For all of us lowly Vega drivers, this was what our cars aspired to be...lol

If there was an unofficial car of Championship Auto Racing Teams, the CART contingent that operated Indycar races in the final decades of the 20th century, it was the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega.

The Cosworth-enhanced economy hatchbacks weren’t used on the oval track and road courses — at least not in official competition — but they were the choice of personal transportation for many of the CART race-day officials.

In full racing guise, including dry-sump lubrication and used in Chevron and Lola purpose-built racing chassis, the engines could pump out as much as 260 horsepower. In the guise of the Z09 Cosworth Vega models, the engines were rated at 110 horsepower (with 8.0:1 compression). That was 40 more ponies that the 2.3-liter 4-banger in the standard Vega.

The resulting cars cost about twice the price of the standard Vega, which pushed them to within $1,000 of the 1975 Corvette base price. But they were light and quick, and with manual gearboxes, they were very much fun to drive.