Have you ever had a car that you now wish you'd kept? I got my driver's license during the heyday of muscle cars, when GM. Ford, and Chrysler were in a battle for the hearts and souls of young drivers, aided by songs like,
409.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKKP_cZuk54
Li'l GTO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_FSicQWimU
Little Ol' Lady From Pasadena https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MhiHZvq8zc
Shutdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nll2r0h8rRE
After a few "almost good enough" rides, I finally got my hands on my dream car.......a '65 Malibu SS with an L79 327.
re the VW's
OMG ! 
Thank you for post the itinerary. I can't believe I have never heard of this event. I'm going to try and get down there for at least one day. I really need to find the leaking fuel line in my van and get it back on the road. (It's not a real kombi, it's the first watercooled model)
The one that got away from my husband...Of which I was quite happy about...he was devastated that he couldnt bring it back in the shipping container from the US.
So, what does it cost to build a mouse motor in OZ? I put less than $600 into my 331 for my Monza.........'course I got the block free, sold the rest of the 350 I bought for the heads, and no charge on the machine work.
Oh, and it was back in '77........
There is a "mouse" in this and she runs a seven second pass
The Vega was designed to compete with the Ford Zippo Pinto, strictly as an economy car. It boasted one innovation, an aluminum motor without steel sleeves..........which wasn't altogether successful. One had to stay on top of maintenance, get the engine hot, and if it didn't blow a head gasket, it would start using oil. We had a girl pull in for gas in one, and it wouldn't start.......I was called over, and carefully removed the radiatior cap. As she cranked it, smoke rings were puffed out. I told her she had at least blown a head gasket, and asked if she wanted me to run a compression test to see which cylinders were gone. She agreed, and I pulled all the plugs (big mistake) and screwed the gauge into #1. When she cranked it, boiling hot water squirted out of #'s 2 and 3......right onto my face. Fortunately I was wearing specs, 'cause as the water flowed down each side of my nose, the sking came with it.
Later, Chevrolet introduced the Vega GT, then the Cosworth Vega to appeal to the Yuppie sports crowd.
The Vega and the Monza share the same chassis, transmission (Saginaw 4-speed) and rear end/suspension. A long arm runs from the transmission, paralleling the driveline, to the rear end. This limited (in the case of my Monza) the substitution of more durable equipment. The other weak point was the cable-actuated clutch system..........I broke at least one cable a year, once when I was pulling it into a lube bay.
Soon after I had completed the engine swap in the Monza, the guy who did the machine work accompanyed me for a cruise through town, where we encountered a '76 Mustang II Cobra, with a big 351 decal on the side. Long story short, we went up on the freeway, and I train-lengthed him........His passenger swore that I pulled the front wheels when I launched........
At the same time the 2+2 Monza was introduced, the was a Monza Town Coupe also available......I looked for years to find one of the early examples with the big quarter window. I had visions of shoehorning a small block into it, and painting it black, for my daughter (yeah, right).......
Here's me, adjusting the valves at the drag strip........note the glass hood sitting on the roof.
