Little known facts about the Chevy Vega

[URY914]

Found this on another forum....

Until the early 1960s, automobiles moved by rail were carried in boxcars. These were 50 feet long with double-wide doors. Inside was room for four full-sized sedans on a two-tier rack - two raised up off the floor on a steel rack and two others tucked in underneath them. This protected the cars during transport but wasn’t very efficient, as the weight of four vehicles was far less than the maximum weight a boxcar that size could carry. When 85-foot and 89-foot flatcars came into service, it was possible to pack a total of fifteen automobiles in one car on tri-level auto racks. But it still didn’t approach the maximum allowable weight for each flatcar.


When Chevrolet started designing Vega during the late 1960s, one of the main objectives was to keep the cost of the car down around $2,000 in circa-1970 dollars. At the time, the freight charge for moving a loaded railroad car from the Lordstown, OH assembly plant to the Pacific coast -the longest distance cars produced at Lordstown would need to travel - was around $4,800. Since the Vega was a subcompact, it was possible to squeeze three more cars on a railroad car for a total of eighteen, instead of the usual fifteen. But that still worked out to around $300 per car – a substantial surcharge for a $2000 car.

If only Chevrolet could get more Vegas on a railroad car, the cost per unit of hauling them would go down. The engineers at GM and Southern Pacific Railroad came up with a clever solution. Instead of loading the cars horizontally, the Vegas were to be placed vertically on a specially designed auto-rack called the Vert-A-Pac. Within the same volume of an 89-foot flatcar, the Vert-A-Pac system could hold as many as 30 automobiles instead of 18.

Chevrolet's goal was to deliver Vegas topped with fluids and ready to drive to the dealership. In order to be able to travel nose-down without leaking fluids all over the railroad,Vega engineers had to design a special engine oil baffle to prevent oil from entering the No. 1 cylinder.

Batteries had filler caps located high up on the rear edge of the case to prevent acid spilling, the carburetor float bowl had a special tube that drained gasoline into the vapor canister during shipment, and the windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle. Plastic spacers were wedged in beside the powertrain to prevent damage to engine and transmission mounts. The wedges were removed when cars were unloaded.

The Vega was hugely popular when it was introduced in 1970, however it quickly earned a reputation for unreliability, rust and terrible engine durability. When the Vega was discontinuedin 1977, the Vert-A-Pac cars had to be retired as they were too specialized to be used with anything else. The Vert-A-Pac racks were scrapped, and the underlying flatcars went on to other uses.

[flatbutt]

Mine had a cracked engine block at 90,000 miles. Other than that and a gumby kind of frame, no brakes (well it had no power so it didn't need brakes) and a crap ride it was a good car.

[azasadny]

Thank you for this, very interesting!

[M.D. Holloway]

the engineering effort put forth was energy that should have been applied to a few of the other isues tht made that car a pig...blame that on management.

[Baz]

I owned two of them - a wagon and a coupe complete with vinyl roof!

Got a check for both of them from GM for early engine failure repairs.

PS - Thanks for the informative post, Paul!

[BeyGon]

The car you could hear rust on the show room floor.

[Por_sha911]

And if you didn't want a Vega, Ford would love to show you a Pinto. Now that car was the bomb!

[KevinP73]

Back in the early 80's I had a '76 Cosworth Vega. It was a hot little car when it ran but most of the time it didn't. Bad head gaskets and floating cylinder liners sucked.
It's one of those cars I wish I never got rid of.

[Steve Carlton]

Interesting trivia regarding the Vega, thanks! I remember GM was trying to be innovative and had made cylinder liners infused with silicon. Didn't work out, obviously.

I wonder what the best play was for a entry-level car around 1970? Maybe the Capri? How much more money was the Maverick, Mustang, and Camaro?

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

I wonder what the best play was for a entry-level car around 1970? Maybe the Capri? How much more money was the Maverick, Mustang, and Camaro?

Datsun 510.

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

I wonder what the best play was for a entry-level car around 1970?

Opel Manta got good press as a great handling car. 1900 sedan, too. Tough to beat on the track in Showroom Stock.

[cairns]

Thanks for posting that.

I bought a 73 second hand and loved it but it did have problems- leaking cylinder liners, rust around the cowling and even a beer can welded in the passenger door.

I bought it because a friend in Europe had one that ran well and whereever we went in Germany we heard "schone auto". I thought it was really good looking too- it took a lot of styling cues from the Fiat 124 coupe.

[johnsjmc]

Originally Posted by nostril cheese

datsun 510.

+1

[R K T]

It's been years and years since I've even seen a Vega on the road!!......or a Pinto.

[oldE]

Back in the day I drove Vegas owned by two friends. The first was an early "GT" with an automatic. "Full of noise and fury signifying nothing.." It handled well, but could barely get out of its own way.
The second was after the nose and rear suspension re-design. I couldn't detect any real improvement in the handling, but at least that car had a five speed.

It was in the latter car, my friend and I were returning from the city where he had a bunch of SCUBA tanks refilled (he and another friend had a contract job). The tanks were just lying under the hatch. On one of the last long downhill stretches of the highway, he "put the pedal to the metal" and held it there. The needle obligingly went past the last numbers and disappeared. Given some generous leeway for speedo optimism, I would guess we had held 100mph for about a 1/2 mile (remember this was downhill.)

Next day, on the way out to the job, one of the steel-belted rear tires came apart with a little drama, but Charlie got the car stopped and we unloaded all the tanks and gear to get at the spare and changed the tire. While we were loading everything back up, I couldn't help but think about our downhill dash the previous afternoon and wonder if that has been a factor in the tire failure and what the outcome would have been in a 'shunt' with five SCUBA tanks bouncing around inside the car with us!

If I recall correctly, there was also a tent option for the Vega/ Astra (Pontiac's version). An ad showed a couple camping in their clever rig beneath a cathedral in Paris. The caption was "The Hatchback of Notre Dame"

There were so many flaws in the execution of that car. Early attempts to lighten the vehicle, no effective corrosion prevention, a large hump in the passenger side floor for an exhaust component.

There was a GM design engineering exercise called the XP 898 which used a Vega drive train and a GRP/foam structure with hard points bonded in. It was a two seat targa, molded in two major pieces (upper and lower), then bonded together with foam injected to fill the cavities and give it a supporting core. The suspension, and drive train were bolted to the hard points and the interior.

Coulda-shoulda-woulda.
Les

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by R K T

It's been years and years since I've even seen a Vega on the road!!......or a Pinto.

Or an Opel Manta!

[legion]

Funny. As a child of the late 70's, most of these cars were already gone by the time I was born.

[VincentVega]

Same here, I dont think I've ever seen one on the road.

[Joe Bob]

Had friend that stuffed a 350 in one.....

[rouxroux]

Since we've got threads on both Vegas and Corvairs, here's a few pics of some old projects, the Vega had a SBC with a Hardy/Beck kit (took the factory fresh replacement engine and shoehorned it into a Sprite). The Corvair was mid-engine SBC with a Crown kit. And we were also talking about "parts" suppliers, both this Corvair and the Vega had a large assortment of parts from IECO and Interpart.