John Cleland once labelled the Vauxhall Cavalier as the scariest car of his racing career for its tendency to launch practically everywhere, but images of the BTCC machine getting airborne were exactly what made it so exciting. Vauxhall didn’t need to win on Sunday to sell on Monday; Cleland bouncing his Cavalier onto two wheels over circuit kerbs would do the job just fine. As a result, the model has always had a lot of fans, but for some the adoration comes from a source much closer to home. Like PHer HedgeyGedgey, who fell for the saloon thanks to his parents.
They were both owners of Cavaliers in the nineties – his mum had a lunar miles Mk2 ex-taxi and his dad drove a Mk3 V6 – with hopes of upgrading to a Turbo, so this infant PHer soaked up their enthusiasm like a sponge in his formative years. He spent his boyhood dreaming of one-day owning Vauxhall’s 201hp boosted Sierra rival, but the tragic loss of his mum put the brakes on it all. Now, however, as a university student with some money to invest, HedgeyGedgey has finally achieved the goal with the purchasing of a near 46,000-mile, remarkably immaculate Turbo.
It’s almost completely standard, barring the fitment of a Courtenay Sport chargecooler kit and, bizarrely, airbags added by a former owner which don’t seem to work. Suffice it to say, HedgeyGedgey will be removing those additions and returning the car to its very best, standard state of tune. For a relatively young PHer to take such a route shows real maturity; we needn’t open the can of worms that is the list of distasteful modifications some of us applied to cars during our early twenties…
HedgeyGedgey studies away from home so somewhat inevitably this project has been a slow burner. In fact, it practically froze for a year. But now, progress has restarted, the details of which we’ll hold from revealing so you catch up in the thread. Something tells us the passion and family story behind this PHer’s new project will connect with many. Keep it up HedgeyGedgey!