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One of Chevy’s very first attempts at a high-performance compact, the Cosworth Vega was one that was modified by the U. K. indy car engine builder, Cosworth, mostly in the area of head, valve and overhead cam design. It wasn’t the most high-horsepower piece that GM had ever introduced from the factory, but it introduced the twin, overhead cam design to GM’s method of engine construction during the 1970s. It also introduced the use of electronic fuel injection, a radical invention during a time when even most low-compression engines were still using carburetors.
With a 260-horse Cosworth engine and a running speed of up to 9500rpm, Frank Sloan's Cosworth Vega is right at home on the Bonneville flats.
The Cosworth Vega was a compact performer that was built during a time when GM was trying their best to compromise horsepower out of mouse-sized engines, mostly because smog control laws had put an end to the cubic inch war that had gone down a few years earlier in the ’60s.
Because radically-built V8s were hard to pull-off in a climate where high-compression motor builds from the factory were no longer allowed, GM had to use a high-flow alternative to build hi-po V6 stout from an inline, 4-cylinder engine.
But because of the fact that an overhead, sixteen-valve layout was one of the firsts that Chevy introduced through the Cosworth, the engine, both by 1970s standards and today’s, held much potential for high-revving characteristics that a lot of larger-displacement motors might not have been able to reach.
No where else is this potential better realized than in Frank Sloan’s ’76 Cosworth Vega, a compact that has a history of SCCA road racing during the late ’70s and early ’80s. We found this awesome article over on MyRideIsMe.com and had to share it, because, you know, we’re cool like that.
The reason that Cosworth’s engineering genius is best realized in Sloan’s Vega is because the car likes to run in an extremely high range, shifting at up to 9500rpm. An astronomically-high RPM range, the little red Cosworth is capable of topping-out on the Bonneville salt flats at 156.818mph, raising the bar set back in 2001 by about 3mph.
With Sloan and company’s performance mods done to the aluminum and sleeveless, Cosworth engine, the little 4-cylinder currently produces 260bhp, which is what’s responsible for the Vega’s new Bonneville record, set recently by owner/driver Sloan at Bonneville during World Finals.
Originally, the Cosworth Vega was designed to compete in a compact market that was becoming increasingly dominated by such early imports as BMW’s 2002ti and Datsun’s 510.
A horsepower output of 185bhp must have seemed fairly impressive during the mid-1970s coming from a 4-cylinder, but Frank Sloan’s 260-horse, high-speed Cosworth shows that the little, twin-cam motor could have done so much more, had GM continued the high-performance Vega as a model meant to evolve and improve.
Only $600 less than a brand new Corvette of the era and for an inline 4-powered compact, the Cosworth was a car that was short-lived; good thing that Frank Sloan has done us all a favor by not only restoring one of GM’s most rare relics, but also improving upon it. Big thanks go out to MyRideIsMe.com for this great article. If you want to read the whole story and check out all the pics, please make sure to go HERE.
