Mark Francis has an addiction to H-Body Chevy Monza's. Our main story is about Mark's green Chevy Monza nick-named Louie the Lizard, later on we will take a look at his other projects that he has brewing in the garage, from the past to the present Mark has built some cool hot rods .
From a young age Mark was exposed to racing from listening to his Father's stories of his street
racing days and how his Mother went along with him. When he got older he
would work on his fathers cars and amassed a wealth of knowledge. While still in high school Mark began building cars for himself and for his friends.
Mark said he bought this Monza coupe around 2000 to go racing while his Monza hatchback was getting tubbed out. The car is a 1975 Chevy Monza Towne Coupe that was purchased as a roller. He said it was heavy and hideous. It needed more work than he imagined. This was Mark's first big tire car but it wasn't his last as we will see later on.
When he brought the Monza home it was in grey primer and most of the car was made of heavy 10 gauge steel !
It weighed 3600 pounds, so he put it on a diet. It didn't have a trunk floor, but it had wheel tubs and a keg for a fuel cell. Mark stated that all hood and trunk panel bracing was removed as well as the crash bars in each door.
The interior is all business with light weight aluminum door panels and an aluminum dashboard filled with minimal Auto Meter gauges.
Mark rebuilt this car numerous times. The first time he tore out the firewall, dash, and interior floors and installed aluminum. He also removed the 1” thick plates they used for motor mounts. It was originally set up for a big block Chevy. He had had a lot work ahead of him to get his small block installed.
The first engine that was installed wasn't that powerful but Mark's first outing was 11 second passes. He went through two small blocks before he decided to build one good one. The next engine Mark built built ran low 11s and finally he was getting into the high 10 second zone!
In 2009 the car was stolen, Mark hired a lawyer that fought for him to get the car back. Roughly two years later and stripped of parts the car was reunited with him. The paint was ruined, and it was left outside so a lot of the components were rusty if not broken.
Mark almost sold what remained of the car for parts. However, a Facebook group talked him into rebuilding it. Mark stated it took two more years of hard work but he now has a high 9-second car that is naturally aspirated.
The work was done by Mark and a few friends here and there, now after two or three rebuilds its now complete.
Specs:
The engine is a 350 Dart Little M block bored .030 over. The crankshaft is a GM Forged Steel 3.480 stroke piece, connecting rods are by Manley, pistons are by SRP with a compression ratio of 12.8:1. The cylinder heads are Brodix Track-1 units with port work done by FCR Performance in Omaha, NE.
The valve springs are Howard's Electra-polished springs, Manley valves feature a 2.08/1.6 with a competition valve job. The rockers are Klein rocker shafts with a 1.6 ratio and the camshaft is a custom solid roller grind that yields a .682/.684 lift and a 106 lobe separation.
The small block is fed through a Bowtie intake manifold that was fitted with a Brodix Turtle. The heads and intake were port matched. The oiling system is handled with a Melling hi-volume oil pump and a Milodon pan with a crank scraper with a windage tray.
For the ignition system an MSD billet distributor with Digital 6 ignition box and a HVC coil were put to work, and Taylor “409” plug wires that are 10.2 mm thick get the voltage to the spark plugs. For exhaust a set of Headman Hustler headers dump into 3-inch collectors and Warlock mufflers when driven on the street.
This is a view of the trunk compartment that Mark rebuilt. It now has a floor and it's home to a polished Nitrous-oxide tank and battery box. The floor and wheel tubs are fully carpeted .
In part II we will feature Mark's past and current builds in our new section called, What's In The Garage !
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