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!
Aleks Ristic, Toronto on December 20, 2009 at 03:58 PM
Ah! Monza, Sunbird & Skyhawk have long been one of my all time favourite designs.
I even like the no-nonsense instument panel & steering wheel. Now, those flat skinny seats and half-finished console with the shifter in a lunchbox is a different matter ... but easily fixable if one had the cash for some aftermarket seats and custom plastic fabrication.
Yeah I duess you'd need to gut the pedestrian suspension and graft in something more approptiate from a later GM car. Maybe splice in some headlights from a 91 Lumina or a Grand Prix, a more contemporary looking airdam and a Porsche style wing. But it'd be sooo worth the time and effort!
Even in it's original form, I'd gladly drive on today just to offend liftback haters.
By the way the body style is closely related to GM's Opel Monza while the front end resembled Vauxhall Firenza, both of which had long runs in Europe.
Jim on March 20, 2010 at 02:13 PM
Clark,
On May 27,2009 you mentioned you had a blue 79 Spyder. I'm trying to restore my Dk Blue 79 spyder, but I can't find any pictures of Dark Blue Spyders with the original stripe package.Do you have any or do you remember the colors used in the stripes. The info Im finding says they should be black and flat black. This would be really hard to see.
Carroll on September 26, 2010 at 05:47 AM
Clark, I just ran across an original Chev Monza ad showing the dark blue Spyder. Don't know how to get it to you. No email address.