In previous Shitbox Showdowns, we’ve featured some pretty rough cars. I’ve shown you plenty of things that need full restoration, many that didn’t run, but I’ve always tried to stick to cars with at least a modicum of hope left.
Today, not so much. Today’s choices you’d have to be absolutely, utterly, and in all other ways batshit off-the-rails crazy to take on as a project. But if you were able to get either one of them back into respectable condition, you’d be an absolute backyard-mechanic god. So let’s finish up with our sports coupes from yesterday, and then dive in.
The Camaro takes it. Hell yeah. That’s my choice too. What’s that, Supra fans? Speak up; I can’t hear you over my Mötley Crüe tape.
All right, let’s get into the weeds, literally. Those of you who have complained about there being no good choices in the past, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Today we have two rare but not especially valuable cars, cars that would be cool if they were shiny and running and driving and all that, but are anything but shiny. Or running. Or driving. Grab your best hazmat suit, and let’s dig in.
1975 Chevrolet Cosworth Vega – $1,200
Engine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter DOHC inline 4, 4 speed manual, RWD
Location: Glendale, AZ
Odometer reading: 46,922 miles
Runs/drives? Um, no
This may look like a dilapidated pile of cobweb-covered shit, and it is. But… it’s also number 53 of only 3,508 of its kind. The Cosworth Vega was British lipstick on Chevy’s sharp-looking but fragile pig of a compact car. It’s a vast improvement over the two million other Vegas churned out over the course of the 1970s, a legitimately quick (for 1975) and good-handling little sports coupe.
At least, when all the parts are assembled in their correct places, it is. This Vega is an absolute disaster, and looks like it has been sitting in this condition for quite a long time. It comes with a spare Cosworth engine, which is sitting where the passenger seat should be. The location of the passenger seat, and the rest of the interior for that matter, is a mystery.
But since there are two of those revvy little Cosworth engines included, there’s a good chance someone could assemble one good one from what’s here. And because it has been sitting in dry and sunny Arizona, there isn’t much rust to contend with, especially for a Vega. One would be wise to be on the lookout for potentially bitey and venomous creatures while rummaging through this mess, however.
It’s kind of a shame to see this car sitting in this condition, knowing that it’s not really worth bringing back. But hope springs eternal, and I will be rooting for this little car to find a forever home that isn’t a junkyard. But I’m not holding my breath.
1976 Bradley GT – $1,400
Engine/drivetrain: Flat 4 of unknown displacement, 4 speed manual, RWD
Location: Snellville, GA
Odometer reading: unknown
Runs/drives? Also no
Rather than being hand-built just off to the side of a normal mass-production line like the Cosworth Vega, this car wasn’t produced in a factory at all. Or at least, it wasn’t assembled in one. Bradley Automotive was one of many companies making VW Beetle-based kit cars in the 1970s. Under the swoopy fiberglass body, this car is a garden-variety Bug, assembled in somebody’s garage.
The Bradley GT was first introduced in 1970, and was sold in kit form. The body is sized to fit on a stock-wheelbase Beetle floor pan, rather than requiring that the floorpan be shortened like the Meyers Manx and other dune buggies did. This simplified the conversion greatly. The GT has a fiberglass body, like nearly all VW kit cars, and removable clear plastic gullwing doors. When the doors are off, it’s a vaguely dune-buggy-like sports car with a T-bar roof. A tiny shelf of a back seat lets you share the ride with two small friends you don’t like very much.
This Bradley GT was built in 1975 by the seller’s family, but has apparently been left to rot. Shame, really; that’s a lot of work to let waste away. My hope is that they enjoyed it for many years before it was parked. It now has seized front brakes, and who knows what condition the rest of the mechanicals are in?
Speaking of which, there’s no indication of what powers this car (it would have originally come with a 1600cc VW motor). Air-cooled VW engines are so numerous and come in so many different flavors that it could be almost anything. Chances are it has been hot-rodded to some degree; why build a sporty kit car and leave the 40 horsepower economy car engine in it?
My favorite design element of the Bradley GT has to be the hidden headlights. They don’t pop up as you might expect; the lights are fixed, and the doors drop down into the nose of the car to expose them. Some GT builders removed these opaque covers and installed fixed clear plastic covers instead, but I like the original setup better, even with the forlorn face this one appears to be making.
Neither one of these cars makes financial sense to restore. But financial sense is not, and never has been, a good reason to fix up an old car. You fix up an old car because you see something in it, some spark of potential, some glimpse of what it once was and could be again. Is there such a spark left in either of these cars? If so, is it the rare factory hot rod, or the home-built exotic?
(image credits: Craigslist sellers – Vega and GT)
completely depends on what you would want to do here. if making them run again and just driving them is the goal then the Bradley is likely easier and cheaper. Also electrifying that would be arguably simpler since Bug electric conversions have been around a while. but here me out. the Vega motors could likely be sold for more than the entire price of this Vega mess. And GM SBC engines fit in there since they were new, so a cheap 5.3 with 2wd trans from a GM pickup would make that little guy a screamer.
When I was but a wee lad, I dated a girl who’s dad had a Cosworth Vega. It looked like a pinstriped Ford Pinto to me. That is to say, I would rather have the Bradley than a fancy looking Pinto.
Um, the Vega I guess, because it’s $200 cheaper and is probably worth more as scrap. Both options involve spending money on literal trash, so I’ll spend less money on the more valuable piece of trash and come out, if not ahead, then at least less far behind.
I wouldn’t touch either of these. One is full of snakes and scorpions and the other is full of mold, spiders. It is far easier and safer to just set your money on fire.
Yup. Cause the only way to get rid of all those creepy crawlies is to burn it with fire. You just saved a step
Today’s choices are particularly interesting to me, as both are cars I’d be interested in owning and have been casually looking for for years.
The Vega – One of my crazy project car ideas is to build a Vega into an homage to the Ford Escort Mexico, complete with all the 70s graphics and Minilites and whatnot, but powered with the LNF/6 speed out of a Pontiac Solstice GXP. While a desert car is interesting for the aforementioned rust issues Vegas are famous for, the Cosworth thing is irrelevant to me, and it isn’t as exciting as it should be. The original concept was going to be much better than what we ultimately got, but because of GM delays the final product was choked off by 1975 vintage emissions regulations. Plus ’74 and newer Vegas (and most GM cars really) 5MPH bumper integration sucks. I’d prefer a ’71-’73 that hasn’t been V8 swapped. I know, good luck with that.
The Bradley – Another one of my crazy project car ideas is to make a mash up between a Bradley GT and a Baja Bug. This is the better, first generation GT that uses a C3 Corvette windshield, which is infinitely easier to source that the bespoke windshield they use in the second generation GT.
I’ll take the GT. It’s less of a car and it’s in better condition.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks an off-road Bradley GT would be cool.
The Bradly. It already is a kit car, and it looks like most of the parts are there, just filthy. Getting all the drive train parts for a Beetle based car is not bad. I bet if you hit that thing with a pressure washer and cleaned the interior, it would be shocking the difference.
I’d take the Bradley because it’s less rare and far less interesting. Neither of these shitboxes are going to come back to life while in my care. At least if I take the Bradley, the Cosworth Vega would still have some small chance of ever being restored.
That said, it would be fun to get those Cosworth engines running again, and finding interesting homes for them. Nowhere near enough fun for me to actually do it, though.
The Bradley looks like easy, cheap fun. Best possible fate for a shitbox.
The Cosworth may be “valuable” because of a nifty motor, but I just don’t want it. Doesn’t do anything for me. At least with the Bradley I can pretend to be driving a slot car, or the Mach 5.
I think this is the first time I did not vote in favor of a Bug flavor. Looking at where it (assumed) to be resting for however long scares me. Although the easier of the two to potentially give life to, it looks like it will need a new donor Bug making the body and wheels the only parts to work with. I would bet the entire pan is gone at this point.
The Vega, yes the VEGA, at least has enough to get it going again and would be worth more in the long run. If only it had flip up headlights.
A running Cosworth in restored condition should be worth north of $15K, especially these days. Of course, it will likely cost twice that to get it there. Still, it’d be a great little ride if you can pull it off.
Actually, the pan is in good shape. The battery box isn’t even rusted through. I know this because I bought! It now resides in my garage.
Egads, man.
Insert Nope.gif here.
“Neither of these cars make financial sense to restore.”
Ah, but one does – the Vega.
“Wait, what?”
I mean, you’re not going to turn a huge profit because of parts and labor costs these days. But prices on Cosworth Vegas are MUCH higher than you think. Good condition examples going for $15k+ and concours at $43k. And that’s DOWN from prior highs.
And the Cosworth motor and it’s issues are VERY well understood thanks to passionate and dedicated owners. Not to mention that all of the Cosworth engine’s problems were extremely solvable when it was new. Chevy cut the wrong costs (completely inadequate and ineffective rustproofing they knew about, slashing assembly and quality checks, using dime store hardware all over the place) and tried to charge twice as much as a regular Vega. Dumbasses. Every single ‘horrible’ problem is easy fixes – GM just chose to put profit over reliability and good engineering as usual.
But it’s a good motor. How good? The initial GM version was more than DOUBLE the horsepower – 290BHP. Cosworth’s in-house race motors were good for over 450BHP. Mr. Costin and Mr. Duckworth do not fuck around. Achieving over 200HP without compromising reliability excessively is very achievable. So worst case, you have one hell of a fun little track day car.
Guy across the street from me collects Vegas. Not Cosworth Vegas, just regular ones. he’s had like six. When I first met him, 10+ years ago, I said something about how I’d always thought a Cosworth Vega would be cool as hell to have, and they were starting to be worth more $. He told me he’d never heard of the Cosworth Vega.
That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. Does he have any Vegas currently?
three, including one he stuffed a 350 into.
I went to high school with a kid who had a 350 Vega conversion. It wasn’t a very good one. He just yanked an engine and gearbox out of an old truck and shoved it into the hapless little car in his backyard. As I recall, he used chains in lieu of motor mounts. I think the only other modification he did was to slap fat tires on the back.
The result was a relatively quick, incredibly dangerous car that was only capable of short trips and doing burnouts in front of the schoolhouse. He managed to survive high school because the poor tortured little beast’s engine overheated and seized up when he tried to make a 60-mile round trip one day. The donor truck’s radiator didn’t fit in the Vega, so he’d left the original one in the car.
The good thing about being a Vega collector is that you can keep them all in a large bucket.
Worth it just in parts
I agree. It’s totally plausible that you’d be able to construct at least one fully functional engine from two complete specimens. A competent machine shop should be able to get the blocks, heads, and internal parts up to snuff. That is as long as the blocks and heads aren’t cracked, in which case you’d have a couple of pretty cool anchors.
This is the correct answer.
“But it’s a good motor. How good? The initial GM version was more than DOUBLE the horsepower – 290BHP. Cosworth’s in-house race motors were good for over 450BHP. Mr. Costin and Mr. Duckworth do not fuck around. Achieving over 200HP without compromising reliability excessively is very achievable. So worst case, you have one hell of a fun little track day car. ”
I dunno, I think if it were me I’d just get a Honda K20 and call it a day.
The Bradley looks to be in better shape, and easier to (re)build, but I’ve seen one done up as a track only car that just RIPS. Now all of them either need to meet or exceed that build, and I’m not the man for that.
Give me the Cosworth.
I actually laughed out loud when I saw the engine laying sideways in the Vega, and then I went and voted for it.
It looks like nice ones go between 15k and 30k. There is an an unrestored one available with 287 original miles for 27k which would probably be a better idea if you really wanted one.
https://www.sweetridesfl.com/inventory/32/1976-chevrolet-cosworth-vega
Honestly the more I am thinking about this the more I really want to actually buy the Vega. It is a damn good thing I don’t have room for it otherwise I would have already offered the guy 1000 bucks sight unseen. I’d still have to get it to KC form Arizona and by the end of it I could write my own “It cost me 15 times more than the purchase price to get my rare shitbox back on the road” article.
If there is anyone reading this in the KC area that has some land and is willing to let me “park” it there for a while, reach out and you might just help me make a bad decision.
I’ve been looking at properties that have a little bit of land and hopefully a shop already built. I have my F150 that I slowly working on, and my wife grandfather is talking about shipping his 1977 Mercedes 450SEL and 450SL to me “to fix”. I know nothing about the cars other than they both bog down at 25mph and nothing about 1977s Mercedes in general but I’ll be damned if I don’t want that big boat of car to cruise around it. Toss it a terrible Vega and getting property and a shop is starting to sound like a quick way to make my wife leave me.
You and I need to stay away from each other. I live an hour from kc and have enough land to keep a nice sized junkyard. Some days it’s all I can do to not bring home projects.
Well, at least you’ve thought it out.
I want both. To LS swap.
Many years back I *almost* bought a non-running GT40 kit built on a VW chassis. It looked SO awesome! But in hindsight it would have been positively miserable to drive.
I’d go with the Bradley. It’s based on a VW Beetle so parts are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. I rebuilt the engine of my 1972 Super Beetle in my garage, with no special tools other than piston ring compressor. To me the Bradley appears in better shape, it’s filthy but everything seems to be there and in the right place.
I’ve always liked the looks of the Vega and channeling my inner Torch, the tail lights speak to me for some odd reason. This is what Pandemic used car pricing has wrought, when someone decides their vehicular junk pile is worth something more than scrap price.
The Bradley…I’d have to paint it red and replace Bradley GT with Coyote down the side.
Drive!
Push it to the floor till the engine screams.
Drive!
Drivin’ like the demon that drives your dreams.
If you really want a Coyote, you’d need to find a Manta Montage kit rather than a Bradley GT.
Not to mention a retired judge with whom he could partner to go after criminals that got off on technicalities.
Gotta keep your wheels on the straight and narrow if you wanna survive…
The Vega is like the Escort we all dream of finding in a barn except it’s actually there, in a barn, for the taking.
Bradley.
I’d buy that (read: dicker the seller down $400+) for those sweet wheels alone. Honestly though, it looks like less of a basket case than the Cosworth Vega and more complete. Plus, who doesn’t love quad lamp flip-up headlights? Paging Jason! This thing looks like its claim to fame would’ve been a bit part as the protagonist’s car in some obscure film directed by a washed-up-now-adult childhood actor.
When I was a kid, one of my neighbors was building a Bradley GT in his garage. 8 year old me thought it was the coolest car in the world. It got to about 80% and then sat for a few years before disappearing one day.
When I was in high school, there was a guy with a V8 swapped Vega. 16 year old me thought it was the coolest car in the world….It never ran right and it was a nightmare to work on. By then, Vegas had developed a terrible reputation and you could buy one for a couple of hundred bucks, less if the engine was blown (which it always was).
A real Cosworth Vega is probably too valuable when restored to LS swap, but someone else’s Bradley is just too scary to contemplate. I’m sitting this one out.
I picked the Cosworth, but in reality, the Bradley would look awesome, if and ever when it is fully restored. The motor for the GR Corolla would make this car awesome, or any engine from a wrecked Porsche.
I’d take the Bradley. It would become an EV conversion with a LoneStar pack and Tesla Model 3 drivetrain. A roll cage would be added. Just think of what a 1,600 lb car with 283 electric horsepower would be like. Can’t go wrong. I wouldn’t even bother making it look nice. The fiberglass body will be just fine without paint. The goal being to have a car that is all go, no show. I’d hoon that!
I choose the Bradley. If I’m going to pick a car that’s going to end up sitting in my yard because I quickly realized I’m in way over my head, I at least want it to look interesting.
My thoughts exactly
Exactly. I picked the Bradley because you could clean it up a bit and park it in the yard for your little kid to play boy-racer.
OOOF. Talk about rough here. I’m going Cosworth. At the end of the day it was at least built to some degree of a standard. No telling what you’re going to find in an almost 50 year old kit car built in a shed.
Both are awful, but at least the Bradley would give you a chance of finding parts to make it run. I believe the Cosworth Vegas were only good on paper and the realities of owning one were far, far, different.