January 2016
May 15th, 2016 by Sherry Grantz
NOTES FROM THE ARCHIVE – THE DEKON MONZA
One of the great race cars to come out of the Trans Am series in the 1970’s was the fire breathing Dekon Monza. Based on the Chevrolet Monza subcompact car, the Dekon Monza was a tube frame car with a powerful V8 engine designed to compete against the IMSA Porsche’s. The story behind the Monza and Dekon is an interesting one and really begins with World War II.
The Dekon Monza was an impressive machine with tube frame chassis, powered by a 600 hp, smallblock V8 engine yet weighting only 2400 lbs. The cars were very fast and competitive thanks in part to their excellent 50/50 weight distribution. Over a three year period, Dekon Engineering produced seventeen racecars, fourteen of them Monzas. After some initial teething problems in 1975, Al Holbert took his Monza to the IMSA Championship in 1976 and 1977.