Chevrolet Monzas come in three flavors: drag car, road race car, and pretty much dead car. On the street, they might as well be extinct. Between a short five-year run, it’s place as a duplicate platform mate with the Vega (both shared the H-body platform) and the upcoming move to the J-car platform…yeah, you read that right, the Monza is the predecessor to the Chevrolet Cavalier…finding a Monza still running and driving that hasn’t been hacked up or hot rodded is right up there with finding a real-deal gold coin in your kid’s Happy Meal: ain’t gonna happen, Jack.
Or is it that impossible? Finding a Monza is like a needle in a haystack, but if you pat around in the hay for long enough, sooner or later you’ll prick your hand on the needle. We dug up a 1979 Monza hatchback out in North Carolina, still powered by a four-banger, still rocking the four-lug wheels, wearing some of the chalkiest-looking blue paint we’ve seen in a bit, selling at a price that has some potential. Don’t expect perfect when hunting for a budget car…the interior plastics are disintegrating, especially the door panels, and you’ve got a lot of work to do to make this Monza look less like a Mustang II and more like a road-going Pro Stocker, circa 1977. The 1979 nose clip is strange to see…we are used to the earlier version with twin rectangular headlights instead of the single circular versions and the open grille, but maybe it’d grow on us. 
Since it is currently LS Fest West, we’d have to look at a lightweight combination for this Monza to make it an instant hero on the street. Maybe the LS1 and six-speed from a wrecked late-model GTO? More power plus less weight always equals a good time for a driver!
Craigslist Link: 1979 Chevrolet Monza
Did GM actually get those tail lights from Ford?
Ha ha – swap in a Ford motor and see all those LS lovers break their teeth as they grind then in rage….
Smurfy!
Unfortunately that’s the ugly version of the Monza.