RE: Spotted: 1974 Vauxhall Firenza HPF
Discussion
martin-reyland said:
mtbelly said:
Who would want a pile of rusty rubbish like a vauxhall???????????give me any Escort any day
Very narrow minded attitude! Fords don't rust do they ?! Btw my 40 yr old pile of scrap has zero rust. You say any Escort, Mk6 do you?? I bet someone mentions BMW by the time I reach the end of the thread!
I'm of that era and I can remember the press excitement about the Droop and when I first saw one it was like something off Star Trek compared to the others.
But am I correct in thinking it was rather expensive competitively at the time?
Anyway, I had a MK1 Escort back then as my first car, it was carrying more rust than the Titanic.
My friends Dad had a Magnum and that was certainly a very nice car!
Once had a Viva HA van at work with cross-ply tyres and was so much fun to drive!
Since then I seem to have had more Vauxhall's than Fords, just better than the equivalent Fords! IMHO of course. Even put my name down on the Ampera!
Please keep us up to date about your project, it's part of what makes PH so great, hearing about other enthusiasts cars!
Built with care and attention at Ellesmere Port. Actually no, i read somewhere that as few as 150 were actually built. Only after some serious quality control issues were sorted could they even begin to sell them. Ford wound up the publicity machine and got the image out there, rallying, TV shows & even film ( remember Brannigan anyone ?). I know this is'nt a direct comparison but it shows us that Vauxhall did'nt push their cars in the same way. 70's car manufacturers in Britain all suffered at the hands of the unions, stories of goings on at the Ellesmere Port plant are legend around here. Even though on paper it was inferior the Escort won on two counts, 1 it was in the public eye & 2 the premium models were either assembled or at least finished off in either a dedicated area or even another facility here or abroad. Vauxhall motors EP is now a different place, vastly different but the Firenza wouldn't happen now. In it's day it was brilliant; i preferred the Viva Magnum. Thats something Ford never did, a two door 2.3 litre estate with nice trim sat on rostyles. That was the sleeper of choice round here in the 70's. A bonus being Cheshire police were saddled with 1.8 tc Marina traffic cars which even an average 2.0 Cortina could lose. Ah the good old days...
thewheelman said:
A good find, a little overrated & little pricey in my opinion. If i was interested in a classic for that kind of money, i'd want somthing a little more special than a Vauxhall. For less money you could have had this ex show car, road & race spec Lotus Elan for £12,500....
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3119802.htm
Now we are talkinghttp://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3119802.htm
tommy1973s said:
6 times cheaper and looks vaguely similar - fun to drive too:
http://www.carmole.com/1771189/Vauxhall-chevette-f...
Fun to drive with 1256 throbbing CC's ? hmm, I remember having one briefly I bought for the princely sum of £60, was not much fun until I decided I had had enough and destroyed it. http://www.carmole.com/1771189/Vauxhall-chevette-f...
J4CKO said:
tommy1973s said:
6 times cheaper and looks vaguely similar - fun to drive too:
http://www.carmole.com/1771189/Vauxhall-chevette-f...
Fun to drive with 1256 throbbing CC's ? hmm, I remember having one briefly I bought for the princely sum of £60, was not much fun until I decided I had had enough and destroyed it. http://www.carmole.com/1771189/Vauxhall-chevette-f...
I suspect that if you weren't there in 1974 you will fail to appreciate this car which was in the same league as a Citroen SM in terms of jaw-dropping ability back then.
LuS1fer said:
I suspect that if you weren't there in 1974 you will fail to appreciate this car which was in the same league as a Citroen SM in terms of jaw-dropping ability back then.
Are you saying the Snoot Firenza was in the same league as an SM??? If so I completely disagree with you, the SM was on another planet in comparison.martin-reyland said:
LuS1fer said:
I suspect that if you weren't there in 1974 you will fail to appreciate this car which was in the same league as a Citroen SM in terms of jaw-dropping ability back then.
Are you saying the Snoot Firenza was in the same league as an SM??? If so I completely disagree with you, the SM was on another planet in comparison.In the same way that a Capri 3.0 JPS would generate more interest than a BMW 3.0 CSL, if you see what I mean.
"The asking price of £13,000 also seems pretty good when you realise that the parts package included in the price features enough bits to open your own historic Vauxhall competition parts emporium"
That's still a lot of money for an old Vauxhall IMO.
Rare? - Definitely.
Desirable? - ....
The Firenza to have was definately the Chevrolet Firenza CanAm 302 from South Africa.
Factory fitted with a small block Chev V8, now that's RWD entertainment!
http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/11/30/cardomain-obs...
Factory fitted with a small block Chev V8, now that's RWD entertainment!
http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/11/30/cardomain-obs...
LuS1fer said:
It destroyed an Escort but didn't compete with it, it was a competitor for the Capri. Part of the reason they introduced the Chevette was because the Viva was bigger than the Escort but smaller than the Cortina which expanded with the Mk III.
The Escort was primitive with leaf spring rear suspension where the Vauxhall had trailing arms and coils. The Vauxhall handled better and had 131bhp allowing it to hit 60 in 8 seconds and hit 120 in 1973. Even in a relatively recent showdown btween RS2000, Dolly Sprint and Vauxhall HP, it came out on top. The Dolly had 127hp from its 16v 2.0 but was still a fraction slower. Ford arrived late with a 110hp RS2000 that tried to copy the snout of the Vauxhall but using a Cortina engine, it was much slower at around 9 seconds to 60 and 110mph top end.
1978 saw the 135hp 16v Chevette HS arrive although this was partly a development of the earlier rally-bred 1976 Kadett GTE and used its suspension.
However, 1974 also brought another stunning GM/Broadspeed creation - the Opel Manta Turbo, another car I drooled over as a teenager:
Opel Manta! now we are talking! Stunning looks as you said. The Firenza is a Decent car, as I said, but I don't like the look of it and thats the only reason I would rather have the Escort. Its a personal chioce on taste in looks, people may disagree, but its just my opinion. My mate had a Viva with a 1.3 engine lol crying out for a V8 and some other mods. I am not a 'fast ford fan', just prefer the Escort to the Firenza. I would like a Opel Manta Gte even, and remember spotting one for £180 when I was young.The Escort was primitive with leaf spring rear suspension where the Vauxhall had trailing arms and coils. The Vauxhall handled better and had 131bhp allowing it to hit 60 in 8 seconds and hit 120 in 1973. Even in a relatively recent showdown btween RS2000, Dolly Sprint and Vauxhall HP, it came out on top. The Dolly had 127hp from its 16v 2.0 but was still a fraction slower. Ford arrived late with a 110hp RS2000 that tried to copy the snout of the Vauxhall but using a Cortina engine, it was much slower at around 9 seconds to 60 and 110mph top end.
1978 saw the 135hp 16v Chevette HS arrive although this was partly a development of the earlier rally-bred 1976 Kadett GTE and used its suspension.
However, 1974 also brought another stunning GM/Broadspeed creation - the Opel Manta Turbo, another car I drooled over as a teenager:
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