My late friend had a Yenko Vega that he bought new at the Yenko dealership. He couldn't keep a cam belt on it because the head had been milled and Yenko hadn't made the proper pulley change to allow for it. He parked it in his parent's back yard when it was only about 2 years old because he didn't trust driving it any longer. It was still there, melting into the ground, when he passed away about 10 years later.

About 10 years ago I bought a '73 Vega which had been "Yenko-ized with all the correct Yenko appearance parts. The man I got it from freely admitted it was a clone that he had built. I sold it a few years ago and of course the current owner is now claiming it to be a "rare, original Yenko Vega."

alphasud Wrote:
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> Right. From what the Hagerty article said they wanted Chevy to install the turbo but could not due to emissions durability testing. So they made the turbo kit available over the counter along with a carb and intake manifold kit.

GM had the same issue with the Cosworth engines - durability issues caused them to fail the emissions durability testing. By the time the issues were fixed the Cosworth was over a year late to market, expensive, and the Vega had a horrible reputation.

I still recall some GM exec. saying during an interview - "We did not set out to build a bad car" - to which I thought "However you succeeded wildly". A shame as they were fun cars to drive.

An internal story at GM took place when the Vega was a year old. A GM exec called a lot of GM people involved with the Vega to an auditorium and told everyone to look to their left and right. He then rolled back the curtain which hid a rusty Vega and said if the rust problem on the Vega wasn't fixed asap a lot of you won't be here anymore. I never got a Vega with the 215 OLds engine but I did get a Corvair with that engine Jim

I purchased a new 1971 Vega Gt hatchback with all factory options in the Fall of 1970 (the first GT sold in NY state). It was a very nice fun handling, slow accelerating, "loud" inside car that delivered 33+ mpg. I drove the car hard for 46,000 mi in two- years, trouble free (save for a buzzing in the shifter mechanism) that Chevrolet could never resolve. The Vega combined with my wife's '66 VW (38 mpg) got us nicely through the 1st gas crisis. When our 2nd child arrived in the Fall of '73 we traded for a new 1973 Gt Kammback wagon. What a disaster!! In 11 mos. We drove a "Dealer loaner" more than we did the Vega. They replaced the entire drive train, radiator, left front suspension, broken tailgate hinge, complete AC system, broken driver seat, etc, etc. This experience was rivaled only by my purchase of an all options new 68 Monza convertible which I purchased because of the rumored ceasing of production in the spring of '68.-- This story is for another time. By the way, during this time I purchased a 1965 Corsa convertible-140 4sp 41,00mi for $290. It was traded to the Chevy dealership because, while running, the interior would fill with smoke.

Jim Stukenborg Wrote:
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> An internal story at GM took place when the Vega was a year old. A GM exec called a lot of GM people involved with the Vega to an auditorium and told everyone to look to their left and right. He then rolled back the curtain which hid a rusty Vega and said if the rust problem on the Vega wasn't fixed asap a lot of you won't be here anymore. I never got a Vega with the 215 OLds engine but I did get a Corvair with that engine Jim

That's interesting. In 1972 I drove a new big Chevy station wagon company car. It had the new "no primer" single coat paint on it. Looked awful from new and flaked off after a couple months. The car started rusting within weeks of the first application of salt on the Winter roads. Even worse GM's penny pinchers deleted inner wheel well shields from the Vega design (remember the the cancellation of a front sway bar on the 60 Corvair to save money that launched Nader's career).

Interesting that there are more Corvairs around (as best I can tell) compared to early Vega cars.

Unless all the Vegas and Monzas are hiding somewhere there are at least 50x as many Corvairs around. I have 114 Corvairs and 2 Vegas so I guess it is 57x.

Joel
Northlake, TX
5 Ultravans, 114 Corvairs and counting...

Joel, how about changing your picture so that we can see some of your other Corvairs. Jim

Corvairs for Jim

Joel
Northlake, TX
5 Ultravans, 114 Corvairs and counting...




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2021 06:23PM by joelsplace.

Joel. thank you for the photos. I really like the blue one. Jim