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8.52 ET @ 159

Our family had a Chevette in early 80's. It was the car my brother and I learned to drive on. My brother had the car one Saturday and was with some friends and it stopped running which led to being towed to shop to find out it broke the timing belt. Car had under 60k miles, I remember my Dad being so pissed off at GM and the eventual cost.

Heres one around me. Has a lil ol 427 powering it now.

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My Mother in law wanted a new one in 1980 but wanted A/C, so we had to order it. When I went to the dealer where we got our company cars, the salesman said" Cant get A/C on a Chevette" Well we could and we did, also ordered P/S, tinted Glass, rear defog, AM/FM cassette, Tilt and the extra cost wheel covers. My Mother in law loved it as it was her first ever new car and it was "factory Ordered" . Had a plaque made that read "Built for Dorothy P. Nelson" She always though the factory put that on there for her. The A/C really sucked the power out of this and there were no changes made to compensate for the extra weight. Within six months both front coil springs broke. There was no HD spring for A/C cars. She kept it three years and it only had 15,000 miles on it but it was beat!
We used to rent Chevettes from Alamo we we visited Florida in the 80's,as they were $69.00 per week all in. Driveing across Alligator Alley one night we were cruising at 80 (floored) and switched on the A/C on and it was like deploying a parachute, speed dropped to 65 MPH (floored). Did this a few times as it was amusing.

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Our family had a few Chevettes/Pontiac Acadians back in the day, cheap/reliable S'-boxes also good winter cars w/ a set o' snows.
From midnight laps @ Mosport to girls in the back, I had way too many adventures w/ these little T-cars to ever hate them now.
Here in Ontario Canada (where the Big-3 pay for the road salt?), most needed door bottoms and front upper shock mounts welded at some point in their lives also one broke a cam in half once but an easy swap.
Never had a timing belt break but one jumped off one Sunday afternoon and was too stretched to stay on, the roadside fix was a roll of black tape wound around the idler/tensioner to enlarge it and make up for the belt length difference...worked great and I forget if I ever fixed it properly later or not?
More body styles were available overseas w/ the Vauxhall/Opel versions, 4-Dr. Sedans & 2-Dr. Wagons also Ute Pickups too.
:beers:
~ Pete


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Learned how to drive in a 1978(?) Chevette in the ubiquitous light blue color, then taught a girl I was digging how to drive. Good times.