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hammerdown7 wrote:Hi Chris,
Yes, it had the original 2.3L Katech modified Cosworth.
Dick
Kenova wrote:hammerdown7 wrote:Hi Chris,
Yes, it had the original 2.3L Katech modified Cosworth.
Dick
I didn't realizes that Katech had been around that long.
Wonder if they have any left?
Ken
A quick history;
My business partner, Jack Juratovic, myself, and a friend involved in SCCA racing came upon the idea of a "street" IMSA-style Monza package that we could aftermarket in body panel kits. At the time, Jack and myself were pretty good buddies with Vince Piggens and Gene Malloy at Chevrolet Div. Performance HQ because we had already done certain aero body parts contracted by/to Chev Div for racing (ie: Yenko Vegas, Camaros and others). We took a gamble and built the first Monza Mirage out of our own beer money and showed it to Vince who immediately told us it was too good to be a magazine-sell body kit. He introduced us to Bob Krupka who was head of Chevrolet Marketing-Planning who bought into the idea with enthusiasm but had to get approval from GM Design for a Chev Div go-ahead..
Enter corporate politics and prejudices: Charles (Chuck/Charlie) Jordan VP and chief of GM Design "didn't like whale-tails". Scrapped that deal. Jerry Palmer, head of Corvette/Camaro at the time, said the NASA scoops on the front air dam looked "too much like something Ford would do:" Scrapped that little detail (interestingly, shortly thereafter, the Camaro Z-28 sported the largest phoney NASA scoops on the hood that industry has ever seen). What to do?
Well, since Chevrolet Marketing WANTED this car, we sez to GM Design, why don't YOU guys just scale-down the IMSA body, make your own changes and we'll build it? Case solved. There's still some of our touch in tweaking the final appearance and feasibility, and although I'm still in love with the original Rapide styling, I think the Mirage was and (still) is a successful commentary on the "neat car genre". Can't believe it's been over thirty years.
I've even found a couple of sketch proposals for Buick Division (your car) that would utilize the Mirage body panels with Buick-specific graphics. We also did some Olds-Division proposals with a unique rear fascia treatment and specific graphics, but nothing ever came of these (GM) marketing ideas. Even though they would have probably helped our cash-flow at the time, I'm glad nothing came to fruition. These clones would have diluted the Mirage impact.
monzajer wrote:Interesting, too, how he sez "clones".
cheers, jer
It was called the HS, and IIRC, meant "Hurst Skyhawk". We had done the original Hurst/Olds Indy 500 pace car and later were suppliers of the "T-top" parts that Hurst (later Cars and Concepts, Brighton, MI) produced for Buick, Olds and Pontiac (F car) on a drop-ship program such as ours with the Mirage. That was the Hurst name connection with our Buick and Olds H body proposals and was favorable with Buick and Olds marketing.
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