1975 Chevrolet/Cosworth Vega
Provided by Hemmings

Question: Are you among the many automotive enthusiasts who think that performance in the American automotive market was a dead horse by the mid-seventies? One look at this 1975 Chevrolet/Cosworth Vega may very well change your perspective of that period. While Detroit's mainstream offerings may have been watered down because of increasing safety mandates, fuel concerns and tighter emissions standards, there were a number of cars available that offered high performance while still allowing one to drive with a reasonably guilt-free conscience.

Cosworth Engineering Ltd., an English firm that made its name by turning Ford's little four-cylinder 2.3-liter engine into a feared rally and road-racing powerplant, also made available a specially designed twin cam cylinder head for Chevrolet's 140-cubic-inch inline four cylinder. But it wasn't just the 16-valve cylinder head that set this Vega apart from the more than 200,000 of its siblings that sold in 1975. The 2,061 Cosworth Vegas created in its introductory year of 1975 boasted Bendix mechanical fuel injection, a modified bore/stroke ratio that pumped 122 cubic inches of air through solid lifter-actuated valves and out of large oval-port exhaust passages scavenged by tubular steel headers. That's right, headers on a 1975 factory offering! Though based on the production block, the internal components of these special engines were anything but your usual fare. The connecting rods were stress-relieved by the shot-peening process and spun on a forged Magna-Flux inspected crankshaft. Deep dished pistons likewise were specific to the Cosworth, based on its high-for-the-day compression ratio of 8.5:1. When one ran through the gears in the close-ratio four speed manual offered with these little rockets, the factory 120-horsepower rating could be attained at 5,200 rpm.

The handling of this variation of the popular little Vega was made even better by utilizing a heavy-duty front suspension, torque arm-style rear suspension and 13 x 6-inch spoke alloy rim/tire combination. This much performance packed into a little package equated a disproportionate price tag, with the Cosworth edition commanding a price more than double that of its two-door hatchback sibling. ($5,916 vs. $2,899, factory MSRP)

Our featured 1975 example has 16,000 miles showing on its odometer and still wears its original black with gold stripe paint scheme. Its white interior is in excellent condition and still houses the model's unique 8,000 rpm tachometer, sport steering wheel and Cosworth and original owner's certification plaques. Though the Cosworth Vegas may have been a quick flash in the pan on the automotive scene with a 1975-76-only production run, (1,446 built in 1976) the few surviving examples such as this one show that high performance was still on some minds in Detroit. It just came in smaller packages!