1975 Cosworth Vega

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

RE: I know, I know... it's a Pinto

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Pritch wrote:
Interesting comparison, Darryl. I have never had any use nor love for Camaros but I know what you mean. As a life long owner and lover of Mustangs, I suspect that I do see a resemblance between the Pintos and Mustangs and that is likely why I liked them over the Vegas. It is all good

Wasn't the Mustang II ('74-'78) actually based on the Pinto platform?

Pritch · Guru

Yes indeed. They were referred to as Pintostangs. smile

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Thanks for confirming my memory on that!

bigdreams · Poncho Master!

MC wrote:
I liked the early Vega styling better as well. I wonder if there are any left with their original engines? Seems like the only ones I see now are V8 conversions.
The only Vega I ever drove felt like a piece of junk, though. I was looking at buying it as a used car, it had low mileage and didn't smoke (yet), but everything on it just felt loose, clunky, poorly built - like the whole car was just about to fall apart - so I passed on it.
Never owned a Pinto, but a buddy did. He tortured that car and it kept coming back for more.

Actually a former now retired co worker owns two of them in stock condition . He owns the orange coupe and the white wagon in this picture

The orange coupe is a special edition - see this link for more details

https://chevyvega.fandom.com/wiki/Millionth_Vega

He had a 73 Vega as his first new car

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Cool. Figured there must be one or two of them out there... you've shown me two! smile

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

My '73 Vegamatic (2nd. car I owned) was white/burgundy interior with the black "go fast" stripe.I really liked the car, even though the engine was crap.

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

I always liked this picture.

https://www.google.ca/amp/gmauthority.com/blog/2013/03/vert-a-pac-train-cars-kept-chevy-vegas-affordable/amp/

long stroke · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I remember reading an article back in the late 1970's in Mother Jones magazine about how Ford knew this car was killing people and decided to do noting about it. In the internal memo at Ford that was leaked out, it was said that it was far cheaper for Ford to just pays out the lawsuits than retrofit every single Pinto to save human life furious . On a lighter note i always thought the car was mediocre in looks and the Vega was a far better looking car all around, especially as a hatchback. The Vega was a great car, the only thing wrong with the car was the big lack of sleeves in the bores. Once Chev put in the sleeves it was a great car but too late because of very bad press. I owned a 1974 Hatchback with four speed stick and i loved it. It was a great little car in every way except for the oil burning obviously. I sold it around 1979 to a guy who built up a beautiful V-8 pro street Vega out of it. The car was amazingly solid everywhere and i sold it for more than i paid for it. You can slag Vega's all you want but if you actually owned one you would have a very different attitude. It was a great little car that GM messed up by not pressing sleeves into it. Cheers.

Pritch · Guru

LOL! Back in the day, I knew of too many people, including friends and relatives, who gambled and lost on purchasing a Vega. Nothing but trouble for most of them. My "attitude" is based upon real life experiences. To be perfectly honest, the notion of ever owning one seriously NEVER crossed my mind. I would still buy a Pinto. (Don't get excited; remember that this is all just personal opinion and personal preference.)

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

George, GM was allegedly the same way with the Corvair according to John Delorean, who writes this in his book. They had some sort of formula to determine if it was cheaper to pay off the victims (or their families) or have a recall. Sad if true.

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

IIRC, it was the same situation with the GM pickup side saddle gas tanks. Paying out lawsuit settlements was cheaper than redesigning a vehicle currently in production... then the next full model change would incorporate the improvements.

I believe that Ralph Nader's book started the movement, but there was still another decade or so to go until things started to improve safety wise. Or at least increased numbers of recalls. The safety issues continue to happen from time to time (like GM's ignition switch recall), but at least the companies are forced to issue a recall, and in some cases actually voluntarily issue a recall if they find a problem on their own.

As an aside in the Pinto/Vega discussion... I recall back in the late 1970s, my local stock car track had a mini-stock class for compact cars, like Datsuns, Toyotas, etc. There were a number of Pintos that competed in the class and did very well against their Japanese competition - their little 4 cylinder engines seemed to stand up to the beating put on them in the oval week after week. I don't recall one Vega ever competing in that class, though...

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Here's one for all the Vega fans here who are having trouble tolerating my posting of a Pinto! wink

At $10K, a Cosworth Vega is an upgrade from a standard garden variety Pinto for less money!

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/cape-breton/1975-cosworth-vega/1431807525?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

1975 Cosworth Vega

$10,000.00

Description

1975 Cosworth Vega #240. Original 4cly fuel injected, 4 spd standard with 3:73 posi rearend. Car is still in storage but will be out shortly. $10000 obo may be interested in trades.

$_59.JPG

Hopefully this helps to restore the balance in the Canadian Poncho community!

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

The 71 / 72 Pintos came standard with drum brakes with disks an option.

Standard engine was a Kent (England) 1600 pushrod 4, with a 2000 cc OHC Lima (Ohio) engine.

Only in 1971 (and perhaps 72 when optional bigger rear window was not spec'd) did the Runabout (hatchback) come with vertical trim strips on the hatch like a Pontiac Safari. I used to have a picture in my '71 brochure but it was robbed for a social studies project by my sister.

The Vega engine was designed by GM Corporate (not Chevrolet) and the block was designed to be throwaway. Few places outside of GM had the ability to properly re-align the silicon particles after a rebore. GM began issuing iron sleeves around '74 for rebuilders, and starting with the 1975 models they came new with cast iron cylinder liners. Hydraulic lifters waited until the 76s.

The Pontiac Astre was exclusively a Canadian Pontiac in 1973 / 74. The Mercury Bobcat was also an exclusively Canadian Mercury for 1974. After the Arab Oil Embargo the U.S. Automakers shifted their product focus, and those changes culminated with the 1975 model Astre & Bobcat being sold in the U.S. for the first time. It was also responsible for Buick buying back the V6 tooling they had sold to Kaiser-Jeep in the sixties.