SlotForum banner

Funny little firenza

10K views 72 replies 25 participants last post by  1952mekanic 
#1 ·
just thought this might entertain anyone thinking of doing one of George turners Vauxhall firenzas as I’ve never seen one before,and there’s not much I haven’t seen
 
#3 ·
A cracking car, the 'Little Chev' Firenza. There's two of them in the Droop Snoot Group and I've had the pleasure of riding shotgun in one round the Millbrook Hill Route. While it goes like stink, the thing that REALLY gets to you is the sound track. That big V8 seems to spread its noise all round the car, not just out the back. Magic stuff.

George Turner's Firenza is a Droop Snoot (an HP Firenza offcially....) so it's got the wrong nose to make a 'Little Chev', and it'd not be an easy job making a 'Flat Front' for it I suspect.

I'm minded to do a Snoot though, but I am slightly biased..... ;)
 
#8 ·
Isn't a Magnum a 2-door saloon, rather than a coupe shell? Trevor's pictured car has a very different rear quarter window to the Firenza in the earlier post.
 
#10 ·
Magnums came in 2 and 4 door variants with the flat front. Think there’s also a variant using the coupe body. Main difference aside from the droop snoot was the interior which was a fraction posher. At one point I had a two door and my father had a 4. Very useful when working on the car, if I couldn’t figure out how things went back together, I took his apart.
 
#15 ·
Magnums and Firenzas came in ALL variants of the HC body, 2 door, 4 door, Coupe and Estate. To confuse the issue even more, there was a 2 door Droop Snoot Estate, the very rare (there were only 197 of them...) Sport Hatch, which came in a very dark purple with two thick red stripes all the way round the body at bumper height and ret trim. They also had tartan trim inside, before the HS Chevette with its similar trim.

I had a Sports Hatch for many years, until a tree fell on it, boo hoo. :(

276587
 
#20 ·
I need to see evidence of a Vauxhall Firenza in any other body style than coupe. Or did you mean Magnums and Vivas came in all body flavours, Kit?
 
#23 ·
I need to see evidence of a Vauxhall Firenza in any other body style than coupe. Or did you mean Magnums and Vivas
came in all body flavours, Kit?
I think it was Vivas, Firenzas and Magnums that came in all body types, and they also re-popped the Firenza name later as well, just to confuse the issue. Not to mention the export models that had other names too. :cautious:

I'd need to dig out some old Vauxhall catalogues to provide documentary evidence, and that would take some digging.
 
#22 ·
Basil van Rooyen, the South African engineer and racer, mostly known for his Ford Capri Perana V8 was behind this project in the early 70's.

A limited edition version of the Firenza was built in South Africa known as the Chevrolet Can-Am (or the Little Chev) by South Africans using the 5-liter (302ci) V8 from the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. In order for the car to qualify for racing, 100 had to be sold to the public, so only 100 were built.

276625
 
#25 ·
My brother used to participate in the so-called saloon car class racing at the Killarney circuit near Cape Town in those years. Because of that, I virtually never missed a race and always had pit access. I have two very poor old pics of two of the CanAm Firenzas of that time. Please pardon the quality: I had way more enthusiasm than skill and these are some of the very few photographs that did not get lost over the years

276648


I had a slow 400mm Tokina lens that produced much better camera shake than images, but I still thought this lateral shake added to the sense of speed at the time...

276649
 
#29 ·
That was my thinking too, Steve. For the UK market at least, the Firenza was a 2-door coupe body only. But Kit knows his Vauxhalls, so I am prepared to be enlightened.
 
  • Like
Reactions: steveaca
#30 ·
Well, I know SOME of my Vauxhalls, but it's a very confusing area of the company's history with so many variants being built.

VM planned to build at least 500 Droop Snoots, but in the end only made 204 of them, but the body shell parts had already been ordered and pressed. The ones left over became the Viva Es, a low priced, rather basic version, somewhat oddly.

Luckily (for me anyway...) they'd also already ordered the fibreglass nose cones and headlamp assemblies, and they ended up on the Sport Hatches.

I can understand why they didn't use the 5 speed ZF gearboxes on the Sport Hatches, it was hardly smooth even when warmed up, but I wonder why they didn't fit the HPF engines. Most of the parts must have been ordered by then, so where did they go?

I fitted my car with a Blydenstein 3H head and exhaust manifold, which produced more poke than the HPF engine, and I found it a superb long distance load carrier, even on German autobahns, I drove it to Berlin 3-4 times in its life.
 
#31 ·
Well, I know SOME of my Vauxhalls, but it's a very confusing area of the company's history with so many variants being built.

VM planned to build at least 500 Droop Snoots, but in the end only made 204 of them, but the body shell parts had already been ordered and pressed. The ones left over became the Viva Es, a low priced, rather basic version, somewhat oddly.

Luckily (for me anyway...) they'd also already ordered the fibreglass nose cones and headlamp assemblies, and they ended up on the Sport Hatches.

I can understand why they didn't use the 5 speed ZF gearboxes on the Sport Hatches, it was hardly smooth even when warmed up, but I wonder why they didn't fit the HPF engines. Most of the parts must have been ordered by then, so where did they go?

I fitted my car with a Blydenstein 3H head and exhaust manifold, which produced more poke than the HPF engine, and I found it a superb long distance load carrier, even on German autobahns, I drove it to Berlin 3-4 times in its life.
Very enlightening Kit. I never knew about the Viva E.
 
#34 ·
Top