The trials and tribulations of the Chevrolet Vega are well known. GM wanted a small car to take on a new section of market and produced a very handsome vehicle with some major flaws. Pick your poison: rust issues, the engine’s very questionable life expectancy, and resale woes turned the Vega into a pariah of sorts. But make no mistake, at least the little H-body looked good, right? Maybe not in the public’s eye then, but time has a way of healing wounds. Now, if you see a Vega that isn’t a race car that looks good, it grows on you a bit, like a “what could have been” moment: if the little wonder car had just managed to stay together longer than a year or two, then maybe…
Well, maybe then someone at GM would’ve paid attention to Hot Rod jamming a small-block into the little car, removing one of the major issues with assembly-line vehicles, and would’ve taken up the cause instead of panicking and preparing the re-skin that was the Monza. Or, at least, someone somewhere did when they put together this yellow and black 1974. Claimed to be a twelve-year project, this thing is super-clean and at first glance, semi-original and neat! Nobody will buy that Pontiac Rally wheels were ever stock equipment for a four-lug car, but you could pass that off as a common upgrade. But if you open the door too far, or fire up the engine, the jig is up: this is a little screamer dressed as My First Car 1974. We dig it, what about you?
eBay Link: 1974 Chevrolet Vega GT
Well you’ve done it again – a Chevy that is amazing and I’d even drive it!
The Vega should have been sold in RHD form in Britain as it knocked the socks of the tame Vauxhall products we were stuck with in the 70s
The door hinges are welded at both ends! Light weight metal, non adjustable door hinges. Guess how we get the job done! (Key the Trabant video!) It was, as is the case with many GM products, good looking, and SRD made it legendary. But the car, also like most GM products, was a rolling POS. Questionable life expectancy? If you’re engine made 30,000 miles without the pistons running up and down the cylinders on their sides, you had a miracle motor! Still, there was the Cosworth Vega…but the rest of the car was still a rusting rattle can.
Even CHMG, it turns out, has a soft spot, lol. A little worrying though.
Nice looking car but neither the S10 axles, Saginaw trans or general structure are going to handle that power they claim to be making. That it took someone twelve years to do a few weeks work and include those type flaws is fine except for the silly amount of money they think it’s worth.
Geordie you might have enjoyed the era here when nice Vegas with shot motors could be picked up for pocket change. I had three of those, because of periodically wrecking them, with the Olds F85-Rover 3500. OK power and a far better driving car than with a small-block. At one point I had two cars, a ’70 383 Barracuda and the Vega, and let go of the Plymouth because the aluminum V8 Vega was the better car.
Loren-get a grip! Yer just bitchin\’ \’cause you can\’t afford it! Neither can I! But I still want it! Don\’t think a no brain teenager is gonna come up with 20K and rip out the driveline \’cause he thinks it\’s all that and a bag of chips! Vegas were crap back then, but a fun little car till they fell apart and got discarded.The execution is fantastic, and if ya got the green and the expertise instead of just the mouth, there are 12 bolt and Muncie clones littering the streets these days! Buy it, then put up or shut up! I\’d trade you my wife for it, if yer interested…
No, I didn’t develope Tourette’s syndrome… New tablet with keyboard that I can’t figger out!. The above offer still stands, however…
By the way, someone needs to do a welfare check on Geordie…
It looks nice and clean.