The Chevrolet Vega is garbage. It was a seriously awful car, besides its semi-handsome lines. It wasn’t an eyesore, but the reliability of the little Chevy Vega could likely cause the greatest mechanic of the time to walk away.
It was uninspiring to drive, too. It’s four-cylinder engine was lackluster and didn’t even like to play well with its overall trim curb weight. But, in 1975, something sort of special happened to this pile of garbage.
The 1975 Chevy Cosworth Vega took recycled some of the garbage, and placed a 2.0-liter DOHC Cosworth four-cylinder engine in under the hood. Mated to a four-speed manual gearbox, and done up with tweaked suspension bits and gold trim, it was a 1970s miracle for the Vega.
And this particular one has surfaced on eBay with only 24,000 miles with credentials to boot. The buyer states this 1975 Cosworth Vega was bestowed with a first place Autorama award. The price is a tad difficult to swallow, however. The seller is asking a lofty $22,900, much higher than what a Vega normally fetches.
However, this is not the average Vega, and it somehow didn’t rust to pieces after all of this years. Our heart would pony up for that price in a heartbeat. The auction has ended, but no word on whether this obscure piece of Vega history was scooped up. Check it out at the link here.
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“The Chevrolet Vega is garbage.” It was NOT! I had a 1975 Vega Kammback Wagon and it was almost perfect. In 1988 I sold it to a professional car racer who had crashed his Camaro. He took the Vega, swapped the engine, transmision and rear end from the Camaro into the Vega, and raced again. A friend who knew my Vega (it had a rear window wiper that I installed) saw it at the races and told me it won every time it ran.
That is how strong and well built it was! It was never junk!
BTW, I did see a yellow Cosworth Vega up close in the same shop that serviced my Vega Wagon. The engine is a real beauty with the twin overhead camshafts.
Don’t bother commenting against me. I will not read it.
We used to use these as beaters in the 80’s as they were cheap.
As my one neighbor said ones that they did everything wrong like burn oil and rust but they always start and would run. He junked his and someone bought from the junk yard and drove it 2 more years.
Our trick was to just take 2 liter bottles to school and when we changed oil in auto shop we would save the used oil. It worked as well as any,
The Cosworth was a neat car that never got to live up to what it could have been. Delorean had a good idea but GM just did not wan to play with him on it. He left and they killed the car.
The engine looked neat and it was the first FI car we could own in high school. It really was not much for power but at this time few cars were.
If I could buy one right I would not be afraid to add one to my collection. Not many mid 70’s cars you could say that about.
I had a 1974 Vega with the standard engine, it was a great car. Had one recall to put a better coolant monitor on it. Had it from 1974 to 1980. Only regret, it didn’t have A/C.
Pretty harsh words Here’s what the experts said yesterday and today.
Hemmings Classic Car March 2014, “Chevrolet did save the best for last in the form of the sublime Cosworth Vega, a sports car with an exotic double-overhead-cam, 16-valve, four cylinder engine; a suspension to match and sophistication decades ahead of most other cars.”
Hemmings Motor News July 2015, “Two million Vegas were built between 1971 and ’77, and if they’d started out with the power and build quality of this one, the Vega name would have been a legend rather than a punchline.”
Car and Driver January 1986, “Ten Best” issue included the ’76 Cosworth Vega in Ten Best Collectibles. C&D said, One of those noble efforts that giant automakers mount from time to time to break themselves out of the stultifying technological mainstream, this factory hot rod—like most—was a neat idea that didn’t work out.” “What the Vega did have was good basic handling and what the British-designed aluminum head offered was a crossflow design, twin overhead cams, and four valves per cylinder. You can get all that stuff in Toyotas now but until the Cosworth Vega was launched in the Spring of 1975, you pretty much had to buy a Ford for Indy or F1 to call it your own. We’re talking about historical significance here.”
Car and Driver July 1980, “History of 0-60” included the 1974 pre-production Cosworth Vega in its top 25 list with the quickest time of 1974, at 7.7 seconds. C&D said, “And then a remarkable thing happened as raw speed wound down and people started worrying about fuel economy for the first time. A little four-cylinder Vega set the pace in 1974 with help from across the pond in the form of a Cosworth sixteen-valve cylinder head.”
Car and Driver January 1974, “”The current test car’s 16.2 second elapsed time and 85.0 mph trap speed betters the early acceleration runs by 0.6 seconds and 2.3 mph. Response at 3500 rpm is strong enough to use fourth gear for passing…Around town you can ignore the gearbox and still do well. Pintos and Opels drop behind in an instant. Mazdas, V6 Capris and 240Zs are a little tougher, but fair game. And if you’re willing to stir the shifter, BMW 2002 tiis and Alfa GTVs are yours for the conquering. In fact, the only 4-passenger coupes faster than a Cosworth Vega have a Detroit V8 under the hood. ”
Road Test October 1976, “The Great Supercoupe Shootout” — Alfa vs. Mazda vs. Lancia vs. Saab vs. Cosworth Vega said: “The Chevrolet Cosworth Vega is the only American car worthy of the lot. It is more than just some little super coupe…the one thing with the Cosworth that sets it apart from the others is the engine. Stock it has 110 horsepower but it should be good for at least 200 and still be streetable.” “The results are in Figure 2. Read ’em and weep, all you foreign-is-better nuts, because right there at the top, and by a long way at that, is the Cosworth Vega. It had the fastest 0-60 time, the fastest quarter-mile time, and tied with the Saab for the shortest braking distance”. “Cosworth: The least body roll complemented the power-provoked oversteer…it is the most exclusive thing you can buy. Every single one of them has its own number stamped onto a brass dash plaque…and no Lancia Beta, or Alfetta, or even Ferrari can offer that.” “The Cosworth is American, and a collector’s item, and it came close, damn close to winning the whole thing.”
Super Chevy magazine included the 1975-’76 Cosworth Vega in their 2011 list of the “100 Most Significant Chevys Of All Time. “The ingredients were there–dual overhead cam EFI engine, a robust suspension and a decent power-to-weight ratio. It was the first Chevy with electronic fuel injection, a five-speed transmission, and aluminum wheels as standard.” “It had more modern technology in it than a Vette of the same vintage and proved there were still people at Chevy in the mid-’70s who cared about performance.”
Motor Trend Classic in the Spring 2013, “…the Cosworth ignites to a frenetic, course, 2000-rpm idle and requires a few more revs than usual to launch smoothly with the long-travel clutch.” “..the thin low-end torque does give way to reasonable power above 4000 rpm. The dogleg-first shift pattern takes practice to use smoothly but the shifter’s close gate and snickery-snick mechanical precision feel delightful.”The slow-ratio steering takes some getting used to, but the manual brakes actuate at the top of a reassuringly firm pedal. I can definitely sense some of the Vega’s raw, untamed nature that my predecessors described.” “Stylish and historically significant but ridiculously overpriced in its day and ultimately a bit unfinished, the ultimate Vega now represents a serious collector bargain.”