[james schaechter]

I have a soft spot for those Monzas too. I have had several. My 262 auto was a decent little car for the money I had in it. I found a rusty donor stick car and converted it to a Four speed. I put dual exhaust on it and drilled out the jets on the factory 2bbl.
I also had one with a warmed over 350, t 350 with shift kit, vega convertor and headers. It was my daily driver and weekend bracket bomber. It had air lift bags. Friend of mine drilled the axles for 5 lugs and I never broke that rearend. I ran 8 x 26 slicks on it most of the time. It would go easy low to mid 12s at 109.
I did have problems breaking the rear trans mount due to the torque arm and tearing the rear shock mounts out of the floor at times!
I knew when the trans mount was gone because it would shift into secind on it's own when the trans raised up and pulled on the stock shifter cable! LOL. Made many many runs in that car! Finally, it was just rusting apart to the point where I couldn't keep it together. From a roll, it was a pretty good street performer and never left me stranded as my daily driver.