Yes,
I realize it's nothing more than a Chevy Vega with swoopy styling, but
the Chevy Monza has long been a guilty pleasure of mine. Not only was
the Monza an awfully good-looking car by 1975-1980 standards, but it
made an excellent IMSA race car in the capable hands of Al Holbert.
Plus, since the Monza could be bought with an anemic small-block V-8,
it can easily be retrofitted with something a lot more potent.
The Monza debuted as a 98-pound weakling; even with the optional V-8, it was slower than the also-toothless
Ford Mustang II V-8.
I've abused other cars in this space for being slow, so it must be said
that the very first Monza, meant to be a sporty car in the Camaro vein,
was bog slow. Think slower--much slower--than 10 seconds to 60 slow.
Still,
by the end of its run in 1980, the Monza had evolved into a relatively
quick car by the standards of the time, topping out at more than 120
mph.
The
car pictured here,
in Spyder trim, has a 3.8-liter V-6 and was all original and with only
a handful of miles on the clock as of last year. Given how difficult it
is to find Monzas nowadays, and that they succumbed to rust nearly as
quickly as their Vega brethren, this is a remarkably rare car.
I regard the erstwhile owner of this Spyder, and the keeper of these photos, as
the online resource for Monzas. Check out
his site for all the information once could possibly digest on all things Monza.
--Chris H.
Tom Miller on September 18, 2008 at 02:03 PM
I am redoing a 1980 Monza Spyder.It has the 305,V-8.I have the stock exhaust manifolds now I need the rest of the exhaust.Any ideas?
Tom,Phila.
Bill on September 27, 2008 at 09:32 PM
Hey Tom. For help with your car, goto www.h-body.org. If the guys there can't help chances are that no-one can.
Clark on May 27, 2009 at 08:59 PM
I had a Blue 79 Spyder with all the decals and emblems. Sadly I blew the motor and sold it cheap to a friend back in 88. But I had a blast in that car!