Introduced for the 1971 model year, the Chevrolet Vega was a subcompact aimed primarily at budget-conscious commuters. Debuting just as the clouds began to gather around the muscle car era, the Vega’s mission centered around frugality rather than high performance. But that didn’t stop Byron Burnham of Lincoln, Nebraska, from putting one into organized competition – the first of many Vegas he would own over the years.

“I bought a four-speed ’64 Chevelle SS when I was 16,” he recalls. “At that time I was in an auto shop class, so I’d thrown some speed equipment on it. It was a great car, but then gas prices started going up. Eventually I had to get rid of it, and I replaced it with a ’71 Vega.”

Although the Vega was motivated by a humble naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine and thus not destined for drag racing glory, the car had quietly earned a reputation for its surprisingly good handling thanks to its all-aluminum powerplant, light weight, and front and rear coil spring suspension. “Mine was one of the ‘beefy’ 110 horsepower models,” he says with a laugh. “But I blew that engine. After that, I bought a brand-new block from Chevrolet and added a few performance parts like an intake manifold, carburetor, and a header, and I started autocrossing with it.”

Burnham brought the Chevy to competitive events hosted by Porsche and Corvette owners clubs, slowly working his way up the ranks as his skills and setup improved over the next few years. He went through a variety of Vegas over the ensuing decade, and by the mid-1980s, he was ready to step the platform’s performance up significantly.

“I had this ’77 Vega that had been given to me by my father-in-law at the time, and I decided to put a 350ci small-block V8 in it with an automatic,” he explains. “It was a surprisingly easy swap to do. I was able to use all OEM components because the Chevrolet Monza, which is built on the same platform as the Vega, was available from the factory with a V8.” Later he would also turn his attention to the famed Cosworth Vega, a rare high-performance model introduced in 1975 that served as a homologation car for Chevrolet’s efforts in European touring car racing.

Years had passed since he’d been actively involved in motorsport, but in 2009 Burnham was looking for a new project to take on, and serendipity would inspire him to return to the race grid. “It was the year that the SCCA Nationals came out to Lincoln, Nebraska from their previous Topeka, Kansas location,” he notes. “So I went out to see the event, and then I started talking to some friends about what I should build next.” Unsurprisingly, Burnham’s first choice was a Vega. But this time around, he wanted to go big.

“I’d always liked the wide body kit that Hooker Headers had offered for the Vega in the ‘70s,” he says. “Initially the plan was to build a dedicated track car; something with a 350 small-block and a cage – it wasn’t going to be anything really nice, or even street legal.”

After sourcing a garden-variety 1975 Vega and a Cosworth body, Burnham got the project underway in earnest. But after speaking with Jimi Day of the Ultimate Street Car Challenge at the SEMA Show, the plan soon changed. “That’s when things started to get more involved – if I wanted to compete in the series, the car would have to work on the street, too.”

Initially he’d planned to simply make a few tweaks and swap out the carbureted setup for a fuel injection system to improve the car’s drivability. But then he concluded that it might actually be less expensive to switch over to an LS engine instead. That would send him deeper down the rabbit hole, though: After watching another LS-swapped Vega struggle to put down the power with a suspension that was outfitted with an S10 rear end and spindles, he realized the chassis was going to need significant upgrades in order to keep up with the modern powertrain.

“At that time, Jeg’s was having Woody's Hot Rodz build them a Vega with an LS and full Art Morrison chassis,” he says. “And I’d already found a guy out of Colorado who was building all of this fancy tubular suspension stuff for the Vega as well.”

Burnham ended up combining the tubular front control arms he’d sourced from that builder with an Art Morrison rear suspension system. Afterward, he merged together a Monroe Handler body kit with the aforementioned Hooker Headers body kit, integrating the Monroe setup at the front of the car and the Hooker kit at the rear before sending the car off to a shop in Oregon for paint.

“That was in 2016, and the car was basically ready to go – it was primered and everything. All he had to do was final assembly and paint,” he says. “But he doesn’t like to work with fiberglass, so he ended up building the whole body out of metal." The paint scheme, meanwhile, was created by Murray Pfaff of Pfaff designs. “Murray showed me eight different ideas, and I picked the first one.”

Under the hood of this muscled-up Vega is a Dan Hardy-built aluminum LS3 that’s outfitted with a Hilborn EFI system, a Holley HP ECU, and a set of custom-built headers, a combination that Burnham estimates to be good for about 600 horsepower at the crank. The LS is matched up with a Tremec TKX five-speed manual gearbox and a Strange Engineering rear end.

“During the build process I went to the Grand National Roadster Show, where I came across the Hilborn injection system,” he says. “I wanted to add a little history, a little vintage touch to the car, and the stacks were perfect for that. It definitely adds to the ‘wow factor’ when you pop the hood.”

The tubular front suspension and Art Morrison-sourced rear setup are complemented by QA1 triple-adjustable coilovers, while stopping power is provided by a Wilwood big brake kit with six-piston calipers up front and four-piston units in the rear.

Forged 18x11-inch E-T wheels wrapped in 315mm Falken competition tires put the power to the pavement. It’s also worth noting that all of the body’s various vents, scoops, and lips are functional, providing cooling for the brakes, usable downforce at speed, and additional clearance for the wider wheels and tires.

After the build was completed in 2018, Burnham wasted little time getting back on-track. In the years since, he’s competed in everything from SCCA CAM-T-class autocross events and the Grand Champion competition at LS Fest East to the Sandhills Open Road Challenge, the latter of which consists of a 55-mile rally-style open road race through the Nebraska Sandhills. The car also took top honors at the St. Louis leg of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour in 2019, which in turn earned Burnham a trip to the SEMA Show and no shortage of praise from motorsports luminaries.

“It got a great response – Peter Brock loved it,” he tells us. “When the designer of the Shelby Daytona likes your car, you know you’re doing something right.”