THE MONZA STORY

I got my Monza in 1979 ( my first car ). I knew I wanted some kind of H-body (actually was thinking Vega panel wagon with V8 'cause a friend of mine had one that was killer!).

The first day Pop and I went out looking for a car, we were driving by a Ford dealer and I saw a red 'Za hatchback with aftermarket mags (Vectors) on it so we pulled in to take a look. It was a '75 with 15000 or so miles on it, 4-banger, 5-speed, no AC, trashed interior, hatch had been pried open, they wanted $2500.00...

I drove it (Yawn...) and when we were pulling back in the lot I kinda looked down the row and saw the front end of another Monza way down at the other end of the lot. I asked the salesman "what about that one?" and he seemed surprised, like he didn't know it was there (I had asked specifically if they had Monzas or Vegas, etc).

We walked down there and there was this straight little '76 silver hatchback with a Firethorn interior, 4-speed, Air, good tires (they had lotsa tread that is, turned out to be Firestone 500's, can you say "cap-ply separation lawsuit"?). The sales guy was standing at the back of the car, and talking about how this car would probably not get as good gas mileage as the other one (Duh...) 'cause it had a six...

I hadn't noticed the fender emblems, and while he was droning on I lifted the hood and saw 8 plug wires (damn near fainted). Pop gives me this "I don't know about this" look 'cause he knew what he was looking at too. I dropped the hood before the sales guy saw the V8 (hell, if he wanted to think it was a six, let him) and said "I don't know much about engines (lying like a BIG dog!) but it looks clean, let's drive it!"

The hardest thing was feathering it through the test drive and then keeping a straight face while we argued them down a few hundred dollars just on principle (it had 30,000 mi on it). Wound up getting it for the same price they wanted for the other car!

I drove it for years with just the usual minor tweaks (like Hijackers on the back with one coil cut out of the springs to be dead-on stock ride height), and when it had 100,000 mi on it and started burning oil I decided to rebuild the 262.5 (I had my Camaro by then, so I decided to drive it for a while).

I had it bored .030" over on all 8, new pistons, Clevite bearings, .010"/.010" on the crank, Double-roller timing chain, Crane 350 HP 327 cam, Holley "Z-series" manifold, Melling HV pump, Holley 0-1850 (600cfm), Hooker Monza headers. Really woke that little engine up!

It's got a Saginaw in it that was built by a guy I knew that ran a Vega Pro-Stock car, Hurst shifter w/ Short stick.

After another 100,000 it started burning a little oil again. I had been driving by this trashed '75 Camaro every day on the way back and forth to work and finally stopped to see if there were any parts on it I could use on my Camaro. Turned out to have a running 350 in it, Chrome Moroso goodies, etc...

I bought the Camaro and a friend of mine and I parted it out. I wound up with the engine and a ton of other goodies AND made money on the deal...

The 350 in the Monza (for 7000 miles now) is built to about the same spec. as the 262.5 was, except it has 2.02" intake valve heads (the venerable "Double-hump" heads), a dual plane, and one of the Holley "top-loader" carbs. It's got true duals off the headers, a pair of Cats, and a pair of 3-chamber Flowmasters... It's on it's 3rd A6 compressor, but the AC still works...

It also blows better smog numbers than it did when it was new. So THERE!

(BTW, years ago I bought the torque arm for the 5-speed car, and have a BW 5-speed from a '78 Olds Omega, all I have to do is assemble it...). I've rebuilt the front suspension with Moog parts twice and the rear suspension once).

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