30 Jul
2001
30 Jul
'01
8:13 a.m.
On Mon, 30 Jul 2001, Hans Franke wrote:
Yeah, I saw *six* Chevy Vega models this weekend... at least, I think
*one* of them was a Cosworth...
-dq
Well, acording to other sources you may
substitute any
American car brand (at least during the 70s and 80s) and
you still get the joke goin'.
Hans, have you ever driven or ridden in a comfortable large American
car from the early to mid 1970's, and seen how solidly it was
constructed, and how it had features missing from today's newer cars?
Back then, one could even choose from a very wide, by today's
standards, variety of carpet styles/textures and colors as well as the
types of seat coverings, styles of seats, etc. 
30 Jul
30 Jul
8:39 a.m.
Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
Yeah, I saw *six* Chevy Vega models this weekend... at
least, I think
*one* of them was a Cosworth...
Wow. the last time I saw a Cosworth Vega was in 1980. It was a
surprising car -- almost as surprising as the Vega I encountered
that someone had wedged a 350 into -- a car which, thanks to the Vega's
corrosion problems, folded in half one day when the owner put her foot
in it coming off the line one afternoon...
--
Chris Kennedy
chris(a)mainecoon.com
http://www.mainecoon.com
PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97
8:55 a.m.
I always wanted a Cosworth. There was one still on the showroom of
Edwards Chevrolet in Whitewright Texas in 1984. The dealership owner
was a old man that kept a lot of one off vehicles, like a 1974 'vette
convertible on the showroom floor and wouldn't sell them for a million.
He just didn't need the money. About 1987 or 88 he died and his son
took all of the cool cars away.
Also OT, I owned a V8 Vega in the late '70's . Put a 302 Chevy out of a
z28 in it. It made one haul ass car. Sold it to my ex-nephew who sold
it for drugs. :-(
Chris Kennedy wrote:
Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
Yeah, I saw *six* Chevy Vega models this
weekend... at least, I think
*one* of them was a Cosworth...
Wow. the last time I saw a Cosworth Vega was in 1980. It was a
surprising car -- almost as surprising as the Vega I encountered
that someone had wedged a 350 into -- a car which, thanks to the Vega's
corrosion problems, folded in half one day when the owner put her foot
in it coming off the line one afternoon...
--
Chris Kennedy
chris(a)mainecoon.com
http://www.mainecoon.com
PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97 
9:15 a.m.
The only Cosworth I ever saw was just a "built" engine sitting in a speed
shop when I lived in Illinois back in the mid 80's. They eventually put the
engine into a Pinto body (fiberglass, not really a Pinto) and it really
hauled ass. Made a lot of 8 cylinder cars look bad.
-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
-> [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Chris Kennedy
-> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 3:39 PM
-> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
-> Subject: RE: Cheap cars (was: 1%...)
->
->
-> Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
->
-> > Yeah, I saw *six* Chevy Vega models this weekend... at least, I think
-> > *one* of them was a Cosworth...
->
-> Wow. the last time I saw a Cosworth Vega was in 1980. It was a
-> surprising car -- almost as surprising as the Vega I encountered
-> that someone had wedged a 350 into -- a car which, thanks to the Vega's
-> corrosion problems, folded in half one day when the owner put her foot
-> in it coming off the line one afternoon...
->
-> --
-> Chris Kennedy
-> chris(a)mainecoon.com
-> http://www.mainecoon.com
-> PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97
10:39 a.m.
The only Cosworth I ever saw was just a
"built" engine sitting in a speed
shop when I lived in Illinois back in the mid 80's. They eventually put the
engine into a Pinto body (fiberglass, not really a Pinto) and it really
hauled ass. Made a lot of 8 cylinder cars look bad.
If I remember correctly, in race ready trim, the Cosworth
engine based on the aluminum Vega engine was good for roughly 300hp.
I forget what the civilized production version in the Cosworth Vega
put out. Around 1980 or so I had one of the automotive magazines
with a big write up on what Cosworth did to it. Pretty interesting
stuff. Based on the Vega's tendancy to self destruct, I'd saw few
were manufctured and far fewer actually remain.
Jeff
--
Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems:
Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
1:55 p.m.
stuff. Based on the Vega's tendancy to self
destruct, I'd saw few
were manufctured and far fewer actually remain.
The Vega was a misguided experiment in building a car that was intended to
last exactly as long as people "normally" kept them. It was a lot like
the PCJr in terms of providing exactly what people asked for, and ignoring
what they really wanted.
It lasted 50K +/- 5K miles beautifully. Then it wore through the coating
of the cylinder walls, and in the space of another few feet of driving,
the pistons ate the aluminum block.
It was very rare to ever encounter one with serious (worse than timing
belt) problems below 50K miles, and even rarer to ever encounter one with
more than 60K miles.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
2:34 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 11:25 AM
Subject: RE: Cheap cars (was: 1%...)
The Vega was a misguided experiment in building a car
that was
intended to
last exactly as long as people "normally"
kept them
<snip>
It lasted 50K +/- 5K miles beautifully. Then it wore
through the
coating
of the cylinder walls, and in the space of another few
feet of
driving,
the pistons ate the aluminum block.
Boggle!
I never bought a car with less than several hundred thousand MILES on it
in my life..
My Volvo has around 400,000km on the clock, but the odometer quit before
I got it.
The Renault has around 750,000km second time around.
Cheers
Geoff in Oz
4:48 p.m.
The Vega was a misguided experiment in building a car
that was
intended to last exactly as long as people "normally" kept them <snip>
It lasted 50K +/- 5K miles beautifully. Then it wore through the
coating of the cylinder walls, and in the space of another few feet of
driving, the pistons ate the aluminum block.
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Geoff Roberts wrote:
Boggle!
I never bought a car with less than several hundred thousand MILES on it
in my life..
My Volvo has around 400,000km on the clock, but the odometer quit before
I got it.
The Renault has around 750,000km second time around.
It sure wasn't intended for us!
They had numbers that told them that people "normally" kept a new car for
50K. So, they designed the car to be reliable for exactly that
long. Kinda like Canon downgrading the CX laser printer cartridge
drum size when they came out with the SX. Except that Canon got away with
that.
GM saved a lot of money by making an aluminum block with a friction
reducing coating (Teflon??). It worked well for a limited time. They
didn't count on second owners with wornout 80K cars getting irate and
telling the world.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
10:23 a.m.
Yeah, I saw *six* Chevy Vega models this weekend... at
least, I think
*one* of them was a Cosworth...
Gee, where were you, Lost Vega's? <seems funny to me anyway>
BTW this Porsche etc. thread could wander for days, but I will just toss in
one last bit. If you love good engineering, appreciate quality and detail,
it is very hard not to admire Porsche. If you enjoy the experience of
driving a car close to its limits, then nothing seems to get under your
skin like a Porsche, except for a purpose built track car.
8320
days inactive
8320
days old
8 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
chris＠mainecoon.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com -
geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au -
jhellige＠earthlink.net -
jrice＠texoma.net -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
rhblake＠bigfoot.com