The Chevy Monza: From Mediocre to Championship-Winning
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The Monza was build with one goal to challenge the mustang II, which is wasn’t the greatest Mustang ever, infact many enthuasiasts still haven’t forgiven ford for launching it. Nonetheless the monza was General Motors Answer to the Mustang. But why was the Chevy Monza so negatively perceived in its road car form? I mean it was developed as a competitor to a sports car so it couldn’t be that bad. Well It was born during the mid-1970s in the height of the oil crisis when American automakers were exploring cost-effective production methods to maintain sales. And The Monza suffered from a trifecta of problems: from lackluster performance, to questionable build quality, and lazy engineering.
General Motors initially intended to equip the Monza with a Wankel rotary engine, but this project was canceled. Instead, the Monza received various underwhelming engines, including the Vega four-cylinder (later replaced by the Pontiac Iron Duke), Buick V-6, and a Chevy small-block V8. The optional 262-cubic-inch V8 with a two-barrel carburetor produced a meager 115 horsepower. Even the California version with a 350 engine managed just 125 horsepower. In a test by Road & Track, the 262 Monza crawled from 0-60 mph in 13.4 seconds, and its quarter-mile time was 18.5 seconds at 72.5 mph.Which is a lot of things but fast isn’t one.
And these relatively boring cars would be transformed into track eating monsters.
You see DeKon engineering, the most renowned builder of the H07 silhouette Monza GT race cars, build and sold modified Monza’s and their race build cars managed to secure IMSA GT championships in 1976, 1977, and 1978.
Now and DeKon received Monza’s as complete cars. Then DeKon then tore them down to reconstruct them according to specific customer needs. The DeKon Monza featured a tubular frame chassis, a weight of approximately 1,089 kg, and under the hood was a whole other beast, a fuel-injected V8 engine producing over 650HP. That weight, power and Their remarkable 50/50 weight distribution made them fast and highly competitive.
The engines used were heavily modified Chevrolet 5.7-6.0 L V8 small-blocks, typically naturally aspirated but some featuring four Weber downdraft carburetors. They could develop as much as 650HP. And anybody could by one. You see back then DeKon engineering didn’t just build a few of these in order to compete. He build them to sell them as well. And a brand new Dekon Monza would cost you about 38K USD back in the day. That value for money. Now a total of 17 or 18 chassis seem to be made by DeKon and today a restored version of one of these can fetch around 270K USD.
Despite these uninspiring road cars, DeKon managed to make the Monza's racing counterpart a work of art. In the annals of IMSA GT racing, the Chevy Monza stands as an improbable champion, showcasing that even the most unremarkable cars can achieve incredible feats when transformed for the track.
#IMSA #Monza #DeKon
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I owned a factory v8 car. A cam, big valve heads and a 4 barrel carb and intake made mine a muscle car. It was fun and fast!
Overbaugh Motor Sports.😊 Hoyt ,Dave,& Terry. Was luck enough to be able to hang out an learn something from them.😊
The Monza also did some amazing things in Pro Stock and Funny Car drag racing- it had a good shape
This car FORCED PORCHE TO RUN AWAY AND LOBBY FOR A SPECIAL CLASS LOL
From 1975 into the early 1980s, every new car sold in the USA was slow. The good news is that the small block chevy could easily be modified and make big power. the 350 2 barrel that made 125hp in 1975 could make double that with just basic mods
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! ATOTALLY AWSOME VIDEO AND A TOTALLY AWSOME RACE CAR!!!!
Always wanted one theyre just real rare where i live ive never seen one in person
I SEE OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITY!!!!! WITH TECHNOLOGY!!!!
YUP BUT NOW my 1979 Monza with its196 v6 is worth a lot of Money now
During the Chevrolet Corvair years, they produced a Corvair Monza and a Corvair Spyder.
Chevy later produced the Monza including a Monza Spyder version.
Did they run out of names? 😂
How in the name of Landrew did they get a 50/50 weight dist from a 1185 kG car with a front mounted 6L V8? That doesn't compoute even if the gear box was in the rear.
Monza and the other variants were based on the Vega platform. That's one reason they weren't taken seriously. The fact that they were designed to have V8's(even the Vega was designed for a V8) helped them to become useful. They were not made for competing against the Mustang II as that car was seen as a wimp, to begin with. They are still good cars to get ahold of if you find one. It was not produced as a muscle car either.
The Monza was not as horrible as the commentator tells us. I had several friends who had them and they were fun to drive. Get your facts straight Chris. You need to do more research than an auto magazine of the time
My old 1.2l VW polo from 2006 with 64 hp got a similar 0-60😂
error one a mustang isent a sports car error 2 the monza wasent a muscle car never ment to be one either its a compact car
Most US cars built during the 70s and 80s were not spectacular at all, lame ducks and build quality was crap.
The Mustang II was ugly af.