Cosworth Vega Owners Association's - Official Web Site of the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega

Looking back at the Cosworth Vega (1975-1976)

When I was in high school, in the mid to late 1970s, the Cosworth Vega was a mythical beast. Run-of-the-mill Chevy Vegas were everywhere - at least until they started rusting out and konking out, but somewhere there was a special Vega, a car that retained the affordable nature of its parent, but delivered sports car performance. The performance came from a dual overhead cam, fuel injected engine with 16 valves, the same configuration as a racing engine. It was hot stuff at the time, but it's pretty standard now.

To this day, I don't know that I've ever seen a Cosworth Vega on the road. The website linked below, the homepage to the Cosworth Vega Owners Association, gives some good reason why. First, the Cosworth engine option was delayed more than a year due to problems getting an emissions certification. By the time it was certified in 1975, the engine was so detuned that it only delivered 110 horsepower, far from the 185 hp that was initially expected.

Originally, Chevrolet planned on a limited production run of 5,000 units. Since Chevy had more dealerships than that, Chevy made the dealers jump through hoops including stocking parts and sending mechanics to school to get an allocation of one car. You can expect that many dealers didn't even bother.

With the 110 horsepower engine, the Cosworth Vega ran 0-60 in 12.2 seconds. Today, a bottom-of-the-line Kia Rio can do better. Even then, Camaros and other V-8 powered Chevys could beat that figure. Despite the so-so performance, the Cosworth Vega sold for only $600 less than the lowest-price Corvette. According to the CVOA, the total production run of Cosworth Vegas was only 3,508. Due to their scarcity, the Cosworth Vega is now a collectors item.

Cosworth Vega Owners Association's - Official Web Site of the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega