Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) The one car that influenced me more than another

In my case it may well be because I was in my early teens and perhaps more open to being influenced and it did have a certain look to it and it was one of the lesser known variants of a family car, but quite successful in it's day in any racing events it was entered for. It was before the days of the small hatchback GTIs with their front wheel drive, it was a traditional rear wheel beast of a machine ( well seemed so at the time). I had lusted after it when my neighbour bought it new from the local Vauxhall dealer in 1970.it was also in blue my favourite colour and had a mean look to it with the painted black bonnet with scoops and an instrument panel to die for back then.

Imagine my surprise when a couple of years later my neighbour lost his job and had to sell it, he came round to our house and offered it to me, I bite his hand off. I had to sell my Honda S800 another great little traditional sportscar and a few of my bikes to get it, so it wasn't cheap, So what was the apple of my eye and I still to this day think back fondly on the fun I had with it. It was the Vauxhall Viva GT.

Typical of the lack of rustproofing back then , I had to get the inner front wings around the bonnet hinges plated to pass its first MOT at just 3 years old. I kept it for over 10 years, not used so much in the later years as I was more into my open top motoring with Midgets and TR7's and eventually sold it to chap who owned a Vitesse 6, (which was a quick car in its day). I had modified the GT a bit and after blowing the original 2L engine, I had a 2.5L engine transplanted in it , it was quite quick for the time with 0-50mph in 8.9 seconds , with only 112BHP and excellent handling and at under tonne laden. And so after a quick drive round the block, the chap couldn't get the money out of his pocket fast enough to buy it and it was gone,.

They only made them from 1968 to1970 of the 4606 produced only about 60 are known to still exist and only 25 are on the road, so quite a rare car from the outset. I certainly would like to own one again, it was great fun, handled amazingly well for a rear wheel drive car but suffered terribly from the lack of effective rust protection back then and living in the Midlands with salt laden roads, didn't help its cause. It was always loaded with paving slabs in the boot in winter to keep the very light back end in contact with the road, after I spun it a few times on the icy roads, the front of the closed Wednesbury Train Station had a massive curvet/bend in the road in front of it plus a wide unloading area to the front, that was always a challenge to navigate (fun) when icy. The things we look back on as to what we did in our youth, and then cuss today's youngsters when they get upto mischief for doing very much what we did back then





https://motor-car.net/vauxhall/item/27375-vauxhall-viva-hb-gt