PDA

View Full Version : Article: Chevy Vega Vert-A-Pac



Steve Holmes
03-06-2013, 03:01 AM
16513

I had to share these pics. Many of you would have already seen them, but they make for such an interesting story.

The Chevy Vega may not go down in history as the greatest car ever produced, but they were designed and built to be shipped around the US in these very nifty Vert-A-Pacs, to cut down the freight cost for shipping each vehicle to its respective Chevrolet dealer, and, therefore, cutting down on the retail price for each car.

The Vert-A-Pac was a joint venture between General-Motors and Southern Pacific Railroad. Prior to its creation, a maximum 15 cars could be transported per rail car, but the Vert-A-Pac could transport 30 Vega's on the same sized rail car.

The Vert-A-Pac was actually designed for the Vega, with the intention being to reduce freight costs for each vehicle, to reduce the price paid by the end consumer for their little Chevy. Each rail car was designed and built with 30 doors that would fold down, onto which a Vega would be rolled on and strapped down. Then a forklift would raise each door, with the Vega attached to it, until the door and Vega were positioned vertically, the Vega's positioned nose down.

As the Vega's were transported ready to go, including all fluids, they were designed with an oil baffle in the engine, repositioned windscreen washer reservoir, and special battery, all built in for their Vert-A-Pac journey.

Steve Holmes
03-06-2013, 03:06 AM
More pics here.

16522

16523

16521

Powder
03-06-2013, 06:25 AM
16513

I wonder if they're unloading the cars in this photo as the guy in the blue shirt looks like he's had a really uncomfortable journey. :)

Great idea though. It would make unloading simple. At each railway station the customer could choose their colour and down would come their car without disturbing any of the others.

Spgeti
03-06-2013, 07:09 AM
Thats pretty cool Steve. Nice little car with a 350 transplanted plus all the other running gear.

rawill
03-06-2013, 07:06 PM
I wonder, did they take the batteries out! Hope so, or were they AGM, I doubt it.

John McKechnie
03-06-2013, 09:33 PM
This really is mass production stuff, it looks fantastic concept and it obviously worked.
Coupled to an excellent rail network.
And the Americans did it all themselves.
Nowadays the Chinese would do all this for them............

Steve Holmes
03-06-2013, 10:27 PM
I wonder, did they take the batteries out! Hope so, or were they AGM, I doubt it.

Yep, they had the battery installed when travelling. The batteries were designed specifically for the cars being tipped up nose first.

kiwi285
03-07-2013, 01:35 AM
Necessity is the mother of invention. Wonder if they thought of using it with any other cars. Seems like a great scheme.

Alasdair Brass
04-01-2013, 08:59 PM
The Delco battery was fully sealed (an industry first I believe) and enabled the car to be tipped. Vega's were also the first car in the world to be robot welded and air tunnel flow checked by computer. An interesting little car in many ways but totally uninspiring. A Cosworth Vega, now that would be nice to own !!

Al