Chevette

Get a Sidekick. I can't imagine a Chevette doing well in snow....or dry pavement for that matter.

Think of ability,relative comfort (heat) and above all...reliability in a winter beater.

But, then again, I'm 40...and have kids.

There is a club in Canada that races Chevettes on ice.

I want one! 1) Horsepower varied greatly over the years.Swapping an 80 or 81 (best year was an 80 iirc)1.6L engine will nearly double your horsepower from an early 1.4L. 2) As mentioned they shared many major parts with the I-mark/Impulse and Fiero, making junkyard upgrades easy. 3) They were built all over the world and have a decent aftermarket if you look overseas-the 74-8? Opel Kadett was a Chevette underneath. 4) The 2.8-3.4L V6s fit nicely and can be had for next to nothing. Bag one from an S-10 and get the 5 speed too. 5) RWD+snow tires FTW! Don't do anything too stupid and driving in the snow becomes a great way to learn car control. 6) In england you could buy a bad-ass HSR, and I think they're making these body kits again. I want one.

So, um, I don't think anyone said it, but what about 4 good snow tires and sending the Miata to a GOOD rust-proofing/oiling facility?

Reliable, great heat, and very good in snow with appropriate footwear.

For those of us that grew up when Chevettes were current, all I can say is that we spent our time trying to AVOID them like the plague. It ranks as the absolute worst car I ever drove, hands down, bar none. A bigger pile I couldn't imagine. I ended up with a Mazda GLC with nothing but mats and a steering wheel, and not much else, and it felt like a Ferrari in comparison.

The Chevette would barely do 60mph, it shook violently trying to get there, would barely stay straight going down the road, and looked like a turd. And that was a brand new one, not a clapped out 20 to 30 year old car.

Run, run away...leave the Chevettes to museums that want to show how bad a car can be.

The GLC on the other hand turned out to be a decent if slow car. Rear wheel drive, OK fun, and great MPG; which is important when you want to get as many miles as you can on a HS budget. It ended up with me and my sister afterwards putting over 200k miles on it, and then selling it to a friend that got a 100k more before he sold it on.

Compared to a Chevette though, just about any car is a work of art!

njansenv wrote: So, um, I don't think anyone said it, but what about 4 good snow tires and sending the Miata to a GOOD rust-proofing/oiling facility? Reliable, great heat, and very good in snow with appropriate footwear.

+1000 I drove mine for 3 Buffalo winters with Hakka 1 snows and had lots of fun and was very, very safe. I think the Miata's heater must be thermonuclear, I don't think I ever ran full heat except when I had the top down in the cold, which was nearly all the time. Snow tires, a warm hat, a decent winter jacket and gloves and just leave the top down for winter fun!

Scott

The Chevette would barely do 60mph, it shook violently trying to get there, would barely stay straight going down the road, and looked like a turd. And that was a brand new one, not a clapped out 20 to 30 year old car.

I thought that was just my Chevette experience.

Tim Baxter wrote:

The Chevette would barely do 60mph, it shook violently trying to get there, would barely stay straight going down the road, and looked like a turd. And that was a brand new one, not a clapped out 20 to 30 year old car.

I thought that was just my Chevette experience.

My 76 auto with the 81 drivetrain (stock 2 barrel with most of the emissions stuff left off) would cruise at 65 with no problem and top out at just over 80mph.

CarKid1989 wrote: so its a draw about getting it....

Only around here would this be a semi-serious statement!

Response 1: You'll hate it.

Response 2: It's only slightly worse than a Bob Costas retrospective.

Response 3: You'll really, really, REALLY hate it.

Response 4: Get a Miata.

Response 5: You can't swap squat into it.

Response 6: But it's cheap!

Response 7: Go for it!

I got one for free when I was in college and drove it for a little while and then sebt it off the right way...

Two guys... helmets, a wood ramp in a field... a 30mph rollover. We righted it and drove it to the junkyard a little depressed it wasn't damaged more. They gave me $25.

If I had it back today I'd have lowered, caged, blacked it all out and put a turbo miata powertrain, pinto rack and some homebrew suspension for the track. OK, no I wouldn't... I'd make a bigger ramp.

I worked for a local Parts Plus chain and we had 5 or 6 of them as delivery cars. They went through front suspension stuff (and consequently front tires) like you wouldn't believe. When they were done, the boss gave them away to the employees and I got one, it was a beige Chevette Scooter 2 door 4 speed, IIRC it was a '78. On the way home, I thought the shifter felt sorta sloppy and discovered that why yes it was overly sloppy as it came out in my hand. Obviously it had happened before because the shift boot was torn up pretty bad. I had to buy the housing the shifter went into in order to fix it, I yanked the front out as straight as I could and then drove it for a few weeks. The jeers and catcalls from the populace got to be a bit much so I wound up selling it for $500, IIRC.

For a while, I used to see a fat chick driving a rather rough looking one with 'MY VETTE' in big letters across the top of the windshield.

Having said that, it would be an interesting and rather unique platform for a Mod class AX car. You probably wouldn't see any others.

A good friend was the head mechanic for a similar shop that had about 20 of them. He built a ministock out of one with 400,000 miles in 96, and won the points championship the same year. The year after, we got tangled up in turn 1, and both rolled, him ending up with the majority of the damage. He was back out the next week, winning. The last I heard, he was still racing the same car. I bought one new in 87 for my wife, put a fair bit of mileage on it, and sold it after 5 yrs. It was unspectacular, but cheap, and I can't recall ever having a problem with it.

We had two. Both had front suspension problems. Otherwise, they were OK in the same manner as my fridge is "OK".

I had talked about doing a Chevette diesel for vintage club racing. Won't do it, but it would have been different in a goofy sort of way.

One related vehicle that has a decent following is the Vauxhall Chevette......the sporty versions were sort of a hot version of Euro-trash.....

Vauxhall Chevette

We do like our Chevette...but it's only been used for "Back 40 Racing" so our viewpoint is skewed. I would have to say that if I took the badpoints of every GM product I can remember, combine them into one car, and then turn up the amplitude...that might be a Chevette!

Our car was pre-wrecked...but it ran. We drove it around the field and have had a rear quarter window rattle loose and fall off (duct tape FTW!), broke a tie rod end ($45...ouch!), the fuel filter clogged up (so I removed the filter), and most recently the panhard bar mount ripped loose from the body. We watched it drive by, doing laps in the field, and wondered why the rearend was moving ~8-10 inches laterally. Well...it was the panhard mount.

From our experience, I'd have to say that these are NOT iconic roadcars worthy of adoration and/or restoration or modification. They are fairly robust (and I only say that because this one has taken and delivered quite a few smacks), but I don't figure they were designed for sporty handling.

It keeps starting, so we keep driving it. (that's really our criteria, anyway)

I'll see if I can't find a photo of it or have Gen post a video. Edit: Here's some footage of Gen (member here) driving the Chevette. The plan was for me to be the "chase vehicle" for the footage...but I was actually doing pretty good to keep up with him. At the end...he rolled the right front off the bead...and slowed down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmdMFSInx6w&feature=related

Clem

A couple years ago, my family had an '86 Pontiac Acadian Scooter (Canadian name). As barebones as you could get from the factory really.

It was slow, and creaked a little. Overall however, most of the problems people keep complaining about are fixable by the same things they'd do to other cars.

Engine is easily swapped. As said, people put V6s, V8s and other I4s in them with fair regularity. I've seen someone building a twin turbo 3.1L V6. Someone was/is putting a Turbo Ecotec out of Solstice GXP into one. Personally, I've thought about the Suzuki G13B out of the Swift GT/GTI. 100hp, stupidly light engine....rock on. The weight loss would definately help to balance the car as well. The Chevette's 1.6L weighing around 300lbs.

Also thought of the V6 out of the Suzuki Grand Vitara (2.7L 180hp, 180 ft-lbs of torque, all aluminum, DOHC...), or the GR series of V6's from Toyota.

Yes...the brakes suck. Horridly. But the front suspension design as yanked for the first generation of the Fiero. Companies such as Held Motorsports make lowering kits, drop spindles, and big brake packages for the Fiero....which should bolt on to the Chevette. Again, how much do people regularly spend on suspension upgrades?

Rear suspension is where I personally get stuck. Torque tube, 2 links, and a panhard are stock. No one really makes much of an improvement in this area that is a bolt on affair. To add to the problem, is the stock rear end is weaker than your average infant. It has to be replaced when you swap engines under most circumstances.

Looks? Hard to help here really. Short of finding the stupidly rare Opel-Buick which is a rebadged Opel Kadett, or the Isuzu I-mark coupe which isnt exactly common either.

Edit....uh....sorry for the necro post

CarKid1989 wrote:

jdmae92 wrote: What happened to your miata?

Still have it. LOVE IT! drive it everday race it almost every weekend. it makes me smile:) I need a winter car

Nope - you need winter wheels :) Other than ground clearance, a Miata with a good set of winter (NOT all-season) tires will do fine. And the heaters are great. :)

had a '91 for 4 years, then the VW, now back into a new MX-5, with winter wheels to arrive early December...

Yes we race chevettes on ice here in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada! My son successfully campaigned one to second place in it's class his rookie season. A great way to learn how to handle a RWD. Here are some pictures of the fastest chevettes up here!

Haha, the seat position in the second car looks ridiculous. The front end tube frame setup looks gnarly though.

Obviously the more weight over the drive wheels the better the traction,bear in mind no studs and glare ice. Its better to move the driver than add more weight.Our car was built late and cheap so we just added weight, 400 lbs behind the axle .Hooked up great, handled ok, just had to anticipate the slide or the pendulum effect would get you.

My mother-in-law put over 300,000 miles on her Chevette - in Wisconsin. She still talks fondly of the car, that is when she talks to me at all.

There is a club in Canada that races Chevettes on ice.

The Edmonton Rally Club also runs an ice-racing series near Edmonton. They also have a Chevette class (which is really popular), and the tires have what can only be described as BOLTS put in them (these studs are HUGE). Hilarious combination for sure! The class has been discountinued though after this year I believe, because Neon's are now the car of choice. In fact, the club has a dude that offers Neon's all prepped for the class for $3k or less (including car, and it has a cage installed).

If you wanted a really fun, cheap rwd 80's car you would either get a late 70's early 80's corolla (didn't you read the 3TC thread?!) or get an 80's Chevy Nova (carbed 4age rebadged corolla).

My family owned many of them when I was growing up. The worst thing about them is that the entire brake system would occasionally give up the ghost. Calling the Chevette's foot actuated system for slowing down the car "brakes" would be an insult to ... brakes. Otherwise, all four of my brothers and I entertained ourselves with Duke-like abandon on our local dirt roads and trails. My preference would be a fox-bodied Fairmont. Easy V8 power and lots of aftermarket support.