I think part of the problem is that so many North American Chevettes (and their Pontiac equivalents, the 1000 and Acadian) where sold with a 3-speed automatic transmission that made them unbelievably slow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMsXLYFU0pU&feature=youtu.be...

I generally don't care too much about performance. I was completely happy with the performance of my '85 Toyota Tercel with 65hp. But I don't think I could handle 0-60 in 30 seconds...