Vauxhall Motors Classic Cars From The 1970’s

 Vauxhall Motors classics from the 1970s and 1980s.

Vauxhall Motors is a subsidiary company of the American giant General Motors.  Technically Vauxhall is also a subsidiary of Opel the German branch of General Motors.  It is widely known that GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009.  Opel was to be sold to Magna a Canadian owned company, however the deal fell through and the fate of Opel and Vauxhall as a brand hangs in the balance.

I would like in this article to turn back the time clock to the 1970s and 1980s when in my opinion Vauxhall produced some cracking cars to drive and were in their day head turners.  You maybe interested in,

http://athingforcars.com/reviews/the-ford-capri-ruled-the-roads-in-the-1970s/

Another article on the same time period,

http://quazen.com/recreation/autos/british-leyland-made-four-half-decent-cars/

The Vauxhall VX/490.  Is actually a name that covers sporty Vauxhall’s from 1968 until 1978. The early VX/490 were based on the Victor series of cars which were a saloon and estate family car.  The Victor’s sold well enough in their own right but Vauxhall wanted a share of the sporty market that Ford seemed to be owning, with their Capri’s and Escort’s and not forgetting the Lotus Cortina. 

The VX/490 had various sized engines fitted in its 4 year production the most common were the 1.8 ohc (Overhead camshaft engine) The 2.0 ohc and the 2.3 ohc engines. There was also a 3.3lt twin carburettor version which was rare, the engine was lifted from the Cresta range of Vauxhall’s.  Transmissions were 3-speed column mounted manual gearbox and floor mounted 4 and 5 speed gearboxes.

The VX/40 was probable best known when based on the FD and FE series saloons. I have worked on the VX/490’s in both FD and FE. The VX/490 had twin headlights and bucket seats.  The dashboards had 6 dials relating to engine temperature and oil pressure, with a rev counter as standard to add to the overall sporty feel of driving the VX/490. 

Acceleration of the VX was good for time period and could easily match the Capri’s and Escorts that sold so well for Ford.  Top speed on the VX’490 range was around the 100mph mark with the exception of the 2.3ohc twin carburettor VX/490 that could knock on the door of 115mph! Very rare in the 1970’s.

The Vauxhall Viva HA/HB/HC. The Viva was produced between 1963 and 1975. It was classified as a small family saloon. The basic Viva models were indeed basic and were fitted with a 1.0lt engine in HA and in HB a 1.2lt and 1.6lt engines were fitted along with 4-speed manual gearboxes. As with the VX/490 Vauxhall wanted to cash in on the craze for sporty cars and they produced the Viva GT which had a 2.0lt ohc engine. 

Being a light saloon car the HB GT accelerated very well with the 2.0lt twin carburettor engine fitted. Styling now to me seems odd! But at the time I remember staring at the Viva GT with envious eyes! The GT had a black painted bonnet and Rostyle wheels to differentiate it from the old mans Viva!

I worked in a Vauxhall/Volvo main agent for many years and had the experience of working on all the vehicles featured in this article. The Viva GT is very collectable and worth a fortune if one can be found in good condition today.  During the 1960’s and 1970’s Vauxhall had a very bad reputation for corrosion on all its product range.  This corrosion problem is in part responsible for the lack of classic Vauxhall’s left today for restoration.

The Viva HC was introduced in 1970. The basic models shared the mechanics of the HB viva without any difference to speak of.  Once again Vauxhall wanted to enjoy the sporty market and release sports versions of the HC Viva they were called the Magnum, and  Firenza.  The engines used in the Magnum and Firenza were 1.2 ohv (Overhead valve) 1.6ohc, 1.8ohc and 2.3ohc.

Once again for the sporty Magnum and Firenza, Vauxhall fitted Rostyle wheels and sports dashboards featuring rev-counters and ancillary gauges.  The HC Viva was bigger and heavier than the HB Viva so as regards performance the customer would want the 2.3 ohc twin carburettor engine.

A droop snoot was fitted to the sporty versions of the Viva which was akin to the droop snoot Ford RS 2000 Mk2.  For my mind the droop snoot 2.3 Magnum was a good looking and fast car even in today’s world, and I would not mind driving a Magnum.

The Vauxhall Chevette. The Chevette was a small car aimed at the single person or a small family. It followed on from the Vauxhall Viva, it shared most of the same mechanics as the earlier Viva as in the 1256cc ohv engine and the 4-speed manual gearbox.  I remembered with some excitement the launch of the Chevette as we as mechanics were bound to see many of them for servicing and repairs.

This excitement was short lived once we opened the bonnet!  The small viva engine was used again, the only difference we could see was a different air-filter housing and a different distributor.  In absolute fairness being so light the Chevette did drive a lot better than the heavier Viva.  Its styling was also more in keeping with the late 1970/80s 

Then in 1978 Vauxhall brought out the amazing Chevette HS which was a Rally car pure and simple. The engineers fitted a 2.3lt 16 valve engine into the 3-door Chevette shell! The result was a very fast rally car, to meet regulations for production cars a limited amount of Chevette HSR’s were released for sale.  The HSR was produced in mainly silver colour with a red interior! Not to everyone’s taste but the car itself was extremely fast and handled well.

I had the pleasure of servicing and driving an HSR Chevette when it was new and they did live up to their reputation of speed and handling.  At the time I drove a 3.0s Capri and on acceleration my Capri didn’t stand a chance against a road legal rally car!

There are hundreds of variants and different models of UK Vauxhall’s but these are my favourite models from the 1970’s.

Lord Banks