Recently Manchester NH had their annual car show, where they close off the main street on Saturday and allow only hot rods and customs, who pay a fee to “show” their cars. One car there this year was a red 1972 Vega with a V8 in it. The frame was hand made, with the body integrated into it via welding. I talked with the owner for awhile, and he said he’d bought the car decades ago along with Thrush side pipes and it had sat in storage for many years awaiting rebuilding.
The car had a rear lip spoiler and a front chin spoiler exactly like those I had on my '72 Vega. He also commented that it had mounte din its dashboard am oil gage, which I had mounted in my dash. I’ve recently gotten to thinking, since mine was the only Vega I’d ever seen with that rear spoiler on it and the only one I’ve ever seen with that two part chin spoiler (I’d purchased both from JC Whitney), and since it had an owner-mounted oil gage in the dash, and since it was in Manchester NH, the very place I traded mine in in '76, could it be my old Vega?
On the one-in-a-million chance that the Vega’s owner reads this forum, I’ll present the question; was your Vega Mohave Gold (a copperish gold color) when you got it? Did it have evidence of having been “keyed” all the way down the driver’s door and repaired with a bottle-type touchup paint? Did you buy it in the southern NH area?
If the answers to these questions is yes, I’d love it if you’d post back. There’s an excellent chance that I was the original owner of that Vega, and I’d really enjoy talking.
I don’t know if carfax would report on a VIN of that era, but I believe that site lists the owners of the vehicle. If you remember your VIN from that car, you might be able to run a background check on it from some website out there
I wish I did. The paperwork was disposed of long, long ago. The dealership that I traded it into even disappeared long, long ago. Time marches on.
Fortunately, the guy was from NH, and that “show & shine” is held the Saturday before labor day every year. It’s a big event in Manchester. A full mile of the main drag is shut down and lined on both sides with hot rods. I’m going to try to catch up with him next year. It’d be fun for me, and if it really is my old car I’m sure he’d enjoy having the history and photos from the original owner. And I’d enjoy knowing my ol’ car was stil alive and being well taken care of. There are enough unique things that Id’ done to mine to be able to confirm whether it’s the same vehicle.
I too had the rear spoiler and the front spoiler on my 73 Vega. Again…bought mine from JC Whitney too. Didn’t have the oil gauge.
When I rebuilt my engine at 80k miles I steel sleeved it and bought 11:1 compression ration pistons. Also bought a new intake manifold and a dual Holly carb setup. Now where near the power of a V8…but I’ll bet it was at least 50% more power then the stock Vega-GT.
Yea…there’s a scene where Jodie foster is driving to the observatory…and there are a bunch of people camping out lining the road. Because the star where the signal came from was “Vega”…There was a contingent of Vega owners there.