I just bought a new car to drop my BBC into this summer. This will be the 3rd Monza I've had, and the 2nd one which was tubbed. I love my Buicks, but I really liked both my other Monza's too. I'm looking forward to tearing the track up with this little thing. :Brow: Does anyone know of any good Monza sites where I can find good info on the swap. (it's currently set up for a SBC, and this will be my first BBC Monza) Thanks! :beer
Looks like a good choice Rick!!:TU: :beer A friend of mine had a 482" in a Vega (same basic size)....ran EASY 9.90's right off the trailer. At a good track like E-town, he'd run 9.30's. Don't forget the wheelie bars!!!:Brow: You might try looking at Chevy Talk.
Thanks for the link. :TU: I never needed wheelie bars before. I think I'm going to like this... ALOT! :laugh: I'm expecting high 9's after a few times to the track. Probably mid 10's "off the trailer" till I get it sorted out. To be honest, I imagine my first pass will be in the low 12's because it's going to scare the sh1t out of me the first time I launch it and I'll let off! :eek2: :laugh: The only thing I don't like, is that it's a true race car. No title, most of the wiring is missing... etc.. Every car I've ever built has been titled and plated. I like to be able to drive all my cars whenever I feel like it. I'm going to look into getting a title for it soon, and probably rewire the essentials so I can get it street legal (or at least close enough). :Brow:
My friend's BBC Vega was a tube chassis car with a strut front end.:bglasses: My brother stripped all the old paint down to bare metal and layed on a bright red paint job....turned out great!!:TU: A bunch of us met up at a rest area on I-81 in Binghamton....we were heading up to Cicero, NY to E.S.T.A.'s 1/4 mile track. While we were waiting for some straglers to finally show up, my friend Tony noticed he had forgotten to bring his wheelie bars.ou: He kicked around the idea of running back to the garage to get them, but it was getting late and the last of our caravan finally arrived - so we were off. His first pass was just an acquaintance run, to get familiar with everything. Next pass was a full on effort....or at least, it started that way. The car launched HARD....front end climbed FAST...rear bumper went down equally as fast!!!:eek2: :eek2: Needless to say....it startled Tony pretty good - even though he was a seasoned veteran. He let off the gas too quick and the front end slammed down. Next thing we saw....and it seemed to happen in slow motion.....the front tires buckled in, and the car turned over on its freshly painted side!!!:ball: :ball: ou: Next thing we saw was most of the guys that came up to watch him run - hopped the fence and ran out to the track. They got the car pushed over and waited for his ramptruck to pull up and drag the car on. After we got back home, he went over all the front end to inspect the carnage. The little bolt that held the front spindle to the steering had sheared off - that's what caused the tire to buckle in and make it go up on the side. Of course, the headers got crunched pretty good.....I think there was some other stuff too (in addition to paint & body work on that side). Total bill ran a bit over $1000 to fix everything. **Don't forget the wheelie bars!!!:Brow: :TU:
Big SBC Horsepower TV just ran a show about a 472" SBC. They didn't mention cost, but Big Block Inches in a small block package could just be the thing for your "Gonza"
LOL :laugh: :TU: Well, it came today! Not as nice as I'd hoped, but all the good stuff is there. It just needs alot of "fit and finish" type of things. Scott, your story is just the motivation I need to spend the bucks on some wheelie bars. My wife is already about ready to kill me over all the "car stuff" in the last 12 months. She'd really kill me if I broke this car the first time out. :eek2: The "fit and finish" stuff is going to have to wait though. First thing is to get that BBC stuffed in that tiny engine bay. I forgot just how small these things are. :eek2: :laugh:
Rick, Your lucky..........I emailed Gary(?right?) about that car not too long ago.........lmao...............have fun.
You should have fun with that one. A good buddy of mine in Northern Iowa decided to go drag racing again when his oldest daughter graduated High School. He ended up with a tube frame Vega running a full roller 331 SBC. He was running 1/8th mile so he had like a 5.35 rear gear in the car. He was going through the traps at about 8-9 grand! The next year he switched over to alky injection on the SBC. The year following that, he went for it all and went alky injection on a BBC with a powerglide!:jd: He was hanging the hoops out past the 60' timers. You definately need wheelie bars!:Brow:
This was an 1/8th mile car too. O forget what gears it has, but they are too steep. I'll need to remedy that before I see any 1/4 mile action. Dave... yep, it was Gary's car. Small world huh? :laugh: Did you look at the car in person? It's definately not as nice as the pictures seem, but I'm happy with it all and all. It'll take some work, but I hope to be able to throw it together pretty quickly and have some low-buck 9 second fun yet this summer! :Brow:
Rick, No I never got ahold of him. Emailed a couple times and tried calling but never made it. At the time I was looking for a 350'' Buick "landing pad",lol. As luck would have it I found one locally a lot cheaper. I wouldn't mind seeing some detailed pix of it though. If you still have my email addy fire me a blank and I will reply back. I would like to see a couple things on it building references on mine. Have fun and glad you have a home for your big block now. later.......................
Here's a Monza cousin that flies Literally! 8.20's with a small block Olds. Rochester, NY! More pics on www.btrperformance.com including his old Stock eliminator 70 442 W30. Now that would be a neat FAST entry.
That's so cool Dave I haven't seen a V8 Monza in ages though, 2 of my friends had a few of them. If you look in the newest issue of Car Craft there's a black one in the readers' section
I'm getting closer... I think I have 99% of everything bought for it, now it's time to do the work. I had to yank the rear end to swap gears, and found that the welds look very shady on the brackets on the rear end so I'm going to reweld them while it's out. I also need to make and weld on some wheelie bar brackets. My wheelie bars will be here early next week. I think the last "big" things I need to get are: The driveshaft, which I can't order until I have the engine in the car to get the measurements. And whatever steering column knuckles/shafts it's going to take to thread the column through and/or around the header. I can't do that until it's in yet either. Check out these funky headers..... The passenger side hits the oil pan, the driver side hits the oil filter. Sheesh... they don't even fit on the engine ... can't wait till I try to put them in the car. ou: Plenty of clearence for my mini starter though. :laugh:
another view I'm thinking about painting the block Buick Red while it's out. Would that be sacrilage? p
