Chevrolet Cosworth Twin-Cam Vega - How cool!

[Robinxr4i]

I've never seen these before. Kinda found this via the "hot hatch thead" how cool are these!

1970's American RWD Hatch back (weighing in at 1250kg) with a Cosworth tuned 2.0 16v 4 pot with EFi. Before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyý deemed the engine to be "too polluting" it produced 180bhp in road trim ;D but a combination of EGR and other restriction meant the power output dropped to 110bhp so it would pass the emissions test

I reckon with all the emission stuff removed these would be awesome!








Nasty NPA restricted engine


Happy unrestricted engine ;D


I'm guessing Norm or AK will fill me in with more info?

[popuptoaster]

i think we had a thread on these before, seemed like a nice idea, but overshadowed by cheaper more pokey V8's i seem to remember, unless that was another forum. :S

[mk14dr]

Is anyone else seeing a manta 'a' in the side on view?

It looks like a bloody good laugh to me, I wonder what sort of power can be squeezed out of them? Or weather you could replace it with a YB?

[stealthstylz]

A lad round her has/had one. Awesome cars but very rare and I can imagine they rust well.

Matt

[10mpg]

yeah nice cars I'm sure we had on these before years back...

nice 'different' yank with good pedigree...

I'd love one

[hongkongphooey]

Any rear pics?

[akku]

Yeah, there was one on eBay a long time ago, went for next to nothing.

The Cosworth one is well rare, IIRC it was only in production for one full model year, plus a part year before and after. This was in part due to labour relations problems at the plant they were built at and also due to teething troubles with the fuel injection system. Remember fuel injection was still in its infancy in the mid 1970s as far as production cars go. As I recall each Chevy Vega Cossie engine was entirely hand built.

The Cosworth Vega was another John DeLorean project, he certainly had his hand in some interesting cars.

They aren't all black either. Perhaps in an attempt to boost sales they were offered in other colours later on but most are black with the gold trim.

Vega and Monza and others of the same body lines rot like fury.

Shame as these are interesting cars. I bet a fair % of the surviving Vegas on the road are Cosworth though, the base model ones having all disolved years ago.

[akku]

and just to be pedantic on the opening paragraph, what happened was the Cosworth engine struggled to make emissions legal in the first place (1975) which was one of the teething troubles which caused production delays, and in 1977 the emissions standard was toughened again (and I think another CAFE milestone came in for mandatory fuel efficiency) and the Cosworth engine just couldn't meet the required spec.

Ironic that now the only way to get to meet emissions is to use fuel injection and back then it was the "dirty" tech.

[VWPowered]

wow agree'd would be awesome de-tuned that with a little extra like 500hp+ and 4 wheel drive

[Hirst]

In Blue Thunder (film, not the series) there's a nice bird in it who drives a Vega. Just a normal one though.



Looks ace with the black steels, involved in a big chase too! Crashes through a fence and all sorts, car isn't wrecked at the end though (which is nice).

[hongkongphooey]

Cool....similar rear lights to a CROWN Coupe.

[akku]

I also like the fact that all the modified Vega, Monza, and clones which are out there all seem to be "of the era" styled.

Check:



















love this photo



High stepper!



Even Yenko did a Vega...

[Team Blitz]

Achilles heel was rebore-as-you-drive Nikasil block. Chevy learned the lesson. BMW is still learning it.

Chevy (not the EPA) was too chicken to put the spurs to the Cossie. Graham Robson has this documented in his Cos books.

It was an underpowered pig. Capris with 2.0L Pinto engines were faster, more reliable, cheaper to buy, as just one data point. These cars sold because they had black/gold striping. OTT, terrible. I drove one off the new car lot, with a buddy whose rich father bought him one in high school.

[Mystery Machine]

Jan 13, 2010 23:01:47 GMT mk14dr said:

Is anyone else seeing a manta 'a' in the side on view?

That was my same first thought.

The wheels are the same as on the Droopsnoot & Chevette HS too!

[Team Blitz]

Jan 14, 2010 14:39:35 GMT Mystery Machine said:

The wheels are the same as on the Droopsnoot

Wayne Cherry, a American GM designer, led the Droopsnoot design team for Vauxhall. He borrowed from the parts bin he was familiar with.

[akku]

IIRC the wheels should fit as the Vega has 4x4" PCD as well as the Vauxhall.

[kevfromwales]

yep, I've got a pair of stock vega 13" steelies in the barn, 4" pcd for sure

I could be wrong here, but I think the vega is the same as the pontiac sun bird / fire - which was factory fitted with buick v6 lumps, and the gr8 for converting your v8 to manual saginaw 4 speed and v8 bellhousing combo

at least, that's where mine came from

- think there was one dragraced over here, in shocking pink - which was then cut into a pickup for some reason?

[akku]

probably cut up cos it went Rusty.

The Vega is the start of a family tree of rot prone aero coupe looking GM cars, although "more correctly" I think the Sunbird are based on the Monza although they are all H body line cars so they all have the same DNA.

Call me a sicko but I kinda like these

[Mark]

That's really really nice - something else!

[akku]

With a healthy V8, lots of rust prevention and some suspension work it could be a fun car.