Nice Vega-Page 2: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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July 24, 2011 7:43 p.m. a401cj Reader

bravenrace wrote:

I put a 350 in a vega back in the 80's. the car was rust free. It's really a bad swap. If you give the car any traction, the back window will easily break under acceleration. The car ends up really nose heavy, and the size of the control arms and spring perches severly restricts your ability to beef up the suspension. Nowadays, I'm sure there are solutions for these things, but back then there wasn't.

but weren't the Monza and Vega essentially the same? GM put the V8, albeit de-tuned, in some Monzas. Why couldn't you have used the Monza parts?
July 24, 2011 8:13 p.m. Curmudgeon SuperDork

I had a '73 Vega back in da day, a 3 speed manual 'stripper'. It was a complete pile of E36 M3 and I couldn't wait to get rid of it. That car soured me on 1) new cars in general 2) GM cars in general.

Fast forward to the current day, another GRMer (George Walton) bought a '76 Cosworth and asked me to get it into DD condition. It was already in pretty good shape due to ~20 years of indoor storage. I put a few miles on it during that process and was surprised at how well it handled for a '70's econobox. It definitely handled better than how I remember my Pintos, they tended towards absolutely abysmal understeer. But the assembly quality is pretty much how I remember the bottom feeder I owned.
July 24, 2011 8:16 p.m. spitfirebill SuperDork

Curmudgeon wrote:

I had a '73 Vega back in da day, a 3 speed manual 'stripper'. It was a complete pile of E36 M3 and I couldn't wait to get rid of it. That car soured me on 1) new cars in general 2) GM cars in general.

I had a 72 and could not agree more.
July 24, 2011 8:30 p.m. rustyvw HalfDork

Last year, at a car show, I saw an all original Vega. Everybody that I mentioned it to asked if it had a 350. They were all shocked when I said it had the original engine. I have never seen a car with such a bad reputation.
July 24, 2011 9:40 p.m. Rob_Mopar Dork

anyuta34o Canoe Attack
July 24, 2011 9:41 p.m. turbojunker HalfDork

lol at the pasted UBB code