Upscale Chevy Vega: The Monza 2+2 Hatchback Goes Racing! DeKon Monza IMSA Race Cars.

 August 1, 2024

#492

Gentle reader,

As of this date, I am closing in on my 68th birthday. I bought my first car, a nine-year-old Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtop, in September of 1973. The beginning of my senior year in high school. The feeling of FREEDOM! was exhilarating.

I was a born car guy. According to Mom, I could name any car I saw: year, make and model at age three. Methinks she exaggerates. I have lost track of how many cars I have owned. Although this article from 2016 shows all that I could recall then: The Robb Collections: A Journey through time, via Automobile Sales Brochures  Since then, we have purchased a 2013 Cadillac ATS Performance 2.0T which is factory equipped with a six-speed manual transmission. Neither of us ever imagined buying a Cadillac, but it was such a bargain, we could not resist.

Above is one of a number of  purpose built Chevrolet Monza 2+2 hatchbacks which a company called DeKon modified for international sports car racing events. Their history can be seen here: DeKon 1003

Below are three scans from the Chevrolet brochure for the introductory year (September, 1974) of the new Monza models. 
Some say it was GM's answer to Ford's Mustang II which came out in 1974. But, the average time it took (then) for a manufacturer to create, design, build, test and sell a new model was three years, minimum.

Check out those horsepower figures! 1975 was the first year the federal requirement that catalytic converters be installed on all new cars in the United States. The devices really choked engine's performance. And, we learned decades later actually make climate damage worse because the convert carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide! A major source of climate change!
Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac also sold their (thinly disguised) versions of the Monza, but, to my knowledge, only the 2+2 hatchback body style.
I decided quite young that I wanted to be a car mechanic when I grew up. Thus, the afternoons of my junior and senior high school years were in tech school learning the trade. I was fortunate (thanks, Dad!) to get a job at 17 at a Chevrolet dealer in 1974. And the first new car I bought was a 1979 Monza 2+2 like the red one above. 
It cost me just over $3,000. I chose the, new-for-1979, Iron Duke 2.5 liter four cylinder engine, five-speed manual transmission, sunroof and sport mirrors. It is pictured below outside of my first apartment. This body style, available as a notchback coupe and thinly disguised (Vega) wagon. Not shown below is the 1967 Impala Super Sport convertible I was driving when I bought the Monza.
I added the fog light / driving lights, mounted to the bottom of the bumper, to it. First thing I did to it, was remove the emissions required idle mixture screw plastic guard from the carburetor and adjusted it so that it would idle smoothly.

Years later, I bought a 1976 Vega Kammback wagon, like the blue one above, but beige with brown interior and four-speed manual transmission. I had worked on a lot of Vegas and knew their quirks and problems, but bought it anyway.
Above is one of a series of photos of the team which ran the featured car originally back in the day. The source of this photo and story of the team, is on the DeKon page listed above. As well as stories about other teams who raced them back in the day.
Note the different type of spoiler the car now sports. It is still being raced in vintage events around the world. 
The rectangular headlights were kept for many years.
Note the gap between the extremely widened race body panels and the original rear end seeming to being swallowed whole. Original DeKon rear spoiler is still in place.
Again, one can see the difference between the original spoiler and the one it currently runs.
The car now sports round headlights.
Chevrolet decided to honor the success of the IMSA racing DeKon Monza racers by contracting MATC to recreate, on a less outrageous scale, the widened and bespoilered DeKon cars by making an extra cost option for potential Monza buyer who love racing and want to look like they too are race car drivers.

While still owning the Vega Kammback wagon, our next door neighbors had a 1975 V8 Monza 2+2. It was not in great shape, but it had saddle brown leather interior and that all important V8 engine. My idea was to buy the car for cheap ($250) and swap the V8 engine into my Vega. I did buy the car, but as my wife seemed intent upon popping out a new baby every two years, money and time to do the swap was out of question. In her defense, I was no longer working as an automobile mechanic, but a subway cars electro-mechanic. Thus, I no longer had a shop to perform the swap.

Ever since then, I have wanted another Monza, specifically, one of these. What you may not know, is that these are sub-compact cars, which Chevrolet stuffed a V8 engine into! Below are images I found of a pristine example.






Here is a link to a video which I just found, from 2017 at Carlisle Pennsylvania's annual all-Chevrolet car show: Let's check out the 1977 Monza Mirage! - YouTube

Below, are some links to videos showing the race car in action today as well as some other articles for your enjoyment and education.




I just came across this in-depth look at Monzas. Fast forward past all the history he provides to get to the good stuff: Marvelous Malaise | The Chevy Monza - YouTube

To this day, my favorite kinds of car racing are: Vintage Sports cars and Endurance Sports cars. IMSA is the series owner here in North America and WEC (World Endurance Challenge) in the rest of the world. While ALMS (American Le Mans Series) no longer exists, Asian Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series still do. All four: IMSA WEC ALMS and ELMS contribute cars and teams to race a the iconic and historic 24 Hours of Le Mans every June in France.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. I'm closing in on my 500th article! Feel free to comment below, or via Facebook.

Scott Robb
August 1, 2024
#492
at 1 comment:

Sangean HDT-20 HD Radio Component Tuner to Replace Dying 1980's Yamaha 500 Components

 July 16, 2024

#491


Gentle reader,

When last I wrote about electronics, here: The Robb Collections: 2024 Yamaha A-S301 Integrated Amplifier replaces dying 1987 Yamaha Yamaha AX-500U. I had lost one channel on the old Yamaha integrated amplifier. I had found that the same model (which likely would also be ready to fail) on eBay, but some sellers wanted crazy money for theirs. 

This photo is from 2019 when I had found all the relevant components. The CD play (bottom) was the first to have problems. I replaced all the rubber belts, but it still had issues. 
I had bought two OPPO DV-980H universal players, so I installed on of them on the stack and sold the CD player. 

What was happening with the tuner, while it was still bringing in a strong signal, it had become very hissy. I had to switch it to Mono to get rid of the hiss. Therefore kind of defeating it being a Stereo tuner.

Way back in 2009, when the stereo (not this one, the Listening Room's System) was still in the living room and the bedrooms were still being used as bedrooms by the girls, I bought an Insignia HD Radio tuner for it. 

It's directly beneath the turntable, on the left side. Insignia is Best Buy's in-store brand. It was made by Sangean and sold for less than their own version.

I was an early adopter of HD Radio, installing it in my car and other places. See below:


The car, a 2002 Audi TT quattro, was my daily driver and I also installed a Sirius tuner in it. That car was lots of fun until it needed repairs. Then, $$$ ouch!

Therefore, since the hiss was what bothered me, why not go back to HD Radio? I'm not sure why I stopped using it years ago. 

I could not find any Insignia tuners, so I searched for a Sangean one. I found exactly one on eBay, and the seller only wanted $99 for it and that included the remote. I found the manual online and printed it out.

This is a Sangean photo of it. I found a couple reviews of it: Sangean HDT-20 AM/FM/HD Tuner | radiojayallen and Sangean HDT-20 AM/FM/HD Tuner | radiojayallen

The following photos are his and reproduced here for informational purposes since his was the only independent review which I could find.

One thing I don't care for is the power button, which universally seems to be on the left side of components, is just one more tiny button. Below, you will see why that is the case.
Mr. Allen opined that, to save money, Sangean used a PCB from a smaller, stand alone HD Radio. Which makes sense, economically for them.
A very simple board, for sure. I was at first thinking, "That's it? No chips or other digital components?" See below:
They are contained on the boards behind the front panel. A very clean design.

Like my new Yamaha A-S301 integrated amplifier (and OPPO DV-980H player) the Sangean HD Radio tuner has two digital outputs: Coaxial and Optical.

I tried a coaxial digital RCA cable from the tuner to the amp and compared digital sound verses analog. The stereo analog signal was clearer and more defined and, so I am sticking with that. I have no toslink optical "cable" to try and compare as they are all being used elsewhere in the house.

So, what do I think of the Sangean HD Radio tuner's performance? I'm very impressed. There is no apparent loss of bass or treble. In fact, I hear bass which I had never heard from FM radio before. 
The sound is crisp and clear, and in HD (which stands for Hybrid Digital) which most radio stations here in the Washington, D.C. area broadcast in, there is warmth, height and depth like I have never heard before. I highly recommend one, if you can find one, that is!

Oh, in case you are wondering what the Listening Room system looks like now, here is a photo of it:
The monstrous 250WPC Adcom power amplifier (I found it, it's matching preamp and power conditioner, ALL for $149 at Salvation Army) one day melted the voicecoil of one of my speakers. I did not know why that happened and did not want to try and find out what was wrong with it, so I sold it on eBay, eventually selling the other Adcom components except the ACE-515 power conditioners. In fact, I bought another one. 

Thanks to thrift stores and the occasional pawn shop, I have been able to buy and try hundreds of components and speakers over the almost fifty years I have enjoyed this hobby. Sadly, those halcyon days seem to be over. Sigh.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. I am closing in on 500 articles, which blows my mind! I started blogging several years ago, just as something to do. I had NO idea that anyone would be interested in reading what I have to say. But, so far, almost a half million of you have done so. I am truly humbled.

Feel free to comment below or on Facebook.

Scott Robb
July 25, 2024
#491

at No comments:

From a Fallen White Walnut Tree in the 1970's Mountains of Virginia a Very Kind Man to Who I am Today...

 May 30, 2024

#490

Gentle reader,

Facebook is a wonderful place to connect with like-minded people. For instance, we have an old Volvo wagon and a Cadillac performance car. Yes, there are such cars. Plus, we collect lots of different things, thus the name of this blog. If you are interested in something, chances are there is a Facebook group about it. 

Image found on the Internet.

If you are wondering what the three digit number is above is about, this is the 490th article I have written for this blog. I write two others: Pictures of Nancy. The Love of My Life. and People Say I'm Special. But I Don't Know Why.

Finished Black Walnut wood above verses finished White Walnut wood, below.
To begin, there are various types of walnut trees around the world. Mr. F. referred to the tree as "White Walnut". Sometimes they are called English Walnut or Butternut. 
All three of the images above were found on the Internet. We had black walnut trees on the property of one of the houses we lived in long ago. They have thick green husks which kind of look like oranges, but which are much tougher. Very hard to remove, even a car driving over them did not break those husks. The walnuts many of us have eaten are Butternuts or English walnuts. 

The "This..." in the subject line (title) refers to this cabinet. Without having met and dated L., it would not exist. Her father was the definition of kindness and patience. 
This is a picture of her from back in the day. She had posted it on Facebook a while back. 

I did not own a camera until 1980 when my first son was born. We bought a 110 camera from JCPenney because my mother worked there and there was a family discount. Our first TV was also from her store.  Image found on the Internet.
Because money was tight and babies kept coming, shooting a film picture, having the film developed and printed was expensive to us. Thus, the photo had  to be of something very important. As a result, the photo above and the one earlier in the article are the first images I shot of my stereo and the cabinet I had made oh so long ago. The images  are from 1995, the year I finally had a little money which I could spend to buy myself a "real camera". 

What fit that definition to me was a 35mm SLR. The first one I saw was in the 1970's being used by our friend S. She was taking photos of us playing ultimate Frisbee on the quad at the Seminary. 

What I chose (I knew NOTHING about cameras and the Internet barely existed then) it was an Olympus OM-10. Fortunately for me, it was designed for the new user and thus very forgiving.
This is the very first picture I shot with it. That's Nancy, very much the love of my life and my forever wife, but at that time, we were dating.
The cabinet is sitting RIGHT next to me as I type this. I'm still using that chair. While the room looks quite different twenty-some years after these digital images were made, and the contents of the shelves have changed, the cabinet remains in the same spot in "The Office". 
Since this house has four bedrooms and we had two kids, we had decided  to set aside this small bedroom as a home office. Although neither of us ever worked from home.
The job I did of gluing to top to the walls all those years ago, was not so great. I had to later add metal brackets and a screw or two through the top to secure it to the four upright pieces.
The only things, aside from the records in this image, which remain in my collection are the cabinet and the three cars to the right of the turntable. Everything else has gone to other people's homes.

As you can see from this 2008 image that all of the components are completely different and we have a lot more records.

Initially, the stereo (as seen above) had been in the living room which is at the opposite end of the house. When Nancy bought us our first HDTV, a 32" Samsung monitor, I moved the stereo to the dining room. Then, later on into the office. I had run ten gauge speaker wires through the attic to the living room for a pair of speakers which remained there then.
This 2005 image shows the much less cluttered steel and glass desk. I also built the cabinet on the wall, from reclaimed wood, which (then) held my film camera collection. 
I also made this shelf of 1 x 12 pine wood. I made the top shelf specifically house small diecast cars and our HO slot cars. There is a cover made of 1/4" Lexan which keeps out the dust and is very strong. Again, almost every book on that shelf has gone to other peoples homes. Our tastes, interests and what we collect have changed with both of us over the 30 years we have been together.

The following four images are from the end of 2020.

The camera cabinet now houses larger scale diecast cars and the 2% camera collection. I had over 500 film cameras, not all at once. What's left is less than two per cent of the total.  The shelf on the right was built by my camera-collecting-mentor, the late Colonel Bill Arps. He made it to hold one of EVERY type of Kodak 126 Instamatic cameras. 
A good view of most of the cabinet's top. It is now 49 years old. Wow. Where did all that time go?
Mr. F. helped me pick out interesting pieces of the wood to enhance the cabinet's look. Those are worm hole possibly made more than a hundred years ago. Hard to imagine that worms could chew through wood. But then, think about termites.
It really bothers me to see people whose lives seem to revolve around their phone. They seem to be constantly looking down at them, even groups of friends or entire families in a restaurant or other places, are not TALKING with each other! They are not enjoying each others company. They may be showing each other what they are looking at on their phones, but they are not ASKING each other how they are or what they have been up to lately. Or even how they FEEL. It saddens me.

Yes, I have a smart phone, but 99% of the time, it is in my pocket. I have SO many friends and family members, yet, I prefer to talk face to face. Or, I call them. Smart phones are a blessing and a curse. I chose to use mine as a telephone which also texts. Occasionally, I will get it out to look something up, but once I have, back in the pocket it goes. Why? Because it is just a tool. I don't go on Facebook with it. I don't watch videos or play games with it. Occasionally I will shoot an image with it. But, if I have a real camera with me, that's what I use.
I thought I had an image of all three digital cameras. Neither of these do I now own, having upgraded each. But, they represent what I now call a "real camera".

So, why did I chose to write this article, using the white walnut tree as a lure?  I glanced over at it, and immediately remembered where it came from. That memory made me smile. I had not thought about Mr. F, and Mrs. F. in a very long time. Or, L., for that matter. I had not lived in that city since 1982. As Nancy will gladly tell you, I think too much. And this is a result of that...

We all make choices as to how we treat every person we ever encounter. Mr. F. by being so very kind to me, teaching me all kinds of things my own father never did almost fifty years ago, he  shaped the way I have chosen to interact with people ever since. And I did not realize it until today.

I talk to everyone and will hug anyone, if they need one. Perhaps I am a dinosaur because I chose to live in the present and enjoy whatever place I happen to be and whomever I happen to be with. But, I am OK with that label.

Some time ago, I wrote this on my Facebook, "In one word, describe how you think of me." Over and over, my friend's answer were: Kind or Kindness.

At my retirement party seven years ago, so many people said to me, "You always made me feel special." "That's because you are special.", I replied. One man, who had quickly risen within the company ranks said to me, "Scott, if it were not for you, I would not be where I am today." I'm tearing up remembering that. 

So, how about trying something different today? Do NOT reach for your phone. Look at the person next to you, smile and say, "Hey, let's talk. What have you been doing lately? How's your Mom? Have you bought anything new you just love? Let's take a walk and enjoy this beautiful day. Hey, let's go to the mall and try on ridiculous shoes! Let's drive around and find a restaurant we would never chosen to eat there.  Let's go for a drive in the country and see new places. Let's go the rec center and swim." 

Let TODAY be the beginning of your new life! Break old habits. Every morning when you wake up chose to try something new and different to do. Take the smart phone blinders off of your face and LOOK around. Life is short. Chose to LIVE it! Chose to LOVE others and let them know that you do. If I can do it, so can you.

Scott Robb
May 30, 2024
#490


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Whatever Happened to the Police Cars in 1970's TV Show ADAM 12? We May Have Found One!

  August 1, 2026 #550 Gentle reader, I am in my 70th year on this planet. Therefore, I have lived in eight decades. We grew up (once our par...