Vauxhall Viva?

[52classic]

Done it again haven't you! I would love to have a go at restoring Shad's Marina find although at that money I don't think it would be cost effective.

Nice spec but I think that 'Rokee' dash might go. Some Cosmics, a Weebasto, roof ariel, Peco exhaust.
IMHO the Marina is a much better car than it's reputation suggests.

[Shezbo]

Very fond memories of Viva's.

My Granddad had all three model's as Company Cars - when Company Cars were a real perk - first one in 1965 last one in 1972.

The last one UNA 660K (still around I wonder?) a gold 1256cc model was a very good car and all three Viva's were subject to 20,000 miles a year when that was big ann mileage!

I do however remember the HA having a rusty wing before it was two years old....

[NigelStn]

Me too, learnt to drive in an HB, then drove my mothers HA SL GYB 688D, my father had a 1600 ish HB at one stage with a twin chock Weber carb as a company car

[grumpy52]

droopsnoot said:

coppice said:

Looked amazing even though , actually, it wasn't anything like as quick as its looks suggested.

Much of that was down to the standard Stromberg carbs. Talking to the project manager for the HPF programme at our Luton 40th anniversary do earlier in the year, he mentioned that a lot of the parts fitted to the car were selected because of an existing supplier relationship with Vauxhall, and just dumping the factory-fitted Strombergs and fitting Dellortos instead would add about 40bhp. They just didn't have a supply chain in place and the size of the budget wasn't enough to do stuff like that. Also the sale price had already crept up quite a lot, so adding more would just have made them even harder to sell.

Vauxhall made some strange decisions over the years .I heard a tale that the HB GT was intended to have nice negative camber front suspension but was binned when a senior bod decided it didn't look right.

[Lowtimer]

droopsnoot said:

Don't forget that engine survived quite a time in the Chevette and even longer in the HA van - if it had been that terrible, I figure they'd have shoe-horned a similar Opel unit in somehow.

It was very much the worst thing about the Chevette, though. I blew mine up twice and it never ran sweetly in the way that a Ford crossflow 1300 would.

[grumpy52]

Lowtimer said:

droopsnoot said:

Don't forget that engine survived quite a time in the Chevette and even longer in the HA van - if it had been that terrible, I figure they'd have shoe-horned a similar Opel unit in somehow.

It was very much the worst thing about the Chevette, though. I blew mine up twice and it never ran sweetly in the way that a Ford crossflow 1300 would.

it was common to drop a 1300 crossflow into a chevette for rallying in the upto 1300 class , much more tuneable for reasonable outlay back then.

[V8forweekends]

I love eBay's "look at this similar item" - it's just so sophisticated -