Well, here it is. Almost most seven years and $30k later, it is finally finished. I couldn't be happier. This particular picture is after I got it home for the first time before I knew my engine was shot.

Well,  as I mentioned almost 2yrs ago I knew Roby would do a job I would be proud of and from the looks of it I'll be totally happy.  I still need to polish out the bumpers but little things like that will keep me busy with it which I look forward to.

 

 

           

When I envisioned what the car would look like, I think this is the rearend view that I saw. Tires not too wide and not to narrow, a little bit of polish and show to say "It'll move!"     Here is the motivation for my Vega. Chevy 355ci smallblock, balanced and blueprinted. 516hp and 450lb torque. It has all the good stuff; Pro Topline Aluminum heads, Comp Cams solid roller cam, Pete Jackson Gears, Victor Jr Intake and Street Avenger Carb 





The picture on the left shows how Roby lowered the front to give it a slight rake.  My adjustable drag shocks should keep it from landing too hard at launch time.  Once again, in my opinion perfect profile. CHeck out my stainless polished exhaust. Just in case I need to get somewhere in a hurry I have the blue bottle.

           

Pictures are worth a thousand words but in this case they are worth 125hp. Armed by a key and activated by a throttle position switch I won't lose many heads up races.  Roby shot 3 coats of base coat and 5 coats of clear coat and this thing hasn't even been buffed out yet.




 

            

I hesitated to place this chart here because it is only theoretical but taking into account all of the factors and parts I have put in the car it should run 11.1s off the bottle and I should be able to sneek into the illusive 10s on it. Real life has me at 12.57 off the bottle.  The picture on the right shows the door panel that had to be made because the original would not allow the door to close because of the rollbar.  Still need to get the window roller upper thingy up there.

 

             

Here is a couple of pictures of the interior.  I think the seat look really good in there and the little bowties are a nice touch.  My son found the purge switch and commence to spray a cloud of NOS,  we just made sure the keys were no where around!!

 

              

Like I said, it has yet to be detailed but I think it has come along nicely.  Notice my aluminum box that houses my nitrous controls and gauges, it really came out nicely.  Here I am at my first car show. I had alot of nice compliments, which always makes me feel good.  

Update:July 14th, 2003

Well, after I got the car home I had issue with it overheating and no power. Upon further inspection we found that it appears that either the cam was not broke in correctly(my fault) or the bearings were failing(I like that better!). So long story short I have had to take it back to Roby for him to tear it down and find the problem. I am kind of hoping the block is shot so I can upgrade to a 406. At any rate I will upgrade the heads and make it more reliable. I should know something by next weekend July 21. I'll keep you posted.

Update: July 27th, 2003



Roby has the engine apart now and here is what we have found out. The engine I was so proud of, turns out to be a turd and basically has no parts I was told it had. It looks like it was a 8:1 L82 engine out of a early 80's model Corvette. The cam was ground completely down, the pushrods were also were ground down, all bearings were burnt and the geardrive fell apart when it was taken out. I probably don't have any recourse to go back to the guy that sold it to me because it has been such a long time since I bought it and can't prove I just got it running. Lesson learned. At any rate this is what I am doing now. I ordered a set of Pro Topline Aluminum Heads 64cc Comb. Chambers 220c runners. Competition Cams Mechanical Roller Cam w/ .575 lift and roller lifters, Pete Jackson GearDrive (Noisy)and will swap my 3.70 gears for some 3.89's. I replaced my small Sun Tach for a AutoMeter SportComp Playback 5" Tach, I just have to find a place to mount it.

Update: Jan 4th, 2004



Well my car is back at home now and it runs like "A horse running from a glue convention!!" Since Roby has relocated the radiator forward I haven't seen the temperature hit 200 yet. After putting about 250 miles on it, I decided to take it to the track to see what it could do. Having never made a pass down the 1/4 mile my first run was a joke and an injustice to the potential to this car. Mega tire spin and missing 2nd only netted a 13.7. Check it out below. It is approximately 16megs of data , so it loads slow. Be a patient and check it out. My second run was a little better @ 12.57 but I know it has a 11 sec run in it and I haven't even turned on the Nitrous yet!! Quite honestly, I can't imagine it being any faster.







Final Update

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