You Need This: The V8-powered “Hooker Headers Chevette”

Take a small car and fit the biggest engine possible. It's a simple recipe, yes, but one that rarely fails to deliver smiles.

This Chevette was featured in a special story on engine swaps in the November 1982 issue of Hot Rod magazine.

As the story goes, the Chevy, better known now as the “Hooker Headers Chevette,” was initially fitted with …

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You Need This: Collector-grade Chevrolet Chevette?

Yes, yes I do!  I need that little car with the big engine.  The V8 seems to be halfway over the front axle, so I assume this is mostly a straight-line kind of car.  I would love to drive it and see what it could do in a drag race, a slalom, maybe even hill climbing or something.  Tasty little nugget.

Baldwin Motion did one better, a Vega with Big Block Chevy in it, and was going to sell it as a new car.

BBC vega

Hot Rod magazine did a 500 Caddy powered Chevette. Almost on a Challenge budget even. 

https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/1980-chevy-chevette-project-car-the-bad-seed/#google_vignette

An all-American TVR Griffith?  (hits the "like" button) 

Does that pass the SCCA Auto X height vs track width requirement?

Motojunky said:

Hot Rod magazine did a 500 Caddy powered Chevette. Almost on a Challenge budget even. 

https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/1980-chevy-chevette-project-car-the-bad-seed/#google_vignette

Obviously, that should have been an Eldorado 500 ci front wheel drive drivetrain mid/rear engine car.

Motojunky said:

Hot Rod magazine did a 500 Caddy powered Chevette. Almost on a Challenge budget even. 

https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/1980-chevy-chevette-project-car-the-bad-seed/#google_vignette

Steve Magnante, to be more precise.

I don't normally save that stuff, but I still have that issue.

Colin Wood said:
Take a small car and fit the biggest engine possible. It's a simple recipe, yes, but one that rarely fails to deliver smiles.

Edit:  I see I typed slower than several other people.

A Chevy 350 is a big engine for a Chevette, but not the biggest possible..  

Also featured in a Hot Rod Magazine story was a Chevette with a 500ci Cadillac engine, built by Steve Magnante.  That car was a lot sketchier, though.  The Hooker Header car was put together pretty well.

https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/1980-chevy-chevette-project-car-the-bad-seed/

There were a number of Chevettes built back in the day with V6 swaps, which probably made for a more balanced car.  They were cheap, tinny little cars though - kind of the GM version of a Yugo.  The base version didn't even come with a back seat.

I'm not used to the older front end and it looks so much better. You can really see the Vega styling.

VolvoHeretic said:

Motojunky said:

Hot Rod magazine did a 500 Caddy powered Chevette. Almost on a Challenge budget even. 

https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/1980-chevy-chevette-project-car-the-bad-seed/#google_vignette

Obviously, that should have been an Eldorado 500 ci front wheel drive drivetrain mid/rear engine car.

I obviously spoke too soon again. What's the difference between the Chevette and a Vega?

81cpcamaro said:

Baldwin Motion did one better, a Vega with Big Block Chevy in it, and was going to sell it as a new car.

BBC vega

At the bottom of the above article is a Chevy small block/Oldsmobile Toronado transaxle mid/rear engined Vega.

Back Fire! A Rather Unusual V8 Vega

Since wild things named "Chevette" are being discussed, here's a photo of the 1964 McKee MK1 Chevette, complete with a midship V8.  It was raced by a friend of my father, Dick Doane, who owned a high volume Chevy and specifically Corvette dealership in Dundee, Illinois.  GM used the dealership as a skunkworks team to develop the Grand Sports.  If I recall the story correctly, Mr. Doane crashed on the Monza Wall at Meadowdale International Raceway in that car.

Anyway, the original "Chevette":

In reply to Coniglio Rampante :

Whoa, that's pretty awesome.

VolvoHeretic said:

I obviously spoke too soon again. What's the difference between the Chevette and a Vega?

About the only similarity between the two is the bow tie logo.

To go further afield, the Chevette is more closely related to 1984-1987 Fieros, they used essentially the same front suspension.  (In typical GM fashion the Fiero suspension was improved for 1988 and then they killed it off.)

The Caddy Chevette is one of the cars that inspired my V8 Pontiac Firefly (Chevy Sprint)

I like the Chevette!

In reply to stuart in mn :

And yet, Chevrolet saw fit to donate the front suspension to Pontiac to use for the Fiero.....quite sophisticated.

300zxfreak said:

In reply to stuart in mn :

And yet, Chevrolet saw fit to donate the front suspension to Pontiac to use for the Fiero.....quite sophisticated.

Yeah, I mentioned that in my post.  It wasn't until the last year of the Fiero that they gave it a better suspension.

Peabody said:

I don't normally save that stuff, but I still have that issue.

I might have that issue, too. 

I like this.  Also remember the weekly cruise-in when I was stationed in Norfolk and the guy with the Gremlin with the massive engine stuffed in it.

Speaking of the Bad Seed Chevette...

The Bad Seed Chevette was my intro to cheap, questionable, and insane car builds, which eventually led me here. IIRC, Steve built that thing for right around Challenge money, and it was so cool to see a down and dirty build like that in Hot Rod, where everything they were featuring before that was the polar opposite of this. For me, it showed me and my friends that speed was attainable at any budget if you are crazy and resourceful enough. Once my friends and I found out there was an entire competition for cars like that, well, we got started wrenching on our own projects, and the rest is history. 

BangShift.com did a multi-part feature on the car just over a decade ago. Really cool info on the backstory of the build right from Steve Magnante himself.