Vintage Vega

[Baz]

I owned two - first one was a wagon....chick magnet!

[Steve Carlton]

Precursor to the Chevy Bolt.

[Bill Douglas]

Good ab's and hair Baz.

[HobieMarty]

Love the lightning bolt!!! I've got a genuine Lightning Bolt chain and still have the little bag it came in. The bag says "Lightning Bolt A Pure Source". By the way, we had a 1st Gen Vega GT when I was a kid.

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[flatbutt]

I had one just like that! Except mine had a cracked engine block.

[herr_oberst]

Vega wagons are just good looking cars. Bet you wish you still had it!

Edit - Barry, I know you're a happier guy than that, I guess you were just trying to be badass for those two cuties in the bikinis

Edit part deux - I cant help but seeing 'Vincent Vega' in the title. And the picture in the Little Known Facts thread is completing the Pulp Fiction theme.

[VINMAN]

Always liked Vegas.


My buddy Lou had the same color blue wagon, that we dropped a 396 with tunnel ram in. That car was bad azz!

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Precursor to the Chevy Bolt.

Ha - good one, Steve! More on the "Bolt" next post.....

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Good ab's and hair Baz.

Thanks, Bill. Long time ago, obviously. Hair today - gone tomorrow. I still have hair but nothing like the "good old days"! Working on the abs....always a work in progress so stay tuned....

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I had one just like that! Except mine had a cracked engine block.

Mine warped it's head, IIRC. Got repaired on GM's dime. Really cool cars except for the engine design...

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Vega wagons are just good looking cars. Bet you wish you still had it!
Edit - Barry, I know you're a happier guy than that, I guess you were just trying to be badass for those two cuties in the bikinis

Thanks, Herr Oberst - I've always loved wagons - I guess because they are so practical. But I also think they look great! I progressed to Volvos and never looked back, to be honest.

Guess the camera caught me in a moment of contemplation - I don't think I was unhappy per se....

Did you guys notice the Aloha Racks?

Originally Posted by VINMAN

Always liked Vegas.
My buddy Lou had the same color blue wagon, that we dropped a 396 with tunnel ram in. That car was bad azz!

Thanks, Vinny. I bet Lou's rig really hauled butt! Lot of people were doing that. Just like the 914's.....

[matthewb0051]

A Vega wagon, manual gear box and cool wheels, was to be my first car. However, when my folks split, my mother took the two better vehicles and sent my dad off with the Vega.

[JackDidley]

In 72 I bought a new 73 GT. Over 20 mpg !! That was good at the time. Only kept it 2 years. Sold it just before it started falling apart I think.

[oldE]

A buddy of mine had a Vega hatch. One day, on the way back from the city, he buried the needle on a long downhill stretch. Thinking back, two things come to mind:
1 We had a half dozed scuba tanks in the back ( and no, they weren't secured. This was the 70s)
2 The next day we had a blow out on the way to a job.

I'd rather be lucky than good.

Best
Les

[Baz]

Originally Posted by HobieMarty

Love the lightning bolt!!! I've got a genuine Lightning Bolt chain and still have the little bag it came in. The bag says "Lightning Bolt A Pure Source". By the way, we had a 1st Gen Vega GT when I was a kid.

Thanks for the post and Lightning Bolt content, Marty!

Many already know this but if not, the whole Lightning Bolt fad came about when a group of surfers on the North Shore of Hawaii started putting lightning bolts on the deck of their boards. It was more than that, of course. A certain board maker started doing it as his logo and it caught on - especially when the surfers riding those boards did so well on the global stage in the early days of professional surfing.

The surfer most associated with the brand is of course The Master, Gerry Lopez. Also known as Mr. Pipeline.

While in Hawaii, and together with other shapers, Lopez started the Lightning Bolt Surfboards brand of high performance shortboards. Lopez created the simple but eye catching Lightning Bolt jag, which became extremely popular in the 1970s. This brand was the first one to sponsor team riders with free boards, partially because many of the riders didn't have the money to buy them.

My buddies and I were just freaking teenagers who read every surf magazine when it came out and attended every surf flick when it came to town, so we just went crazy with the whole "bolt" thing and many of us starting having them put on our boards - even though they were made by local surfboard makers, not the one in Hawaii, but we didn't care - it was not only cool but heck it might have even made the boards go faster!

So that bolt painted on the back of my Vega is just an extension of all of this.

But we also wore the surfwear - all of it. OP, Quicksilver, Bolt, Stubbies, Rip Curl, Hang Ten, Katins, O'Neil, and a whole bunch of other brands.....and I still have some of them stashed away.

I still have a nice Bolt ski vest with removable sleeves, for example!

Check out these Quicksilver and Bolt cord shorts.....all size 36!

Also the board I took to Puerto Rico with the bolt. Gray with yellow deck and black bolt!

[pwd72s]

I also always liked Vegas...good lines. Maybe weird, but I liked Pintos as well, for the same reason. A shame that those who made both didn't spend the coin to develop either one properly.

[Baz]

Forgot to post a pic of Gerry Lopez. This is probably the most iconic pic of him taking off at Pipeline. So freaking smooth.....very cat-like on his board, in fact.

But check out the bolt......

[Scott Douglas]

My brother had a Vega panel wagon. He built a manifold to adapt a Corvair turbo charger to it. We got it running just before he was to go off to school in Texas. When it had the exhaust manifold glowing red hot on the initial startup he decided he didn't have time to deal with dialing it in so removed it and put it all back to stock. Drove that car throughout his college days at A&M and I think he even had it when he went to grad school at Berkeley.

[HobieMarty]

Originally Posted by Baz

Thanks for the post and Lightning Bolt content, Marty!

Many already know this but if not, the whole Lightning Bolt fad came about when a group of surfers on the North Shore of Hawaii started putting lightning bolts on the deck of their boards. It was more than that, of course. A certain board maker started doing it as his logo and it caught on - especially when the surfers riding those boards did so well on the global stage in the early days of professional surfing.

The surfer most associated with the brand is of course The Master, Gerry Lopez. Also known as Mr. Pipeline.



My buddies and I were just freaking teenagers who read every surf magazine when it came out and attended every surf flick when it came to town, so we just went crazy with the whole "bolt" thing and many of us starting having them put on our boards - even though they were made by local surfboard makers, not the one in Hawaii, but we didn't care - it was not only cool but heck it might have even made the boards go faster!

So that bolt painted on the back of my Vega is just an extension of all of this.

But we also wore the surfwear - all of it. OP, Quicksilver, Bolt, Stubbies, Rip Curl, Hang Ten, Katins, O'Neil, and a whole bunch of other brands.....and I still have some of them stashed away.

I still have a nice Bolt ski vest with removable sleeves, for example!

Check out these Quicksilver and Bolt cord shorts.....all size 36!

Also the board I took to Puerto Rico with the bolt. Gray with yellow deck and black bolt!

Wow, that is some really cool stuff fer sure dude!!!
I had a few Surfer magazines back in the day even though I was a Cat sailor. I carefully removed this Hang Ten ad from one of the magazines and I put it in a clear sleeve and had it hanging on my bedroom wall, yep, found it not long ago when I was going through a box of stuff. I always thought the Hang Ten ads were really cool. I wore mostly Hobie shirts all of the time, OP shirts and shorts and Sun Britches. Had a girlfriend that wore my Bolt chain and she would tell people she was the daughter of Zeus, glad I got it back from her when we broke up, lol.

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[Jeff Higgins]

Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins dominated NHRA Pro Stock with his Vegas in the early '70's. The NHRA got tired of the Hemis winning everything, so they introduced "weight breaks" by engine type. Hemi cars had to run seven pounds per cubic inch displacement, small block cars could run 6 1/2 pounds, everyone else (big block Chevs and Fords) were 6 3/4 pounds per cubic inch. It killed the Hemi cars. Grumpy ran a 331 inch small block, a slightly over bored 327. He was unbeatable.

[gchappel]

I had a 75 vega hatchback.
You could actually hear it rust. I think the tires even rusted.
gary

[Jeff Higgins]

My favorite feature was the unlined cylinders in an aluminum block. Not even plated cylinders or anything. Fortunately, two guys could lift the motor out without any kind of a hoist. We did that a lot on those cars.

[A930Rocket]

Cool pics, Baz!

During our senior year at high school, my buddy had a orange Vega. I still remember the first night we went out. We had gone to a sandwich shop and drank like fish. After we left, as we were going through an intersection, he locked up the brakes because he missed the turn and I drove into the back of him. The front of my bug was smushed and I had a hard time explaining to my parents I had no idea how it happened. 😂🙄😳

Edit. My parents must’ve thought I was an idiot.