[1970AMX]

Vegas VS Marerick

 

[Alter-Autos]

The Maverick is a great casting, and the Vega looks good with those simple, understated stripes.

 

[Full Flaps!]

I love both of those castings, and have every one posted except for the grabber orange Maverick. Have to find that one sometime.

Hot Wheels did very well with both of these econo coupes. It helps that all the proportions seem normal.

 

[Alter-Autos]

I love both of those castings, and have every one posted except for the grabber orange Maverick. Have to find that one sometime.

I don't have a spare, but I'll keep an eye out.

 

[samace22]

Their Both Nice Congrats. I like and I Love Them. :wave::thumbsup:

 

[CorvairJim]

I'm not a Ford guy so I have very few Ford diecasts, but I'd like to find those Vegas, both for myself and a good friend who has three 1:1 Vegas, a restored 1972 Panel Express, a 8,000 original mile 1973 "Millionth Vega" edition, and a Dark Maple '76 Cosworth with fewer than 5,000 original miles. The '73 has been featured in a couple of magazine articles, including a 3-car comparison test in Motor Trend Classic a couple of years ago where it beat out a '72 Pinto and a '73 Gremlin Both of the other cars were nearly as original as the Vega, but the Vega was the only one on original-type bias-ply tires. The other two had been upgraded to radials, but the Vega still won the comparo!

 

[Full Flaps!]

Jim, if you could get some pics of your friend's Vegas and post them up sometime that would be great. Especially the low mileage Cosworth and "Millionth" edition. I find all-original time capsule cars fascinating. Could be a Pinto or a Cadillac.

 

[CorvairJim]

Jim, if you could get some pics of your friend's Vegas and post them up sometime that would be great. Especially the low mileage Cosworth and "Millionth" edition. I find all-original time capsule cars fascinating. Could be a Pinto or a Cadillac.

I don't have any photos of the Cosworth, but here are a couple of shotsof the "Millionth Vega Edition" car, taken at the Super Chevy Show at Maple Grove last summer. This car is all original, right down to the tires that it left the factory riding on. He doesn't trailer it - it gets driven to every show it's in... on modern tires he carries in back. He changes them when he arrives to display it on the originals:

(I know Johnny Lightning made a model of this car a couple of years ago, but they got the year and interior color wrong. They called it a 1971 and put a black interior in it. Still I wish I had thought to grab a couple of them back when they were readily available!)

 

[Eaglesbriar]

That's a nice looking Vega.

Does anybody remember a Vega station wagon?

I'm not sure if the 2 door had one but I remember my dad owning a Vega station wagon back in 1981 and it had that awful hump in the middle of the backseats. I dreaded going in it cause I got stuck sitting on it since my 2 stepbrothers didn't want to

 

[CorvairJim]

Does anybody remember a Vega station wagon?

I'm not sure if the 2 door had one...

All Vegas had only two doors. The Vega wagon was called the "Kammback", after a German aerodynamicist named Wunibald Kamm who theorized that when the rear of a vehicle was sharply cut off it would have less drag. There was also had a version of the Kammback with a fiberglass panel blanking out the quarter window openings called the "Panel Express". The back seat was optional in these little trucklets. I had one as a company car for about half a year, and it soured me to Vegas for many years. My friend Bob with the cars I mentioned below opened my eyes to what a good little car the Vega actually was, if only the car's owner's would take proper care of them. He's owned several of them with well over 100,000 miles on the original engine.

 

[Alter-Autos]

I find all-original time capsule cars fascinating. Could be a Pinto or a Cadillac.

Me, too. Even better are those cars that have an unusual configuration or option combination.

Jim's friend's Vega is a very nice little car.

 

[DadsCoronet]

In high school I had a job at a local pharmacy that had an orange "Panel Express" for a delivery vehicle. Part of my job included delivering prescriptions (which was my favorite part of the job!). The Vega had a 2-speed auto and not very much pep. But, it got me out of the store for awhile! :thumbsup:

 

[Eaglesbriar]

The back seat was optional in these little trucklets.

That would explain the cramped quarters and that darn hump in the middle. I remember them being small and barely enough room for us kids. Glad I don't have to experience that again lol

Thanks for the info CorvairJim

 

[CorvairJim]

... Thanks for the info CorvairJim

You're welcome. I'm a trivia buff, especially automotive trivia in general and Chevy trivia in particular.

In high school I had a job at a local pharmacy that had an orange "Panel Express" for a delivery vehicle. Part of my job included delivering prescriptions (which was my favorite part of the job!). The Vega had a 2-speed auto and not very much pep. But, it got me out of the store for awhile! :thumbsup:

I had a Panel Delivery as a company car for a while too. It's the only car I've ever totalled. It was originally white but the owner of the company had repainted it 1977 Chevrolet Firethorn Red. Since the company was in the business of doing molding installation, pinstriping and graphics work for car dealers, the Vega had wild graphics all over it. It also had a set of custom van-style portholes cut into the quarter window fiberglass blanking panels. That car had the 2-speed Powerglide transmisson too. What a dog!

Normal start-up procedure every morning went something like this: Pop the hood and dump a quart of oil in it. While the oil is going in, restock the materials used the day before, then check the dipstick to see if it needed a second quart. Then, on the way out, stop by the gas station next door to top up the tank and record the gas mileage... it averaged about 12 mpg as I recall, because it was so heavily overloaded and the transmission slipped badly.