillow race anyway. Somehow they found the budgetary room to get a CBR1000 engine… which they proceeded to move to the rear of the car! Not content to go all Cro-Magnon on the car and just drop a junkyard live axle in the back, they went with the independent rear suspension route and simply moved the entire front suspension and drivetrain to the rear of the car. A junkyard Metro suspension with a lot of cool low-budget mods went in the front. And while the Angry Hamsters got all mathematical and shit with their project, the Metro-Gnomes simply broke out the zip-ties and Sawzall and made everything fit! Some beautiful junkyard ingenuity went into this car, and Dave Coleman (of the Goin' For Broken LeMons-winning Eyesore Racing Ghettocharged Miata team) has done an excellent job documenting all of it over on MotoIQ. Yes, the Eyesores, Hamsters, and Gnomes all know each other, so we figure the rivalry this weekend ought to be fairly friendly.

Who's got the edge? Well, the Angry Hamsters probably have the best power-to-weight ratio and, but the drivers don't have much wheel-to-wheel road-race experience and they didn't get the car finished in time to do any testing before race weekend. The Metro-Gnomes have three LeMons races under their belts, plus numerous track-day practice sessions, but they didn't have the benefit of a huge CNC machine shop for their fabrication needs and there's no telling how all their engineering will hold together under fire. Check in later to find out how they do on Day One of the Arse Freeze-A-Palooza 2009!

Angry Hamster Racing Honda Magna V65-powered Honda Z600

Geo Metro-Gnome 2.0 Honda CBR1000-powered Geo Metro

The Swift—ubiquitous in Hungary as it was the first car manufactured in this country—is positively dwarfed by this Mopar monstrosity, seen here in top-of-the-line SRT8 trim, with the 6.1-liter engine and the appropriate Hemi Orange paintjob.

The scene is full of little surprises. Like how you could make a whole new set of wheels for the little Suzuki from the material found in one Challanger wheel. Or how it shows that even downtown parking spaces are indeed giant when compared to the average car: it takes 16.5 feet of American muscle to fill one to the brim.

It’s a wonderful sight in Budapest, this Challenger, comically inappropriate, with a punk swagger often missing from city cars. And while we know that the perfect city car is the Mercedes-Benz W140 S600, this come pretty close.

All you need now is plenty of Hungarian gasoline. At $6 a gallon. Yeehaw!

A little background. The event was part of a series taking place around the country meant primarily for Suzuki dealers to show off the new SX4 Sport model. Coming along for the ride is the Kizashi 3 concept car, one of the Suzuki Equator pre-production concepts and the Swift Suzuki was kind enough to let us drive. Though sporting a bright orange metallic paint and wheels of questionable origin, this car was a fairly standard mid-level version, sporting the 1.5-liter fourbanger good for about 100 horsepower. Though they have a five-speed manual version back at HQ, this particular model unfortunately carried the four-speed automatic.

Until we start seeing new Fiestas or Mazda2s on the street, sporty and small Euro-style econoboxes are still a rare site. Though there are Mini Coopers and the occasional Smart ForTwo in urban areas, Americans aren't necessarily used to this quality of design from their smaller vehicles.

Given that the Swift name has been used on enough rebadgings to make your head swim, the car benefits from carrying little aesthetic baggage, allowing the designers the freedom to make a car that looks sharp without having to pay homage to any of the crap coming before it. With the exception of the nose of the car featuring grille and fender work inline with the new and sporty Suzuki design language, the car can stand on its own. The high belt line, which looks out-of-place on certain small cars (we're looking at you, Chevy HHR), manages to give the Swift a larger, more athletic presence. The blacked out A and B pillars also help, minimizing focus towards that part of the greenhouse in a way that carries your eyes away from noticing just how small that rear window is. Compare this to an Aveo, which looks small from any angle (hilariously, the Aveo in Canada is marketed as the Swift).

The interior is straightforward and simple, which is what you expect for a car this size. The three-spoke steering wheel isn't cartoonishly large and is even slightly sporty thanks to the ribbons of chrome-looking plastic which also support the thumb controls. The audio and climate control buttons are tiny, leaving the impression that the interior is actually larger than it is. For an economy car the materials aren't insulting and even a sensitive claustrophobic could survive a short trip (for comparison, the five-door Swift is approximately as wide and long as a first generation MINI but with a three-inch shorter wheelbase).

Like many small cars this one is more fun batting around corners than down the straightaway, especially with the automatic transmission. Nevertheless, the little 1.5-liter engine features Suzuki's version of variable valve timing, allowing for a slightly more aggressive power delivery when accelerating. Tossing the Swift around a 90-degree turn at speed was no problem with the little hatch able to main sufficient traction to keep us pointed in the right direction. There's a little lean when turning aggressively, but it's nothing out of the ordinary.

Over uneven roads the ride was a touch bumpy, but not enough to cause premature labor for any pregnant passengers. Braking? The Swift weighs approximately 2,400 pounds (a bit more with two souls on board), meaning the rear drums are more than able to slow us down before we go rolling off of an embankment or into another car during hard braking.

In the cab on the way back to the train station my driver retold a tale of his old Fiesta. As embarrassed as he was to drive it, he says he rarely had as much fun behind the wheel. The nice thing about the Swift is it's a small, quick and most importantly for the buying demographic — cheap car that you wouldn't be embarrassed to drive. Add to that gas-sipping on par or better than some of the more thirstier hybrids and you've got a car that'll embarrass cheaper-looking alternatives like the Toyota Yaris and the Kia Rio. Just because you're on a budget, it doesn't mean you should settle for crap. If this Swift is a good indicator of the Swift to come, budget buyers at least have a little something more to look forward to.

[ED Note: This car is a foreign-import version of the Suzuki Swift, meaning that there could be significant differences between the version tested and the eventual US Version. That being said, the car should give an indication of what we have to expect from a new Swift]