New guy. Reporting in for the M3 corps.

[an0nymous]

New guy here.
Just bought a 98 metro 3 banger with 135k. Was inspired by MetroMPG.
Looking forward to fun project stuff. Car seems to run pretty good. One front fender and hood are a bit banged up but otherwise it looks alright.
My main focus is low-bucking it. The car needs to pay for itself in as short a time as possible.
I'm not an experienced wrencher, but I'm not scared, either. Gotta admit the relative openness of the engine compartment and small size of the engine and tranny are somewhat reassuring.
Couple of questions I've had over the last few weeks of lurking:
1. Already asked this one elsewhere in the forum, but why not run doughnuts? Maybe just for the undriven wheels? Is this an issue of durabilty?
2. For EOC, has anyone jerry rigged a kill switch on the steering wheel to cut the engine and place the ignition in the corrct state for airbags and lights? Seems like it would be a big help.

Anyway nice to meet y'all. I just dropped the Metro off at repair shop for inspection, so it'll be a couple days before I can get started in earnest.

[SVOboy]

Welcome to ecomodder! Darin will be happy to hear someone cares about metrompg,

[RH77]

Welcome to EM...

As for #1 -- the contact patch area remains the same between tires, so the resistance is similar. It may have an aerodynamic advantage. Search around the site -- a few experiments may shed some light on the idea.

#2 -- Yes, but the check engine light will generally come on (involves cutting power to the injectors).

Best FE to ya...

RH77

[Johnny Mullet]

Welcome to Ecomodder!

[cfg83]

an0nymous -

Welcome to EM! You're Geo is in good hands :



CarloSW2

[an0nymous]

Thanks for the welcome, guys!
I am just beginning to discover how much I suck. Car is in worse shape than expected. *Argh, why did I not read more first?*
I'm a bit over my head, so I may be posting pictures and asking dumb questions. Thanks in advance for your patience.
I go to pick up the car this afternoon in order to find out the apparently MANY reasons why it failed inspection. The shop guy sounded horrified.
sigh.