RE: SOTW: Vauxhall Cavalier Sports Hatch

[Devil Fish]

Awesome SOTW and as so many have quoted, a lot more class than the Capri.

Decent Opel Mantas have been fetching quite good money in the last couple of years but not as much as the equivalent Ford. Shame as they were better built, better engineered, better looking and better to drive.....not that I'm biased you understand.
No one wants the Vx version though as they just don't have the same style. Massive engine bay is good for any conversion you care to dream up though.....Saw a Jag V12 in one a few years back!

[s m]

Devil Fish said:

Decent Opel Mantas have been fetching quite good money in the last couple of years but not as much as the equivalent Ford. Shame as they were better built, better engineered, better looking and better to drive.....not that I'm biased you understand.
No one wants the Vx version though as they just don't have the same style. Massive engine bay is good for any conversion you care to dream up though.....Saw a Jag V12 in one a few years back!

Yes, a few years ago you could get a nice GTE for a couple of grand but they've shot up recently especially for manual coupes.
I enjoyed mine - came to it after 3 Mk2 Escorts in a row.

Never felt quite as urgent as the RS2000s as standard but they did soak up the bumps on B-roads better in my opinion - only realised that following my mate in his RS cross country

[Blissy]

Another classic in the making...
Ran a couple of Asconas and rwd Cavaliers back in the days of my youth, great fun. I never managed to get a Manta GTE, and now they're getting pricey or rusty, often both!
As well as those "Rostyles", the ad mentions a new cambelt, my CIH cars all had a chain-driven camchaft. Has he been conned by his local garage?

[FezzaDude]

just showed my dad this car and there was a tear in his eye! He had one when they first came out and was one of his favourite cars, still talks about it to this day! oh yeah..it was the same colour as above!

[swimdunc]

My dad had a White 2.0 gl company car which I thought was great learnt to drive in it.
I had a bright yellow Opel Ascona 2.0sr a few years latter had Peter maiden put a webber carb and one of his exhaust systems on and it was quick used to beat my mates 2.0 Audi coupe from the lights. But the best bit on the opel was the wipers on the head lights. Also had a c reg silver Manta GTE which was a great handling car and had two 2.8 Capri's which were faster but didnt match the Opel for handling.
Now have another rear wheel drive GM coupe for my fun in a black 94 supercharged Trans Am.
Cheers
Dunc

[penno]

The memories I had one same colour my first car. Not that fast but good fun in the wet rallying over grass fields as 18 yr olds do. Better built than the ford capri fact. Mine was a W reg got me through college and uni passed every mot without hassle no rot on it at all wished I'd kept it.

[Balmoral Green]

I remember taking a white 2000GLS auto in swop decades ago, and running it for a day or three. It was so bad, getting into a 1.3 Ital immediately afterwards actually felt good

[magpie215]

My uncle had one, I liked it a lot.
It was same colour as the SOTW but a manual 2L he had it up until about 10 years ago.

replaced by a Mk 5b Escort diesel!

[80quattro]

When I was a kid, my Dad had a '77 Cavalier 1.6L in that creamy beige colour. I'll never forgot the time my Uncle popped around one day to show my old man his new purchase, a '79 Manta 2.0SR in silver with ronal alloys

[anonymous-user]

I've had two Mantas in the past and was an area rep for a while for the OMOC.

When I was learning to drive I always wanted something a bit different, whilst hot hatches were through the roof insurance and stealabilty wise, the Mantas were quite reasonable.

My first one I got in 1992 was a B reg Berlinetta hatchback in brown. I was on an apprenticeship at Ford's Dagenham at the time and used to come out around the roundabout after work doing a nice slow speed drift

Replaced it after about 18 months with the one I'd always wanted, a white GT/E coupe. D-Reg pretty much original condition apart from the additional speakers in the doors. Ownership was a bit of a pain though, with rust being a big problem. The floor pan literally rotted out, you could see the ground and inside of the chassis rails. After lots of welding work, I bought a Supra (and had the Spitfire as a project car). I sold the Manta 10 years ago (for under £300) after spending a couple of hundred quid to get it through it's MOT. It was still going a couple of years ago although the owner had tried some rather unsuccessful (IMHO) modifications to make it look a bit like an Exclusive. Bit of a shame really

One of my mates has an F reg GT/E Exclusive (stored up) and another has a B reg GT/E Coupe (which is not used much). Both are in unmodified/original condition.

One of my other mates wanted to buy a Manta after many years of not owning one (he sold his immaculate F-reg one in the 1990's) but found in the last couple of years that prices had gone silly.

[newoldfart]

My dad had a blue 1.9 saloon when they first came out on a (p)plate
and a (w)plate 2 litre with the obligatory vinyl roof.He loved both
of them and so did i but i was running a 63 anglia and 70 escort van
so i suppose thats not surprising

[Skyedriver]

Always looked "classy" in their day, I had a 1.6 Cavalier that put me off Vauxhalls a lot, after trying to change afront spring, but still like the look of the coupe etc.
remember a guy, JohnPye??? who rallied a Rover V8 engined Cav, whilst another guy had a V8 Chevette. Still like the look of the HSR too.
Worked with a guy who had a GT/J what spec was that?

[s m]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Whooo nice, what colour is it?

[anonymous-user]

Red. He's had it for about 15 years now.

[Ian 1800]

My 2nd car was a V reg metallic blue 1600 GLS Sportshatch. The GLS was available as a 1600!

Brought the car off my grandad who ran it in for 50,000 miles over 10 years before I brought it.

Handling wasn't great, although only spun it twice (no contact involved luckily). Still didn't stop me blatting around Derbyshire at insane speeds when I was younger. 75bhp never worked so hard!

Could adjust the tappets in minutes as I had to do it so often to keep it sounding good.

Sold it to my sister, then so idiot rear ended it. One dead car.

Not the best car in the world but fantastic to see it as SOTW so many years on.

[Ian 1800]

wildcat45 said:

If I recall right they had a big black padded roll bar thing over the B posts becuase the doors were frameless.

.

Yep, that`s right. How the memories come flooding back.

[Ian 1800]

Blissy said:

the ad mentions a new cambelt, my CIH cars all had a chain-driven camchaft. Has he been conned by his local garage?

Definately a chain on the CIH engines, which this 2000 is.

[BILL PAYER]

Had a 75reg 1600 a series Manta s and a 84 b reg Manta GTE coupe, also had a MK1 facelift Capri 1600 and a MK 2 2000 Ghia Capri all i can say is Opel 2 Ford 0 .Better ride better handling and more poke.

[KM666]

Munich said:

The RWD and frameless doors attracts me, but otherwise not a great fan of these cars. But the "retro cool" could be appealing for someone at college.

However, I have a suggestion for SotW. After all the positive comments people wrote about the Honda Civic Coupe that featured at no.40 in the American "100 Greatest Cars of All Time", I thought it should feature as SotW. Below are some suggestions to get the juices following. The first 2 are exemplary examples of what made the Civic Coupe so popular in the first place, while the 3rd is just a good wholesome example:
1. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...
2. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...
3. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Haha the brakes on number 2 are pathetic and insurance group 14 for a 1.5? with 101bhp..... Id have an RS2000

[MarkwG]

Growing up a neighbour had a beautiful black coupe - ABM2S maybe? Still remember it cruising up the hill, lovely car. (The SOTW is a SHED, though, sadly...)