A rare bird

[coppice]

Driving to Northallerton ( North Yorkshire) to Tuesday I saw a long forgotten nose coming towards me - matt black bonnet, hood scoops - it was only a Vauxhall Viva GT ! As we got level I realised that it wasn't any old Viva GT , but a convertible, presumably the Crayford job commissioned by Wallace Arnold in Leeds, google tells me . It also told me only seven survive, making it more than five times rarer than a 250GTO .

If not , perhaps , quite as valuable

Edited by coppice on Friday 22 December 08:30

[CKY]

A cool, rare spot for sure - I recall a friend had a Viva Brabham with the same matte black bonnet, not the fastest thing but great little cars nonetheless.

[aeropilot]

I went to look at a HB Viva GT as my first car back in 1980.......was only 450 quid, and was in good nick for a 11 year old car.........its was a rare thing even back then.....saw it advertised in Muttering Screws.
But, insurance quote was silly, and more than the cost of the car, so I had to set my sights a little lower

[FarmerJim]

Great spot!

Fun fact. In the 1960s my dad crashed his Mk1 Jaguar into the prototype Brabham Viva on a Bedfordshire B-road.

[LuS1fer]

aeropilot said:

I went to look at a HB Viva GT as my first car back in 1980.......was only 450 quid, and was in good nick for a 11 year old car.........its was a rare thing even back then.....saw it advertised in Muttering Screws.
But, insurance quote was silly, and more than the cost of the car, so I had to set my sights a little lower

I remember in the early 80s, an advert for a red Lotus Cortina Mk II for £400 but I knew the insurance would be high so didn't bother. Hmmm...

[CKY]

FarmerJim said:

Great spot!

Fun fact. In the 1960s my dad crashed his Mk1 Jaguar into the prototype Brabham Viva on a Bedfordshire B-road.

Haha that's some claim to fame! Wouldn't have fancied my chances in a crash in the Viva up against a Mk1 Jaguar, despite the Vauxhall being a later design.

[aeropilot]

LuS1fer said:

aeropilot said:

I went to look at a HB Viva GT as my first car back in 1980.......was only 450 quid, and was in good nick for a 11 year old car.........its was a rare thing even back then.....saw it advertised in Muttering Screws.
But, insurance quote was silly, and more than the cost of the car, so I had to set my sights a little lower

I remember in the early 80s, an advert for a red Lotus Cortina Mk II for £400 but I knew the insurance would be high so didn't bother. Hmmm...

Indeed, pretty much anything with GT in the name was effectively unobtainium for a just passed your test 17 year old....even something dog slow like a 1275GT Mini..or an Escort 1300GT....!!

[austina35]

I could have bought a mk1 lotus cortina for £900 in the 80s but didn't as there wasn't much left of the steel on it. At a guess it was just over 20 years old at the time.

[LotusOmega375D]

We do have an established thread running for classic cars spotted like this:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[coppice]

Ah hah - a home for my next rara avis .Or should that be Alvis ...