Solstice Drivetrain: 1976 Cosworth Vega
In 1970 GM’s General Manager John Z. DeLorean directed his engineering staff the develop a high performance 4-cylinder engine for the compact Vega chassis. Within a few years a combination of GM’s alloy block and a Cosworth Engineering designed head was mounted into a Chevy Vega that cost nearly as much as new Corvette. The Cosworth Vega was hand built on a special assembly line in a limited run of 4000 machines (the original plan was 4000, but , but today’s example is missing the one piece that made the car special…does it still make the cut? Find this 1976 Cosworth Vega offered for $11,000 in Graham, NC via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
From the seller:
1976 Chevrolet Vega
cylinders: 4 cylinders
drive: rwd
fuel: gas
odometer: 8500
paint color: black
title status: clean
transmission: manual
type: hatchback
1976 Cosworth Vega. This is the rarest of the Vegas with less than 3500 built. This is Cosworth #3231. This is a rust free car with 8500 miles on the rebuild. Very nice all around car and very reliable. Drive train from a 2006 Pontiac Solstice (190 Horsepower), 5-speed manual transmission. 3.42:1 rear axle ratio. Front brakes from an Extreme S10. 5 lug wheels all around. Complete exhaust system Jet-Hot coated. New upholstery. Fun to drive. Reliable. All new…almost everything. Easily drives at 80 MPH on the interstate. Jump in and drive this anywhere.
See a better way to drive an oddball classic with a strange engine swap? tips@dailyturismo.com
Cool swap. Might as well throw a turbo on it as well.
Truly a compelling build. There's the tiniest Venn diagram overlap of Cosworth Vega fans looking for an Ecotec swap – and I'm almost one of them. No air conditioning however was the lack of overlap that prevents me from investigating further.
I'd be partial to this same swap in an early Vega, when it looked like a scaled-down 2nd gen Camaro. Ecotec 2.2s are super cheap, and they respond very well to turbocharging up to ~350hp. That would be a lightweight fun little thing.
[image src=" m-stil.covermagazin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/1971-Chevrolet-Vega.jpg"/]
Having built V-6 and V-8 Vegas this is a nice modern day swap.
Seems about $3K too much. Very nice build.
Agree on the nice build but… the Cosworth just does it for me. Even if only in name, it’s a grand name to associate with.