So, a couple weeks ago, Hooniverse workhorse tips line contributor, MV, sent in the above images of this Buick Skyhawk mentioning he had not seen this body style Buick previously and did we know what year it was? Of course we Hoons on that tips line quickly informed him of this body style mentioning the Chevy Monza, Olds Starfire and Pontiac Sunbird as well. I even commented that my daughter, you remember her, TheSmartOne, anyway her Mom owned one of these H body styles back in the day when she was in college. However, her’s was the Pontiac Sunbird notchback edition. As a matter of fact, there is a notchback Bowtie version with a big ass V8 down in the bay beneath me as I type this up in The Garage where I hang my hat these days.
Well, my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan has previously mentioned how it seems I will see a quasi rare vehicle one day and see another similar to it shortly thereafter. This past weekend out at the Rolex24 at Daytona, this recurrence was once again proven to be the case. But all ya’all will need to make the jump to see it.
Yeah, there this olelongrooffan was, checking out the Hurley Haywood tribute cars and some of the other cool shit Joie Chitwood and his team had assembled out there that Rolex weekend when I stumbled upon this old race car. This one is equally as cool and just as rare as rare as some of those old Porsches. It is an old aero Chevy Monza. And while the Vega based production version of this body style left much to be desired, this tube frame race car is just beautiful to this olelongrooffan. I mean just take in that mid 70’s styling and stance.
This racecar is referred to as the Dekon Monza. It was built in a a collaborative effort between Chevrolet, Dekon Engineering and Lee Dykstra and Horst Kwech to win the then new IMSA AAGT class in that now defunct racing series. While the production based Monza was offered with the ever crappy Vega aluminum 4 cylinder as standard, this one is powered by a small block Corvette 350. Of course, what else but a SBC?
And lest you think this 1976 and 1977 IMSA class winning Monza is a restored trailer queen, I can only ask my fellow Hoons to check out the stress and age cracks on the fiberglass front spoiler in the above image. Yes, excellent original patina just waiting to be seen by this olelongrooffan. Thanks Joie.
While the front end of this race car sported a combination of oversized round and rectangular headlights, the ass end of this thing is even more outrageous. It sports a factory based rear fascia with huge fender overlays and a spoiler that almost puts the Uberbird to shame. Almost. I did note the horizontal fin on this spoiler was adjustable by about one inch.
And the cockpit of this Al Holbert driven beast was stuffed with more gauges and old school toggle switches than any Hoon can shake a stick at. Yeah, all around a cool ass sighting for this olelongrooffan and definitely the first time I had ever seen one of these IMSA Monzas in the flesh, so to speak. As a bonus, this H body along with most of those Heritage Exhibition cars did a few parade laps around the road course a little later in the day.
And as much as this olelongrooffan wanted to stay around and just take in the beauty of this old survivor….
What’s that over there?
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2013/longrooffan
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