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1975 Chevrolet Vega

The Chevrolet Vega was produced from 1970 to 1977 as a two-door hatchback, sedan (later named the notchback), sedan delivery, and wagon body styles. Power was from an inline four-cylinder engine utilizing aluminum alloy cylinder blocks. The engine was a joint effort by General Motors, Reynolds Metals, and Sealed Power Corp. using die-cast block technology. It was known as 'the world's tallest, smallest engine' because of its tall cylinder head. Unfortunately, the engine gained a reputation for its noise, vibration, and its tendency to overheat. By 1974, these issues had been resolved.

The Vega had a 97-inch wheelbase and a width of 65.4 inches. The early models had a 169.7-inch length, growing by three inches in 1973 due to the front 5 mph bumper. A further 5.7 inches were gained in 1974 due to the front and rear 5 mph bumpers. The suspension was comprised of a live rear axle, and short and long arms in the front, with lower control arms bushings. It had a low center of mass and a 53.2/46.8 weight distribution.

Upon its introduction, it was awarded the Motor Trend Car of the Year in 1971. It soon earned a poor reputation due to a range of problems related to its safety, reliability, and engineering. It had a propensity to rust and was plagued with recalls.

Cosworth Vega

In 1970, General Motors' general manager and vice-president, John DeLorean, assigned engine designer Calvin Wade to travel to England to explore cylinder head technology that could improve the Vegas performance. A few months later, development work on a prototype Cosworth Vega engine began using a meager budget. It was completed in June of 1971 and the dual Holley-Weber two-barrel carburetor engine offered 170 horsepower. In 1972, General Motors President Edward Cole performed a comparison test of three Vegas using different engines. One was a standard base model, another had an all-aluminum small-block V8 engine, and the third was the Cosworth. Approval for the Cosworth engine soon followed and Wade began a 12-car development program to accumulate test mileage. In April of 1973, development was frozen and two examples were sent for EPA emission certification. It received its EPA emissions certification on March 14th of 1974, allowing the sale of 1975 models. With a backlog of orders, production began immediately with 30 engines being hand-built per day.

A total of 2,061 examples of the Cosworth Vega were built in 1975, all finished in black acrylic lacquer with gold 'Cosworth Twin Cam' letter on the rear cove panel and front fenders. Gold pinstriping helped accentuate the hood bulge, wheel openings, bodyside, and rear cove. Most examples were given black interiors, with about 16 percent receiving white vinyl interiors.

The following year, the Cosworth Vega received a wider grill, extensive body anti-rust improvements, and tri-color tail lamps. Instead of the dual exhaust outlets seen on the 1975 models, the 1976 version had a single tailpipe. An optional Borg-Warner five-speed manual overdrive transmission with a 4.10 axle became available. An 8-track tape player and a 'Sky-Roof' with tinted reflectorized sliding glass was optional beginning in January. Eight exterior colors were offered, beginning in February that included Antique White, Dark Blue Metallic, Firethorn Metallic, Mahogany Metallic, Dark Green Metallic, Buckskin, Medium Saddle Metallic, and Medium Orange. Two interior color options included Firethorn and Buckskin

A total of 1,447 examples of the 1976 models were built. Total production of 3,508 examples was made before production ended in 1976.

by Dan Vaughan

Cosworth Hatchback

The Cosworth Vega was a special high performance model with a virtually hand built Tonawanda engine developed by Cosworth Engineering of England. The special Cosworth Vega DOHC 16-valve engine had shotpeened rods, a forged magna-fluxed crank shaft and a computer controlled induction system. The engines were shipped to Lordstown where the cars were off-line assembled apart from regular production models. 2,061 were built for its introduction year.

Cosworth Hatchback
Chassis number: 1876

This 1975 Chevrolet Cosworth Twin Cam Vega is number 1876 of 3508 produced between 1975 and 1976. Each engine is hand-built by one builder in Tonawanda, New York.

The Chevrolet Vega was produced from 1971 through 1977 and offered in a variety of configurations including a coupe, hatchback and station wagon. These were not the names that were used, officially, they were Notchback, Hatchback, and Kammback. During the Vega's development, the codename it was given was the 'XP-887'

The subcompact market had become very important to American Automakers, partly because of the influence that the Volkswagen Beetle had secured and the rising competition from other imports such as Toyota and Datsun. During the 1960's Ford introduced their Falcon and Chevrolet their Corvair but neither were able to grasp the popularity that had been established by other imports. With oil embargo's and customers demanding more fuel efficient vehicles, this market was evolving and becoming more important to master.

The Chevrolet Vega was another attempt at wining over the hearts of the American public and to crack the tough subcompact market. The standard engine with a single-barrel carburetor produced about 70 horsepower while the addition of a second carburetor increased horsepower to 85. The 2.3 Liter engine quickly gained a reputation for being unreliable. Due to a poor cooling channel design the engine had a tendency to burn through oil rather quickly as a result of the poorly designed valve stem seals. This did little to inspire confidence in the vehicle. Problems seemed to follow the vehicle throughout its lifespan with reports of overheating, carburetor fires, premature body rust, ruptured fuel tanks, and other issues. It was given the reputation as 'the car that began rusting on the showroom floors'.

Even with its problems, the Chevrolet Vega was a popular vehicle with over two million examples produced during its lifetime. Chevrolet combated the vehicles issues during every year of its production and continued to improve the vehicle. In 1976 they backed their produced with a '5-year, 60,000-mile' warranty which was far superior to the warranties of the time.

The Vega has been included on Forbes Magazine's 'worst car list of all time.' Rising competition and build quality issues were the reason for the demise of the Vega. As the Vega was being fazed out Chevrolet introduced the Chevette and Monza which provided even more competition for the subcompact car. By the time production had ceased, 2,154,434 examples had been produced.

by Dan Vaughan