Street-Legal Road Racer - 1977 Monza

Street-Legal Road Racer - 1977 Monza
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Feature Article from Hemmings Muscle Machines

January, 2005 - Daniel Strohl

You can tell automotive journalists in the late 1970s despaired over the massive changes that had interrupted their idyllic outlook earlier that decade. Either that, or they were inhaling a little too much of what lingered in the air after the never-say-die Grateful Dead concerts that plagued the country.

More than once, articles discussing the GM H-bodies hailed the 2+2 hatchbacks using superlative terms usually reserved for groundbreaking, time-tested designs and innovations. Car and Driver's Don Sherman, in July 1979, called the 2+2 "one of the slickest shapes GM has ever sculpted," while Road Test, in January 1977, declared the Monza "the best-looking American car to come down the pike in a long, long time."

Which is not to say the H-bodies didn't deserve any praise. Rather, in a decade that glorified opera windows, landau tops and quad rectangular headlamps (not to mention glamrock, rhinestones and Dallas-sized hair), any car that made any effort to break away from the cardboard-box styling of that era deserved a double take. One that drew comparisons to the Ferrari GTC/4, as the Monza did-with its ultra-low hoodline and wedge-shaped rear window-would be sure to stand out from the crowd.

With what could only be described as a debacle on its hands with the Vega, Chevrolet still needed an answer to the foreign subcompacts and the 1974 Mustang II, which were making the best of the 1973 gas crisis, but one that didn't come with such a rusty reputation. Top brass secured licensing fees from Wankel (at a cost of about $50 million) to allow its engineers and designers to whip up a 206-cu.in. rotary-powered replacement but, in a story similar to the AMC Pacer's development, decided at the last minute to nix the engine, but keep the car.

That car rode on the Vega's 94-inch wheelbase and unibody rear-wheel-drive chassis-it even continued to use the Vega's aluminum-block/iron-head 140-cu.in. four-cylinder engine as a base hamster wheel-but it employed a larger body, about four inches longer than the Vega's, which allowed Chevrolet to start fitting 262-cu.in. small-block V-8 engines, following the path drag racers blazed shortly after the Vega's 1971 introduction.

The new car, the Monza, hit showrooms in 1975 in three different models: A mid-year-introduced notchback coupe and two hatchbacks, the S and the 2+2, yet another element GM nabbed from the Ferrari stable. Interestingly, Chevrolet continued to sell the Vega alongside the Monza through 1977.

But next to the hatchbacks that debuted to the press in July 1974, Chevrolet slipped in a full-bore, flared-fender Race Car (capitals intended) that was-according to Burt Levy's April 1994 account in Road and Track-made possible only through the efforts of Vince Piggins, who led Chevrolet's Product Promotion Engineering Department. The car was interesting enough to convince John Bishop of the International Motor Sports Association to initiate an entirely new racing class to allow "silhouette" construction techniques, in which the profile of the car stayed relatively the same, but covered a purpose-built, tube-frame chassis.

Chevrolet decided its new Monza would compete well in the new All-American GT class, part of the Camel GT racing series, against the Porsches and BMWs that dominated the other IMSA classes. However, Chevrolet didn't actually race the cars itself, rather designed and produced the fiberglass fenders and other body panels for independent racing outfits to install on their own chassis.

The racers who entered AA/GT made something wicked with their new little Monzas. Specifically, Dekon Engineering, of Libertyville, Illinois, made a splash with Dekon No. 1001 at the car's first race at Road Atlanta on April 10, 1975, when driver Horst Kwech made a strong getaway from the field and held it until a crash sidelined the car. The rest of the season proved equally unfortunate, with engine problems and other ailments keeping the car off the track.

The Dekon cars impressed IMSA drivers Al Holbert and Mike Keyser enough to persuade them to switch from Porsche to Monza for the majority of the 1976 season. Seven out of 15 races that year went to Dekon cars, and Holbert won his first-ever professional championship that year in the Monza. Over the next six years, Dekon made between 11 and 14 tube-frame Monzas for various IMSA racing teams.

But it was the red, white and blue Dekon cars, specifically the No. 1 car campaigned by Keyser, which made an impact on the public. Think about it-American cars racing against domineering foreign cars on American soil during the American bicentennial year, and then actually winning. Throw a few Commies in there and you'd have a story to rival that of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Seeing an exploitable opportunity similar to their Spirit of America series of cars in 1974, Chevrolet decided to capture that sensation by offering a street version of the IMSA Monzas. The idea originated with Grand Rapids, Michigan-based BORT (British Overseas Racing Team), an assemblage of former Ford and Chrysler design staffers who had made their mark by designing the Cobra II for Ford. Chevrolet took the design-a combination of somewhat subdued fender flares, chin and rear spoilers, and red and blue stripes-and marketed it as the Mirage for the 1977 model year.

Again, Chevrolet didn't do all the work itself. In fact, the BORT design went straight to Michigan Automotive Techniques Corp. in Grand Rapids, a marketing firm which received the task of transforming fresh Monzas from the Ste. Therese, Quebec, factory into Mirages. Though early prototypes wore bolted-on fiberglass body panels, production Mirages used riveted reaction-injected molded plastic, which was designed to flex, rather than crack, on impact.

Customers could initially buy the Mirage only in white, with the red and blue vinyl stripes. Chevrolet apparently planned to offer three other colors-silver with Firethorn (red) stripes, black with gold stripes and light red with gold stripes-for the late 1977 and 1978 Mirages, but production of the Mirages lasted only through the 1977 model year, and only a handful of Mirages escaped without the ivory hue. Chevrolet planned to sell between 8,000 and 12,000 Mirages in 1977, but Rob Patton, who runs the Monza Mirage Registry and www.monzamirage.com, said he believes Chevrolet actually produced somewhere around 2,400 Mirages.

"But since they are so rare and most of the cars, generally speaking, have been turned into racecars, or have been crushed, it's hard to guess," Patton said. "Bottom line is that I'm really not aware of anyone who really knows and is able to back it up with documentation to prove it."

Mirage enthusiasts have several theories, including poor marketing and bicentennial burnout. We haven't unearthed many narratives of the Mirage's fate, though the Dekons and other IMSA Monzas continued their winning ways in 1977, before being relegated to also-ran status in seasons after.

Though some Mirages could be had straight off the showroom floor, most customers had to special-order theirs by asking for RPO ZX1. The package, which cost between $100 and $200, was available with both the three-speed automatic or the four-speed manual.

According to documentation from MAT, several options were recommended but not mandatory, "to maximize the distinctive visual appearance and ride characteristics of the package and the car." Those options included such mundane add-ons as the sport mirrors and the sport steering wheel, but oddly enough, RPO ZX1 didn't mandate either the F41 sport suspension or the LG3 two-barrel, 305-cu.in. V-8 engine. The only options MAT made strict rules against were the ones that would have interfered with the Mirage package, including the Spyder equipment and appearance package. A few documented four-cylinder examples have been spotted in the wild, Patton said.

The factory body kit lends the car a meaner appearance, something a stock Monza could've used to begin with. Inherited from the Vega, the Monza had a top-heavy appearance with such solid, uninterrupted sides. The new roofline, with its bland slope to the hatchback and thick B-pillar, didn't help much. GM stylists couldn't do enough to bring that bulk down closer to the road until the Mirage came along, visually lengthening the body with those low stripes that ran from the front marker lamps back along the sides of the car and from the blacked-out headlamp pods back along the hood, roof and hatch. The rear spoiler, which ties into the rear fender flares, breaks up that long, gradually descending line from the roof to the triangular taillamps.

About the only lines that don't really work on the Mirage concern the wheels and tires. Why Chevrolet decided to stick with 70-series 13-inch beans is beyond us. The IMSA racers looked tough, with wide radials filling the blistered wheelwells; these donuts make the car look like an NHL goalie wearing figure skates.

Climb into the car, though, and everything fits a six-foot frame with the seat adjusted all the way back. It's surprisingly adequate inside-the pedals hang exactly where you want your feet, with just enough room on the left of the clutch to rest your foot. The bucket seat conforms to your behind with more comfort than even the muscle cars of a decade before. The roof hovers just inches above your head, and the steering wheel seems awfully close, with the dash shortly after, so you know this car isn't quite for everybody.

Our feature car, owned by Ron Lee, of Canton, Ohio, shows just 18,000 miles-not bad for a car that qualifies for historic plates. Tight describes nearly everything about the car-not claustrophobia tight, rather well-engineered tight. The door shuts solid, the dash doesn't rattle, and the engine starts up almost instantly. We didn't observe the same attention to detail in the third-party body add-ons, however, with unsightly gaps and exposed rivets.

Row through the gears on the four-speed to get accustomed to the pattern; it's nothing more than a typical Chevrolet four-speed pattern, but the short shifter and the close space require a slight recalibration of movement. Shifting into first requires a little more effort than the other three gears, but not much.

Since the introduction of the 305-cu.in. V-8 in the Chevrolet lineup in 1976, the engine suffered a weak reputation. GM introduced it when their best response to fuel mileage concerns was to trim weight and displacement, so it became better known for fuel gains over its big-bore-brother, the 350, rather than as a powerhouse. Both engines shared the 3.48-inch stroke and small-block design, but the 305's heads featured smaller combustion chambers and valves to fit the 3.74-inch bore. Thus, 305s generally matched or bettered the 350s in compression ratio-as high as 9.3:1 when the engine exited in 1993-but the 350 consistently put out anywhere between 5 percent and 28 percent more power.

However, the combination of low weight and this oft-ridiculed engine makes for quick responses and excellent pull through all four gears, even with the highway-friendly 3.08 rear gears. Plant your right foot, release your left, and you're off, neck muscles straining a little harder than you expected. You're not likely to produce a big, smoky burnout or set any land-speed records with this combination-it's just not that kind of engine. But you can start that car from a dead stop in any of the first three gears, and you'll find no need to downshift from fourth when passing on the highway.

You wish you had a fifth gear-or perhaps two more barrels in the carb-as it winds up. It'll cruise at 60 mph O.K. at 2,500 rpm, but you're facing a long, slow uphill climb anywhere above that.

The sport suspension, the same shocks-radials-swaybar handling package that Monza Spyders received, puts mid-1970s GM build quality to the test. While the bumps in the road-especially in the continuously under-construction highways passing through Canton-jab the bumpstops, you hear few rattles and squeaks inside the car. The steering is precise; front and rear stabilizer bars keep the car level and nimble during lane changes. Despite the additional weight, the stock Monza brakes still stop the car within an adequate distance. However, the heavy iron small-block up front leads the car around, much like the ring through the bull's nose, so you wonder what a lighter four-cylinder engine (did someone say Cosworth?) would have been worth in this car. And the larger potholes make the rear end jiggle like an unladen S-10-there's just no weight back there to keep the car in contact with the road.

The big drawback here lies in the visibility. The tiny sport mirrors sit way far back on the doors, making the passenger's side mirror hardly useful and the driver's side only a little more. Two big dips cut into the hood between the headlight "pods" and the center bulge. At least the rear quarter windows and the side windows provide vistas enough to see the SUVs the size of semi trucks looming over you.

Drawbacks aside, the Mirage wouldn't make for a tough time on today's roads the way a larger, older muscle car would. Sure, it's not the ideal candidate for a cross-country road trip, and it doesn't exactly feel and act like its racecar looks. But neither is it totally unsuitable for everyday errands like a racecar would be, and neither is it your run-of-the-mill grocery getter.

Owner's View
For somebody so into Monzas, Ron Lee of Canton, Ohio, got into the small sporty cars relatively recently. He said he never cared for them much, until his wife bought one in 1983, because "it looked like an eye," she said, referring to the conspicuous rear window of the hatchback models.

Since then, Ron has owned about eight of the later H-bodies, including this Mirage, his second. A coworker noticed this one, with 16,000 miles showing, at a used car lot in 1987. It was in about the same condition you see here, other than the missing red and blue stripes on the hood, roof and hatch.

"My first one, I had an inkling it was rare, but I didn't know exactly what it was," he said. "That's when I started doing research, so I knew what I was getting into with this car."

Since buying the Mirage, he has replaced the stripes and put just a little more than 2,000 miles on it, driving mostly to car shows. "I like the rarity of these cars," Ron said. "And on this particular car, I like the low-mileage aspect. But in general, it's a little car with a V-8, and I like the looks and the bodystyle of the Monzas anyway."

Club Scene

Vintage Chevrolet Club of America
* Dues: $30/year; Membership: 8,800

H-Body Online Forum
* Dues: Free; Membership: 456

V-8 Monza Online Forum
* Dues: Free; Membership: 1,558

* Looks nothing like any other Monza
* Light car + V-8 engine = Go!
* Y'know, a 400-cu.in. small-block will fit in there pretty well

* What happens when you need to replace one of those flares?
* Not for people with inferiority complexes or big frames
* Handling and visibility could improve


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