Glenn McNeish walked into Spear Chevrolet in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on a chilly November in 1977. He drove away in a new 1978 Chevrolet Monza outfitted with a 305ci V8 with a 4-speed transmission.

Chevrolet originally created the Monza as a four-person subcompact with the first year model designed to accommodate the GM rotary engine. Poor fuel mileage and emissions compliance changed that plan and Chevrolet substituted the 262 ci V8 engine option after the rotary engine option was cancelled.

By 1977 there were more engine options available and McNeish wound up with the 305ci engine, which was the first year the engine was offered in the Monza. Driving it around just beyond the advertised “break-in” period, McNeish started “Pro-Streeting” the subcompact in January of 1978 when the odometer hit 742 miles. 

“To my knowledge it is one of, if not the first Pro Street car, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,” says McNeish. “It was always intended to be a Pro-Street car before most people were aware of this type of car.”

The little Monza has changed a lot from the day it drove off of the showroom floor. Currently it has a complete 2-inch by 3-inch box tube chassis with a 14-point roll cage. 

The front suspension is a fabricated upper A-arm, AFCO square tube lower control arm with Mustang II style strut rods combined with QA1 single adjustable coil overs and a power rack steering system. 

The rear suspension features a Comp Engineering adjustable ladder bar, 5-inch diameter coil springs with Rancho single adjustable shocks. A narrowed and banded Ford 9-inch ring gear housing packed with a Moser 35-spline locker unit, 35-spline axles and 4.56:1 gears caps off the rearend. 

The engine is a 385ci small block Chevy whose foundation is a 1970 truck block with Milodon 4 bolt main caps & ARP main studs. The block has bronze wall lifter sleeves for additional protection. The crankshaft is a forged steel crank by K1 with 6-inch “I” beam K1 connecting rods. MAHLE 11:1 pro series pistons complete the internals of this bullet. 

A COMP Cams solid roller camshaft reside in the upper block area. Red Zone Max bushed lifters from Isky and COMP Cams 3/8-inch +.300 push rods with a Crower rev kit, COMP Cams Ultra Pro Magnum 1.5 & 1.6 rocker arms with a COMP Cams stud girdle and ARP rocker studs round out the valve train. The Cylinder heads are aluminum AFR 210’s held down by ARP head studs.

The oil pan is a box style by Milodon with a stock Melling oil pump & pickup. Cleaning duties are performed by a remote oil filter. Both the transmission & engine oil have remote filters & coolers. Topping off the engine are valve covers & air filter by Moroso with an HVH intake unit.

The ignition is an MSD billet distributor with an MSD 6AL control box, 3-step rev control, adjustable timing module, Moroso Ultra 40 ignition wires, & Autolite plugs. Cooling is handled by an Edelbrock aluminum manual water pump, Griffin dual core aluminum radiator and twin Flex-a-Lite electric fans.

The transmission is a turbo 350 with a Hipster trans brake, B&M deep aluminum pan & TCI scattershield. The torque converter is a Coan 8-inch with a 5500 stall. Shifting is done using an old B&M ratchet shifter along with the mandatory SFI approved flex plate.

Fuel is fed to this beast from an RCI 15-gallon fuel cell into Speedway Motors aluminum filters through twin Holley black pumps feeding twin 1/2-inch aluminum lines into a #8-braided line. From there the line goes up to the firewall where it is split into a #10-braided line to a Holley big port regulator then back into twin #8-feed lines to the 1000 cfm Demon carburetor.

McNeish says “The exhaust is hand made by me & has 1 3/4-inch into 1 7/8-inch step headers into a 3 1/2-inch collectors. All primary tubes being within 1/4-inch of each other with a high temp silver coating.”

The exhaust starts at 3.5-inches out of the collectors into 3.5-inch bullet mufflers in front of the rear axle. It then downsizes to 3-inch to go under the rear axle housing up into Dynomax 3-inch mufflers then exits through the rear valance (like 1963 Corvette) for street use.

The front clip is a 34-year old one-piece VFN fiberglass unit with an Unlimited fiberglass 5-inch cowl hood. The rear bumper section is also VFN fiberglass. Seats are Kirkey aluminum with RCI platinum 5-point harnesses and the gauges are Autometer electric.

Twin rear mount Dynabatt batteries supply the electrical power with a 140-amp 3-wire alternator.

The wheels are Weld Racing 15X4 fronts with 165SR15 Hoosier tires while the rear are 15X14 Weld Racing with Hoosier Quik Time 31X18.5X15 tires. A Chrysler plastic and aluminum master cylinder feeds into Wilwood 4-wheel disc brakes with a line lock.

McNeish tells us that the engine combination produces about 600 horsepower at the flywheel with approximately 535 lbs/ft of torque. His best track time so far is 10.62 @ 127+ mph through 3.5-inch mufflers on DOT street tires. “Most of the time this car is street driven and has all the required street equipment like lights, horn, windshield wiper, parking brake, and weighs 3150-pounds with me in it,” McNeish said. “I usually run it at Pittsburgh Raceway Park in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania and I have run it at Quaker City & National Trail in Ohio. I’ve also taken it out to Moroso and Bradenton tracks in Florida.”  

That’s pretty damn good for a 3,150-pound subcompact.

If you’d like to share your ride with us here at SLTV, send us an email at Reader’s Wheels, and tell us a little about your car. Get some pictures ready and we’ll contact you and get more information and you’ll be on your way to sharing your car with the rest of our readers. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!