1961 Nash Metropolitan small in stature, but big on style

Young Ken Wawrzyniak strolled out of the store and froze on the spot. The teen was certain he parked his 1961 Nash Metropolitan right out front, but now it was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, he heard laughing. He turned to see his friends hiding in the bushes. Ken shook his head and smiled, too. Sure enough, they had done it again; they had pushed his petite cruiser around the corner, a prank they pulled often.

How could they not? The little coupe was lightweight and the joke, no matter how many times, never got old.

Wawrzyniak remembers silly memories like this and many more about the car he purchased in 1960 when he was 18. At the time, he was living in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood.

One spring day on his way home from his grandmother's funeral, he passed a used-car lot in Glenview. They had the coral and white Metro out front. He remembers it having no trouble standing out from the other vehicles. Even though he was clueless about what it was, the very next day he went back to buy it.

The price? A mere $150.

“I had never seen another one in the city,” Wawrzyniak says.

Shortly into his ownership, the young man found out why. “It was so unreliable and getting parts was impossible,” he says.

Still, he coaxed three months of use out of it. Thankfully he didn't have far to drive at the time. Wawrzyniak worked at a printer in Bucktown, making his commute just several blocks long.

Despite the car's tight interior quarters, it wasn't uncommon for Wawrzyniak to be seen hauling multiple friends during his off hours.

“We'd get four or five guys inside and go drive around,” Wawrzyniak recalls. Often, they'd be cruising to a well-known area diner, Skip's Fiesta drive-in in Melrose Park.

“All the big muscle cars would be there and we'd come through and do a lap in the parking lot,” Wawrzyniak says with a chuckle.

As much fun as the little machine was to drive, it soon had to go. “Everything was going wrong with it,” he says. Wawrzyniak found a dealer willing to take it as a trade-in and he quickly upgraded to a 1961 Chevy.

Years later during the 1990s, a 1961 Nash Metro came across Wawrzyniak's radar, this one a convertible. It was located in Kenosha, Wisconsin, not far from where Nash Motors was headquartered. Its cheeky colors and cute size were too much to pass up.

“Just like my first one, it stood out, too,” Wawrzyniak says. He drove it home and set to work returning it to tiptop shape. The brakes were replaced, as was the clutch. A new coat of Sunburst Yellow and white paint was applied and the wee little engine was rebuilt.

Wawrzyniak, who lives in Lombard, also installed a highway-friendly rear end, allowing for longer drives around the suburbs.

“Everyone smiles when they see it,” he says.