October 17, 2018

Stair-built Chevrolet Monza race ready and for sale

Ken Perrotti and his brother Chris rebuilt the car together, and did an exquisite ground-up restorative job. The engine is a 600 hp Chevy 358 cubic inch V8, which is topped by a large Holley carburetor, and has a $5,000 custom stainless steel crossover header exhaust.

The racecar was built in 1980 by Pat Stair of Minneapolis, and still has its original Borg-Warner Super T-10 4-speed, which is coupled to a Schiefer quick-change rear differential. When Perrotti acquired the Monza, it came with Hurst/Airheart disc brakes, which he changed over to a new Wilwood 6-piston type.

This born-again Monza weighs in at 2,400 pounds, as was the target weight on the IMSA AAGT racecar in the 1970s, giving it a neck-snapping ratio of 4.00 lbs/hp. That's essentially identical to the Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach Package having 3,616 lbs and 887 hp, or 4.08 lbs/hp for the street production sports car.

The Monza, formerly driven by Carl Shafer, Dick Kantrud, Marshal Kirkof, and Rick Balderson was trailered to Lime Rock Park in August for the annual vintage festival, but Perrotti chose not to run the car. They discovered the new engine was had a high oil pressure issue and didn't want to risk damaging in the race. Since then the problem has been fixed. Perrotti also said he is going to sell the Monza, and move on to a new project car.

We hope to see the old JRS Racing Monza on the vintage circuit, and is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It would be fitting if the next owner(s) brought the car back home to Minneapolis, Minnesota. We shall see what the car's future provenance will be.


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