CRG Discussion Forum
Camaro Research Group Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: lakeholme on December 01, 2013, 01:23:54 AM
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I met Rick at the show today and saw his beautiful Yenko.
Steve, Rick does have his CRG shirt on, but it was still about 35 degrees with a stiff wind at 10 am this morning, so it is about his third layer at that point.
Anyway, I promised I'd post some pics...
And I saw something I'd never seen before... The bikes are his Huffy Camaros. You can't read it in the pics, but it does say "Camaro" on them...
Rick says they are low mileage, unrestored survivors! ;D
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I'm wondering if those bikes fit in his Yenko trunk?? :)
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Steve, Rick does have his CRG shirt on, but it was still about 35 degrees with a stiff wind at 10 am this morning, so it is about his third layer at that point.
Ahh, so he was CRG incognito. :D
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I'm wondering if those bikes fit in his Yenko trunk?? :)
Funny you ask, Gary! We told him he needed a chrome bike rack... ;)
Steve, LOL!!! ;D ;D ;D How about matching CRG toboggans and mittens?
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Those Huffy bikes do get lots of attention ! It was a very good show with great people and lots of cool cars from both sides of the street. Really enjoyed meeting Mr Cole and his wife..real car guys! I look foward to our next chance to visit! BTW Phillip I saw some things at the show I'd never seen before too! Thanks......Rick
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Good looking car Rick. Must be tough washing your car when its 35 or colder out.
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Yeah it's not something I look foward to doing!Thanks...
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Rick,
Are there any current pictures of (?)Dan's Motion Camaro?
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Phillip, I don't know Dan and I have no pics that will show very much on the 2 BM camaros I'm restoring.I will post some in the coming months. I'm close to putting paint on the Fathom green yenko camaro.
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Phillip, I don't know Dan and I have no pics that will show very much on the 2 BM camaros I'm restoring.I will post some in the coming months. I'm close to putting paint on the Fathom green yenko camaro.
Great! If you have trouble posting pictures, send them to me and I'll do it.
I'm sending you a PM.
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Is that Kevin Hand's old Gold Car?
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Cool sunglasses !
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I love Olympic Gold and white on the Yenkos, if it (gold white) were available without having to get the white Vtop it would look great on a Z or L78 as well!
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No this is not Kevin's old gold car....it was sold in Jan 2011 at Russo & Steele. This car was running in F A S T class when I traded for it in '09. It's a black plate car with all original sheetmetal.Only 4 of the gold Yenkos exist far as I know..2 with white stripes 2 with black.Kevin had one of each. I love the olympic gold and it's the original color too! Thanks
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If you look closer you'll see the rad support has the ac cond mounting rubbers still there plus holes in the top were the seal goes.It started out with a sb auto on column and ac. Terry Pennigton who's involved with FAST class racing cloned the car back in 90s.It was sold to Don Werner who had Terry build to spec a racecar with a ZL1 engine,special 400 turbo and several other racing goodies! Don went racing 5 times and quit. I traded him a 1972 Vega for it. Then I sold the engine,trans,rear ect parts and put back the 69 512 with a 69 M22 and Moser rear.It has no heater or radio but with the comp ZL-1 cam I've got the best music ever! Get's around 10 mpg unless you open up the 800 holley.....The best thing is most people think it's a real Yenko but I tell them it's more fun to own and I saved 250k.....
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That really is a refreshing color combo to what we see so much of the time. Cool car and story Rick......
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72 vega for that Camaro sounds like an awesome trade. Man if thats all it takes to own a nice 69 count me in!
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It's was a Gold Spinner winner in 06...so not your average 72 Vega! BTW in 05 I was offered a 69 x 33 and 72 BB Cheyenne short bed loaded with 45k actual miles...both restored for my 1 of a kind Vega! Guess you could say I really did and still do like the Vega. Thanks guys for the kind words!
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post a pic of the vega for us.(please)
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uhoh.. Bullitt is gonna switch his allegiance from Camaros to Vegas? :)
J/K... actually I'd like to see a pix of a 'not your average' vega as well.. :)
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Funny,
I have no allegiance to any one car or brand for that matter. I am more of a classic vehicle whore: Ford, Chevy, (Mopar in the works), Volkswagen, Harley Davidson, Triumph, BSA....and those have just been whats affordable. There are a few british makes, and italian cars on my (bucket list) to own still.
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All original 14 k mile car except exterior paint and experimental 4 banger...
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i always was under the impression that Chevy was doing 'temperature' experiments with all vega engines?? :)
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Smokey Yunick built this experimental turbo engine for chevrolet just for a research project..I had the work sheet he used...
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Here's another ultra rare Vega hardly ever seen!
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Having seen it up close, his Camaro shows well.
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Rick,
I've sent you a PM with a link to The Roaring Season about the Vega Vert-A-Pac.
Thought you might find it interesting.
Phillip
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Love that wagon my friend would have been perfect for haulin them bikes .
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Thanks but the wagon is to small for hauling much of anything other than"butt" It has a 4 cylinder with 390 cfm holley and a header hooked up to a opel 4 speed and a shifter that felt like a stick in a 5 gal bucket of mud when shifting it! The turbo vega would run circles around the Yenko! I still like my bikes better than a vega!
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The only vegas which ever got a second glance from me were the Cosworth Vegas of '77 or so, and well set up V8 Vegas at drag strips (of course, nothing about them other than the body was 'vega'). Talking about your sloppy vega shifter.... the Ford equivalent of the Vega was the Pinto. During the late '70's gas crunch, my car pooling buddy bought a cheap pinto to drive to work.. one day he shifted and the entire shifter handle came off in it hands.. he was holding it up wondering what to do for the next gear.. ;D
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I want a pair of those cooool sunglassssesss! Walmart?
Stuck in the 70's
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A friend of mine back in the day had a wagon with the olds 215 aluminum v8. Not a rocket, but mostly Vega and had some go to it. Conversion kits were available at local speed shops, and the 215s were about $100. at the local scrap yard.
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Richard you might check at dollar general..........Cosworth vegas were made only two years 75-76..All 2062 1975 models were black and the 1446 1976 ones were offered in other colors! These were the first passanger cars to use EFI best I remember.They had some really good hi per parts and run very well able to turn high RPMs. They are very affordable today but when new just a few dollars less than a vette..
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I just got rid of a 1200 mile Cosworth Vega to a friend of mine a week ago. Here it is leaving. Still had the window sticker on the 1/4 glass
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what does a car like that go for (roughly)?
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More than the 5900.00 it sold for new I'm guessing?
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Hagerty lists a #1 car at $13700 for a 75 and $14100 for 76.
Rick, with the difficulty of finding parts, am I right that there is little profit in those numbers?
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Those were fun cars - I was the Cosworth-Vega Launch Manager at Lordstown and the Final Assembly Production Superintendent in 1975; wrote a series of articles on the car's development and launch about ten years ago for the Cosworth-Vega Owner's Association magazine. :)
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I was in the Boy Scouts back in '75, I can still remember our group touring the Lordstown plant as seeing those black Cosworths rolling down the line. My buddy in high school dropped a SBC into his Vega, that thing would fly.
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Those were fun cars - I was the Cosworth-Vega Launch Manager at Lordstown and the Final Assembly Production Superintendent in 1975; wrote a series of articles on the car's development and launch about ten years ago for the Cosworth-Vega Owner's Association magazine. :)
John, is there any place we could see those articles now?
Motor Trend Car of the Year in 1971... As I recall, the Vega got the same "bad press" in the seventies that the Corvair got in the sixties.
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I'd say no profit in those numbers if you restore it yourself but just buying one and riding/enjoying it for awhile could be profitable unless you give #1 money for a #3 car! A buddy of mine had a 50 mile 1975 model he sold for 13,500 in 2005 when they were up.Even cool and rare as they are it's a tricky investment car... The Yenko wagon sold in 09 for 85k.I had my 72 Yunick turbo engine car appraised in 07 and the appraisers worked on it a long time but came up with 100k. I was lucky to trade it for a 69 camaro IMHO.
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<<John, is there any place we could see those articles now?>>
Yup - some samples are attached below. :)
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Thanks John!
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Real interesting stuff to read about..Thanks John for the vega education!
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And if you actually read to the end of the "bad press" the corvair got, I think it was in the last paragraph or so of the corvair segment of Unsafe At Any Speed by Ralph Nader, he concluded that with the improvements made during production the corvair at that was the best handling, performing car in it's class or price range anywhere. Some of the turbo versions were incredible.
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And if you actually read to the end of the "bad press" the corvair got, I think it was in the last paragraph or so of the corvair segment of Unsafe At Any Speed by Ralph Nader, he concluded that with the improvements made during production the corvair at that was the best handling, performing car in it's class or price range anywhere. Some of the turbo versions were incredible.
Yep! But Nader, et. al., went after the Vega in the 70s, as well... ::)
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sure did, and in the states that salt in winter, the vega didn't last long. Most I remember were rusted through the front fenders within a few years off the lot.
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.. and in the HOT states, as soon as the engine overheated one time, the engine *warped*.....
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.. and in the HOT states, as soon as the engine overheated one time, the engine *warped*.....
Actually, it didn't "warp" - what happened was that due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the iron cylinder head and the aluminum block, when it overheated, it micro-sheared the head gasket seal between the block and head. That made it more likely to overheat the next time, and it went downhill from there, with coolant dribbling out of the overflow hose on the ground. A larger radiator and a coolant recovery system cured that problem in 1973, but by that time the engine's reputation was toast. Had Ed Cole allowed Chevrolet to proceed with their own design "L-10" aluminum cylinder head, this problem would never have occurred.
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John,
Interesting to hear you say that about the Chevy L-10 design, since you were there.
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Thanks for clarifying the issue with the Vega engine heating issue, JohnZ... I *may* have heard that before in the latter days, but I heard so many others who owned those cars say the 'block warped'... I never owned one or worked on one myself. (My memory is OLD too) *G*
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John,
Can you post your other article, Vega Development and Production History, 1968-1975?
Thanks!
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Never thought I'd be mentioning this, especially on this site, but among the artifacts in my shop is my 76 Pontiac Astre. Long story, but a good one. A gift from my long time, but now deceased friend C. Koch, father of Jim Koch, as in Boston Beer Co. {Sam Adams}.
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<< John,
Can you post your other article, Vega Development and Production History, 1968-1975?
Thanks! >>
Sure - got lots of this stuff. :)
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Love this stuff! Thanks, John.
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I really do enjoy this stuff. Esp how they were - let's make something totally new. And cheap!
Then kept adding complexity because the customer didn't want cheap.
They really didn't understand the real competition and quality.
Then they repeated the whole thing again with Saturn - let's make something totally new!