A friend of mine bought one of the Cosworth Vegas brand new.
Black and Gold with a numbered plate on the dash.
It was a pretty quick car.

Speaking of Monzas, a friend of mine had one a million years ago, with the small V8 in it. Unbeknownst to him, it had severe frame and body rust, so bad that on a road trip to Upper Michigan he went over a particularly bad railroad crossing and the midsection cracked and the car was left with a severe sag in it. He had it looked over at a local gas station and they advised him to junk it, so he sold it to a local junkyard and took the bus back to Chicago. Before doing so, though, he took his tools and whatever other heavy stuff he didn't want to haul on the bus and buried them way out in the woods somewhere for retrieval later. "Later" turned out to be a couple years if I remember right.

Vegas, by the way, were built at Lordstown OH and their production coincided with the development of a new type of railroad car which involved giant hinged doors onto which the cars were attached and the doors were raised shut. The cars rode vertically! You can check the Vega RPO sticker to see if it was shipped that way; the special "Verti-Pak" modifications included special batteries, coolant overflow and windshield washer bottles designed not to spill whether the car was on four wheels or mounted upright in the railcar. By the mid-late 70s, though, the "Verti-Pak" railcars had been rebuilt into normal railroad cars and thus the short-lived experiment was over.

quote Originally posted by css9450: Vegas, by the way, were built at Lordstown OH and their production coincided with the development of a new type of railroad car which involved giant hinged doors onto which the cars were attached and the doors were raised shut. The cars rode vertically! You can check the Vega RPO sticker to see if it was shipped that way; the special "Verti-Pak" modifications included special batteries, coolant overflow and windshield washer bottles designed not to spill whether the car was on four wheels or mounted upright in the railcar. By the mid-late 70s, though, the "Verti-Pak" railcars had been rebuilt into normal railroad cars and thus the short-lived experiment was over.

http://www.flickr.com/photo...es/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cklx/3235693555/

[This message has been edited by htexans1 (edited 03-31-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Arns85GT: I concur. My 510 was a four door with a Mulholland slalom kit. It had mechanical secondaries on the carb. Definitely outperformed a stock Vega. Arn

Note I did mention "stock". I never had one remain "stock" for long. Mulholland was always the first step to creating one of the better handling little sardine cans ever.

Well if you consider a comfortable 4 seater as a sardine can, to each his own. MIne had a totally stock engine but with the carb worked on.

However, the Datsun 510 was beating up most of the competition on road racing circuits at the time and was arguably one of the best in the pre- Honda Civic era.

Arn

Hey, this thread isn't about Datsuns my bad

[This message has been edited by Arns85GT (edited 03-31-2011).]

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Patrick, why would you do this to me? I'm going to think about this car for the rest of the year now. I'm trying to be responsible, I'm trying to pare down my cars... and here you post a car like that...

Heh heh, I'm just distracting you from those damn political threads.

quote Originally posted by htexans1: This olds model, the Starfire, had two sister cars, the Chevy Monza and the Buick Skylark.

How the heck could you forget mentioning the Pontiac Sunbird? Lots more info on these cars Here.

quote Originally posted by Patrick: How the heck could you forget mentioning the Pontiac Sunbird? Lots more info on these cars Here.

Damn, I never knew these cars existed? I feel like such a hypocrit! All I've ever heard of the Chevy Vega is that it's just a huge piece of **** , so it never occured to me to search for it.

I know that Pontiac made a cool version of the Chevette, hahah...


How crazy is that though... two really cool smallish RWD, 2-door coupes by Pontiac in the 70s... they both look really cool.


EDIT: Holy crap, they made more than 2 million Vegas and variants. (That formula pictured above is pretty rare though). Yet, I can't find a single Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac Astre, Pontiac Sunbird, or Oldsmobile Starfire from the H-body on eBay, CARS.COM, or ClassicCars.com???

Were they just all destroyed because people beat them into the ground?

Damn...

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 03-31-2011).]

Hey Todd, just to keep you distracted... but have you ever heard/seen of the Pontiac GP 2+2?



http://www.beforeblack.net/86gp2+2.htm

For some reason, I've always loved the Monte Carlo SS and Aerocoupes from the 80's and this is the Pontiac version, and I love it! Shame there was less than 2,000 made...

This thread brings back memories.

Back in the day I built a 73 Vega GT Kammback (Wagon). I put together an all aluminum 11 to 1 comprssion 1963 Buick 215 V8 with a Kenne Bell Stage II cam, Offenhauser intake and valve covers, Carter Thermo Quad Carburetor, and MSD 404B ignition box. It was attached to the stock Saginaw 4 speed modified to accept the old 60's Saginaw electric overdrive unit. The trans conneted to a stock Vega 3.42 posi differntial. The engine easily pulled to 6500 RPM with it's short 2.8 in stoke. The V8 only weighed 20 lbs more than the stock Vega 4 cyl and that car could really move. With the electric overdrive you could select overdrive on any forward gear which really could confuse anyone that rode in it with me. It also would get great mileage if you could keep you foot out of it. While the stock engines wer junk, Vega's made great hot rods. I live in the southwest so I never had the rust issues. In fact there are still a few decent ones running around here. I wish I had never sold mine. It was a lot of fun.

quote Originally posted by 1988holleyformula: Hey Todd, just to keep you distracted... but have you ever heard/seen of the Pontiac GP 2+2? http://www.beforeblack.net/86gp2+2.htm For some reason, I've always loved the Monte Carlo SS and Aerocoupes from the 80's and this is the Pontiac version, and I love it! Shame there was less than 2,000 made...

I like very much.
Mmmmmm, Grand-Nationally.....

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 03-31-2011).]

quote Originally posted by 1988holleyformula: Hey Todd, just to keep you distracted... but have you ever heard/seen of the Pontiac GP 2+2? For some reason, I've always loved the Monte Carlo SS and Aerocoupes from the 80's and this is the Pontiac version, and I love it! Shame there was less than 2,000 made...

Yeah! I've seen those before. There was actually a guy where I used to live who had one. I never knew the guy, but he drove it a lot, and I would always see it on the weekends, it looked JUST like that, same color and everything. Very cool car...

I've always been a fan of the Grand Prixs... I'd have to say my favorite year of the Grand Prix is the 1976-1977 model years. Those were some real battleships.

quote Originally posted by htexans1: This olds model, the Starfire, had two sister cars, the Chevy Monza and the Buick Skylark.

I had a Starfire and several Monzas.
My last Monza came with a 4.3 (262) V8. The 262 was only produced in '75 and '76, and then replaced by the 305.
Of course, the 262 was externally identical to any of about a million other SBCs.
I chose to replace it (of course) with a 350/300 that was donated by a '70 Impala which had been hit on every side except the top.
The Hooker 2135 (look it up) headers, the L82 cam, and the Carter AFB helped a bit.
The Saginaw 4 speed didn't hurt either.
I surprised a number if IROCs and mid-80s Corvettes.

This is the car shortly after I bought it. Check the fake "knockoff" spinners.
That's the Impala engine donor in the background.


This is the engine, as it was being readied for install, with a mockup way-too-big Holley carb.


This is the more-or-less finished product.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 03-31-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Check the fake "knockoff" spinners.

Hey, I like those!

Raydar,

I'll be a lot of people don't know those Monza wheels are hub caps. I had a 75 2+2 4.3 V8 4-speed. All I did was install an aluminum intake and Quadrajet, eliminate the cat, and weld in some Pacesetter "Monza" mufflers. That car ran pretty good with just those small mods. I also installed the Spyder front air dam and rear spoiler like you did. With a strong 350 it would be even more fun. Just as long as you did not have to change plugs.

[This message has been edited by Rick 88 (edited 03-31-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Rick 88: I'll be a lot of people don't know those Monza wheels are hub caps...

Funny thing about those wheel covers...
When Car and Driver tested the '75 Monza (which, although it had a V8, still had the tiny Vega brakes) after a couple of full speed stops, the brakes and hubs got so hot that the wheel covers melted in the centers.

quote ...Just as long as you did not have to change plugs.

Yeah. The plugs were a real picnic.
Although the guy I bought the car from threw in a specially modified socket that allegedly allowed the removal of the plugs without jacking up the engine. I don't remember if it worked or not.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 03-31-2011).]

I owned most of the GM H body cars (all but the Vega and the Skyhawk), and to this day I think they still look great. My mom complained that the yard looked like a used car lot ( usually had 4 sitting around at any given time). All of them ran. I had both the notch backs and the hatch backs, no wagons. Hated the aluminum block that was standard. My Astre went through 4 engines in little over 5 years. Blew out the 3rd cylinder on every one. Loved the Duke (which Pontiac designed for the Astre, but came out with the Sunbird instead dropping the short run Astre) The 231 ci V6 engine and the 305 V8 were awesome to drive lots and lots of power for that little car. If you were lucky to get one rust proofed by the original owner the car would look great for a long time, however just a plain car was really prone to cancer. I remember crawling under my Starfire and noticing that the passenger side lower control arm was just about ready to fall off. Great big rust hole in the lower fire wall. Had a 231 V6 with a 4 speed manual. On a side note I traded my 1979 Pontiac Sunbird, 231 V6 with 350 turbohydromatic tranny, for my 1985 Fiero.

For more information, be sure to check out the H-body forums:

http://forums.h-body.org/

Not as busy as PFF but several of the sections are pretty cool.