I'm glad I'm not the only sick puppy that knows way too much about these
cars. Just for grins and statistics, here are some of the cars I've owned
that usually wind up in the Lemon Cars hall of fame, and price paid at time
of purchase *indicates running and drivable car at time of purchase.
1969 Midget $925* in 1984, still lives on if in vin alone as I rebodied with
the 74 I still drive today.
1972 Vega-Free in 1986, replaced head gasket and sold in one month for $300
1973 Pinto-$225* in 1984, had bent frame, drove for 4 months and sold for
$400
1974 Midget $200 in 1990, saved from an aborted V8 conversion. This is my
current baby
1977 Midget $300 in 2001, this is my current project. almost done and will
be for sale shortly.
1979 MGB $300* in 1991. Replaced missing smog equipment and drove for a
year. sold for $2300
1979 Midget $100 in 1987. Rebuilt engine and sold in 1990 for $3000
1979 Midget $300 in 2000. Replaced carburetor and sold in 2001 for $3000
1979 Chevette Free* in 1987. Drove for two years and sold with slipping
transmission for $300
1980 Chevette $75*in 1989. Replaced clutch and drove for 6 months. sold
for $750
198? Pontiac Safari Wagon Diesel* Actually was a company car. what a dog.
I wound up totaling it.
1985 Renault Alliance* (bought new) $9800 Sold when one year old with 33k
on clock for high book of $7300
----- Original Message -----
From <conan at ralvm8.vnet.ibm.com>
To: <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 10:31 AM
Subject: re: Lug nuts (way long)
> The Monza (Spyder?) was eventually available with a small
> (less than 300cid) V8. IMSA allowed them in an "All American GT"
> class and they pretty much cleaned up for a while. :-)
> Pontiac Astre (Vega knockoff) ended up with a 2.5 litre version
> of the -early- Nova 4-cyl called the "Iron Duke". I believe this
> was the engine Steve was referring to as the 4-cyl that could be
> built up with v8 parts because it was originally designed as half
> of a small-block v8. (Still a pushrod engine.)
> The actual Vega 4-cyl was a new design using an aluminum block
> with an iron head WITHOUT iron cylinder liners, similar to what
> Porsche was doing at the time. Problem was that while Porsche
> compensated for the lack of iron cylinder liners with specially
> treated cylinder bores (I forgot the treatment..), Chevy unfortu-
> nately cheaped out and did not. The Vega cylinders ended up being
> VERY susceptible to wear, scratches and overheating. It ended up
> being a race between the engine and the body (rust) as to which
> would kill a nice looking car fastest. :-(
> Interestingly, the Pinto was actually the better car (IMHO), but
> was not nearly as stylish (Vega looked a LOT like a baby Camaro)
> so was not as popular with the younger buyers. The original Pinto
> 1600cc engine was straight out of the British Ford Cortina (way
> underpowered for something as heavy as the Pinto). The 2000 was
> an excellent German ohc design. The 2300 was a US design copied
> from the German 2000. (Actually I'm not sure if the 2000 was
> -designed- in Germany, may be British, but the engines we got were
> imported from Germany.) The (really sweet shifting) Pinto 4-spd
> transmissions were, I'm pretty sure, a British design. Possibly
> by the same person/team who did the Ford 5-spds used in British
> Spridget conversions. Nicer shifting than the Datsun units we use
> in the US. ;-)
> Whoof...
> The Cosworth Vega used a Cosworth twin-cam head with fuel injection
> on the Vega aluminum block. It was tuned kinda slow. I 'understand'
> that a pair of Weber carbs, headers and good cams would -really- wake
> it up. I do not know if there were any chassis upgrades over the
> Vega GT, but tend to think there were slightly stiffer suspension
> specs; nothing major. Car&Driver (or Rallye?) magazine bought one as
> a project car to turn into a Pro-Rallye car but it disappeared quickly
> and I have no idea how it did.
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