Vauxhall Viva HC Driven - 50 years since launch!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2024
- My neighbour's lovely Viva HC finally gets the HubNut treatment. I managed to record it on the 49th anniversary of the One Millionth Viva being built, and it's also worth noting that it is 50 years since the HC was launched.
This one has a few mods, and is in a non-standard colour (from a MINI) so it was interesting to compare with the later HC I drove a few years ago, and the Citroen GSA I own today.
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This is the car I state when people ask me if I could have any car which would you have. Why? Because when I was a small child growing up one of these beautiful cobalt blue Vivas had been abandoned in the local church car park. A Skoda Estelle had been abandoned there too. I still have the badges from them to this day. They sat there for what felt like years, I'd visit them before church and see them on my way home from school. Then one day they'd been taken away, with nothing but an oil stained piece of concrete left where they once stood.
That Viva with its chrome, rostyle wheels and awesome design fed my love for 'normal' cars and fascination for motoring in general. I only wish as a kid I'd had a way of getting it to a garage.
Now to sit back and enjoy this vid!
I have a bag of badges from back in the day, there in a bag in my shed had them over 30 odd year now!
@@BigDangerousDan Same here! I used to steal them from a local scrapyard when I was 11 or 12 years old. There's a good number of Avenger badges in there because that's my favourite car.
@@BigDangerousDan I recently uncovered mine during lockdown! Raided the attic. I've now got them on display in the shed! I miss the days of cars being abandoned, used to find them everywhere. I've got the centre caps off the rostyle wheels from the Viva HC. Just wish I had the rest of the car to go with them!
I'm going to say it was about 1990 when I found that Viva and Estelle (give or take a couple of years, may have been 92/93). I can't remember the reg of the Viva, but remember the Skoda was on a C plate. The Vauxhall may have been an old P, R or S whacking it in the middle of the 70s.
So the Estelle would have been just 5-7 years old, the Viva maybe 15. Wtf? Can anyone explain the occurrence of dumped cars in the 80s/90s to me? They can't have been stolen because surely they'd have been recovered? They both had slashed/flat tyres from the moment they showed up. I know scrap wasn't worth anything then from what I recall but surely you could part something out for a profit? I also find it strange that the land owners (the church) didn't do anything about them because spaces were at an absolute premium and it wasn't a big car park. Maybe they just didn't want to pay to have them taken seeing as it shouldn't be their responsibility?
Someone shed some light or I'm going to have to go back to church after being an atheist the past couple of decades.
@@Zeem4 I once took one off an Alfa Romeo that had been parked outside my nans house for weeks. I assumed abandoned. Told my dad and he told me there's no way that cars dumped and to sort out my mistake. So I went and put it back on where I found it. Turned out it was indeed not dumped there but broken down and the owner was trying to work out a way to deal with getting the unreliable red box back lol.
There was a MK2 Escort gear dumped a road away on some land owned by builders. I asked if I could have the badges, they let me (I remember borrowing my nans screwdriver) and they proceeded to gain access to the vehicle, paint it gold and do some kind of racing with it.
Jeez now I remember an abandoned Rover SD1 further down the same road. I was gonna have the badges off that (it had been there weeks, flat tyres) but on my way there it was being loaded onto a recovery truck to go to the scrapyard lol.
All flooding back now. It was stuff like this that made me obsessed with cars as a kid and no doubt the reason I've been subscribed to HubNut for years!
I seem to remember back in the 90s scrap was so worthless that you had to pay the scrappie to scrap a car, hence lots of abandonment. There was also rarely any come-back as police and councils had fewer powers to deal with fly-tipping.
He couldn't weld, yet taught himself and did all that? That IS inspiration for you and anyone else who fancies a bash! 👍🏻
Sometimes trying to learn new skills by going in boots and all can be very frustrating for a start, but once you get the hang of it, it's an extremely satisfying experience.
9:25. “The back seats are more for children...here’s the ashtray”. Ah, the 70s were indeed a different time.
LOL priceless.
Even kids smoked back then lol
For putting bubble gum in after it had lost its taste and reached the colour and consistency of an india rubber.
That is why you could buy cigarettes singularly (pocket money level), in packs of five and ten for the richer kids.
@@cornishhh 😂
One of my neighbours had about 7-8 of these in a row back in the early 80's. Bought one and run it to the ground, bought another, used the previous one for bits, run it to the ground and repeat...
The one thing I remember is that he had the same key for all of them - car security wasn't a thing back then...
Why I don't like neighbours!
Lol very true. My dad had a green Viva & after leaving a pub at night he accidentally opened the door of a similar Viva, it was red I think though but due to the lighting it was not very easy to distinguish between the two.
My Dad had one- J reg, gold - nice motor
That is a stunning car, beautiful simplicity of motoring.. I miss cars like this..
I agree
I think most of us miss at least having the option of buying simple cars.
cornishhh I’ve moved to classic motorbikes for this reason (well I say ‘classic’ 15 yrs and 18yrs old)
My mum had one which meant my brother, sister and I drove it as "our" first car. Even in those days I was gutted when I went to uni and my mum sold it for £50.
This is a lovely little car, one of my absolute favourites here. My first car was a Viva HB with the 1600 OHC slant-four engine used in the Victors as well, spirited if not fabulously fast, a bit thirsty, but was considered quite an interesting engine at the time, so much so, that the Science Museum in London had one on display. My Dad worked for a Vauxhall dealer in the 70s and often lent me cars, the HC Magnum 2.3 being memorable as it's still the only car I've ever taken over 100mph - which it managed with consummate ease.
i had a Vauxhall VX4/90 and also a VX2300, i liked the slant engine, would i right in saying it was designed as a V8?
@@kentishman5698 Chrysler introduced slant sixes in the US in the early sixties, known as 'The Leaning Tower of Power'.The OHC Vauxhall engines were the first European engines to use the Gilmer belt cam drive after Pontiac a couple of years previously. Seeing that Viva in that metallic blue in the bright sushine of Aftaffistan just emphasises how ugly and boring modern cars look.
I think it was an 1800 and 2.3 slant-four engine
my first car was a Magnum 1800 than I put a 2.3 in it out of a VX4/90 good times
I had an HB and HC I thought they were great cars, I did manage to sheer the HC gearbox output shaft without really trying though. And I preferred the the HB.
I got confused, I was fondly remembering my HA viva , then I realised I never owned one ,my mum did and I had a chevette .. bloody night shift messing with my head !!
but I did have a pair of those speakers in my mk1 cavalier then my mk5 cortina .. happy days ..
Peace and love brother 👍🏻☮❤
The first holiday I remember was my dad driving himself, mum, my two sisters, my cousin, me, our westie called whisky, the tent and all the usual camping equipment. The holiday destination was to Parrog beach in Pembrokeshire. I'm amazed he did all that then pitched the tent having driven about 250 miles from Rotherham, all in a very early J reg pale blue 1159 Viva estate! He part exchanged it in 1977 for a Chrysler 180.
The Chrysler 180 was sold as the Centura here in Australia. And, as is usual practice here, the 4 litre Hemi six from the Valiant was crammed under the bonnet.
Thanks for the memory of holidays in Vauxhalls 😊❤
Oh yes the one many of us have been waiting for. Sit back and enjoy.
Ah nostalgia, had my driving lessons and took my driving test in a white Viva HC in and around St Andrews 74/75, I was in the RAF at the time at Leuchars. My instructor was 'Archie', an ex air force MT driver and I think he lived at Anstruther - it was £5 for a two hour lesson. Happy days.
We had an M-reg in 1983 bought for 150 quid. Had a fist sized hole just below the windscreen & a hole in the rear floor. I found that last bit out as a passenger in the back. When I watched Titanic, I could empathise with their horror of the water flooding in. Happy days, for a duck. Broke down a lot too. Some would call it a shed, but I have two sheds & they've never given any trouble & they keep things dry.
Love these little cars parents had a 1972 dark metalic blue X14 HC with rostyle wheels from new , learnt to drive in it , had loads of fun in this car driving friends around, going down to the coast in it and she never missed a beat and lasted twenty years.If i had the space or a garage i would have another one tomorrow.
I remember in New Zealand 🇳🇿, limited edition viva's ( hc ) would appear for a season, then disappear.😮
Oh, the memories... my grandad, who worked at the Luton Vauxhall factory for 40 years, had an early HC like this from nearly new, but 4 doors, and a very similar colour. I remember that characteristic Vauxhall whine, the whole of Luton reverberated to it in the 1970s. I, & I think he, much preferred his previous car though, a gorgeous two tone Victor FB.
My mother who turns 86 next February worked at Vauxhall car franchise out in the colonies of New Zealand.
Only my brother & I ever travelled to the UK in our youth.
The facts I remember from my first car - Viva HC 1256 - AC Delco 42 XLS plugs AND plenty of room to work under the bonnet! Zenith downdraft carb, with metal air filter - 'wash and go'!
My first car! A 1975 Viva 1300L I had it six months of which three months it was off the road getting repaired.
The gear box exploded after I read Jackie Stewarts book on 'The Principles of performace driving'.
Awesome, a trip down memory lane. My first car was a 2.3L Viva.
My first car was a Vauxhall Viva HC Estate and I even passed my test in that car. It was bought as a non runner and I had to put a second hand 1256cc engine in, new brakes and exhaust system. It needed a lot of cosmetic bodywork rust repairs as well. I remember having issues with the Stromberg carburettor and the fuse box used to overheat sometimes. Seeing that dash layout brings back some memories.
Gorgeous example. My mother had two back to back, very reliable workhorse. She allowed me, a kid then...obviously, to service it. Points had to be spot on.
I remember my dad getting one as a company car in 1971. He wasn't too pleased because he normally got Cortinas but there was a shortage of them believe it or not. It didn't fare too well with his high speed, high mileage driving.
Superb looking example. First car I ever drove (on an industrial estate after I had applied for my provisional but before I received it!). And my son had one as his first car at 17 - didn't want any modern car. Brilliant
I remember seeing the "nikki twin choke carburettors" advertised in my mothers catalogue. Something like Kays/Burlington or perhaps Grattan catalogues. It's also where I got my first air rifle. Hard to believe now. Regards.
Yes i remember seeing them in mums Kays club book, you could also buy tyres too. My dad bought his 1st cb radio from the club book!
@@Ade067 Lol yes i brought one for my 1.8 Fienza in 1988.I had forgot all about it.
My first car was Viva HB back in 1976 and bought a Nikki Twin Choke from my mum's catalogue (it cost @£50 if I remember rightly which was a fortune back then!). If I'm honest it did little to add any "oomph" to the Solex carb which was factory standard. Anyway, I loved that car and had it until it died about 3 years after I bought it!
At one point you could buy shotguns from the Burlington catalogue
Makes me feel old I remember when these were everywhere, this version of the Viva always had rather nice lines I think. Excellent renovation by Mr. H's neighbour too, congratulations Sir. Thanks for another memory jerking vid Mr. H.
Friend of mine was trading in one of those dealer was concerned about the mileage, was told not to worry as most of them were towed miles!!
That could be said for the VW's Ive owned.
Rob has done a lovely job restoring this he should be very proud of the work that he's put into it 👍
The last off his kind, together with the Escort Mk1. Beautiful lines and still good value for the money. Easy to fix etc...
Just adore it🤩
Just look at all the space around the engine bay!
Great as always Ian. In South Africa the Viva HC was sold as the Chevrolet Firenza normally with 2 5 litre four. A coupe was sold as the Chevy Fienza CanAm with a 5 ltre (302) Comaro Z28 V8. A limited number were manufactured and sold for homologation for racing.
Lovely. I remember a local salesman used to run a 1977 1800 SL in metallic brown. Thought with the big engine it must be quick he later progressed to a 1982 Cavalier hatchback 1.3 with a 4 speed, which he really liked. Don't know what he felt about the Viva but it didn't get washed very often.
Thank for the under bonnet view, when we used to go camping in the 70s we'd put the sleeping bags on the inner wings to save space in the boot. also we took an 1159 with 6 people ( 4 kids ) and a trailer up kirkstone pass, and yes it did struggle a bit.
The HC was my first car a 1973 two-door model and it had long past its best before I took ownership in 1981. To close the doors you had to lift and place them in the holes the brakes where working but had little effect being drum and in wet weather, the rear end would slide easily even with so little power. It had the common problem of the drive for the distributor splitting and more rust than I care or dare to remember. But it was my first car and holds a special place in my heart. I think the styling has stood the test of time. I never had another Vauxhall after the Viva instead moving over to the ALFASUD, for a car of a similar time period there was no comparison between the two, apart from rust!
Ashtray in the rear for the children. That´s nice. 😁
The Dixon's special Saisho speakers. Great for drying your hair in the morning on the way to work. I had the same models in my Dolomite 1850HL
Thanks Ian,as a vauxhall diehard this went down a treat,,just love the shape and style of what i think was the last of an all vauxhall engineerd car which lasted in to 1979.
Lovely 😍 we have a Chevette and it sounds just the same 😎 love the door shut sound! Lovely little example 😍
Growing up in the '70s & '80s, I always thought these only came in three colours - yellow, red and brown - because they only ever seemed to be painted in one of those three colours where I lived. A handsome design that clothed some pretty stale old mechanicals but that was very much the way of things at the time. My Dad had a '73 Victor 1800cc for a while in the late '70s/early '80s which was happy to run and run and run with fairly normal kerbside maintenance. It was a good old bus.
love it Ian, your video content consistently delivers for me, thanks for your work! This particular model has special nostalgic appeal for me, as I learned to drive in one of these Vivas in 1972. Driving school ran a small fleet of white 2 door cars. Surprisingly, I recall the transmission whine you referred to. Made me smile when I heard it...... Also relevant, your reference to Marinas and Mk1 and 2 Escorts, both which I ran in the 70's.
Love the HB and HC Vivas. A good friend of of mine had a Magnum, what a great car that was. Lovely stuff. Many thanks HubNut.
The Mk1 Golf must have seemed from another planet compared the likes of the Viva, Marina and Allegro when it appeared in ‘74.
Ive owned a MK1 and Mk2 Golf... If only everything was as reliable as a VW..Pah.... There would be a lot more people walking to work.
VW have been the most unreliable car brand that Ive ever owned. Ive had 2x Golfs, a Jetta and a Scirocco.
Just because it started now, doesnt mean it will start again after you stopped it. Bags of sh-t wont buy another Id sooner walk.. Owning a Vw means you'll do a lot of walking or waiting for busses or tow trucks.
Northy I’ve had 5 Skoda Octavias. All did over 300k and one went over 400k. The octavia uses the majority of Golf running gear and VW engines.
You know what else was released 50 years ago? The Hillman Avenger. So come down to Devon and drive mine! It's not quite as shiny as this Viva though.
Please @hubnut, please take up this offer tot drive a Hillman
@@EmilePoelman See it on the opening sequence to this video: th-cam.com/video/wC_CLEQnM8w/w-d-xo.html
In a previous life as a rep, my first three company cars were Viva Hb
Then a Hillman Avenger(crap) and a light blue Viva HC
@@video99couk Brilliant! Thanks. "...would cost 800 pounds...": How much would that be in today's money (compared to what people earn nowadays)?
Very nice restoration and a prettier car than I remember.
The only metallic versions available in New Zealand 🇳🇿 for the hc ( 1970-3 ) was green.
1974 saw a complete update along with the aussie holdens which shared the same NZ assembly line with the Viva, Magnum & Chevette / Chevanne.
The Firenza, was only available ( CBU ) UK as a Vauxhall, or South Africa - as a Chevrolet Firenza. 😮
Dear old Granny had an automatic Viva. It became the family runabout after she died. There was a loose connection on the gearbox that sometimes needed a poke to get the car to start. And I remember that 40mph 'sweet spot'. A speed that can be maintained on most roads in Kent, enabling me to get home safely in the early hours of the morning after trips to see a girlfriend in Saltwood.
That sound takes me back!
I always thought the design of the HC was quite clever. It makes the car look bigger than it is.
Definitely on the shortlist for possible purchase next year!
Brought back some memories for me. 2nd car I owned was an HC1800 1973 reg model (Slant engine - designed to be a V8 which they only used half!). The tin worm made short work of the bodywork very quickly!
South Africa 🇿🇦 fitted a Camaro V8 for the 1973 year HC, locally badged the Chevrolet Firenza, only colors available were black & white out of the factory.
Often repainted to other schemes & tastes 😋
Great video Ian, thanks for giving me a blast from the past !.
I owned a Viva E-coupe, back in the late 80’s, the Firenza but without the droop snoot...., only had the 1256 engine but, it was a great car.., always loved the weird bent gear lever with its short throw, and it made that same, gearbox or diff noise that this one does, also had the same horizontal speedometer and the needle waved about so much you could never tell if you were doing 30 or 60 mph.... !!. Even so, i loved the thing. Always wanted to stick the 2.3 litre Magnum engine in it but ended up stuffing it into the back of a fiesta on a roundabout and that was the end of that !.
What an amazing piece of reconstruction. Your neighbour is amazing.
That's a lovely car, I like and remember seeing these Vivas with their elongated speedo's in my childhood and thinking it was so different ( being a ford man,even at 5 I thought it was diffrent!), the period fog and reverse lights are excellent as well, great video Hubnut. Best wishes.
Oh wow brings back memories of my dads hc viva estate and having to wear shorts as a kid on those black vinyl seats. Our protestations as children were usually met with a “stop whining”. None the less the estate is a pretty car. Great video.
My first ever car was a metallic blue HC Viva. Bought off a mate for £25, had to get a gearbox from the local scrap-yard for a tenner and used it for 2 or 3 years. It was then scrapped but the engine went in a HA van that belonged to another mate of mine. It was rusty as hell, but it worked and did the job. Hearing and seeing one being driven brought back some memories from 40 odd years ago :)
My parents had a metallic green HC at the time, which is what I learned to drive in, before moving on to a Chevette.
My uncle had an early J reg Viva HC and one of my first cars was an HC Viva.
Your drive in the Viva with its distinctive transmission whine brings back memories.
What a nice colour. Really an eyecatcher. Somehow this Viva looks for me like a mixture of the german Opel Kadett B, the Ascona A and the later Kadett C (Chevette). The engine also looks very similar to the Opel OHV-engine, wich I had in my Kadett C-Sedan from 1978. And again I must say that I enjoyed this video a lot. Thank you for it.
Thanks for arranging this video with your neighbour, it really peaked my interest when I saw it in the background of your tinkering videos. Its a nice car and he's done a good job restoring it. You're right about the limitations of these cars of that era, my first car was a Mk 1 Escort 1300 and 60 mph was more than enough speed both for the ears and for safety reasons.
"It does quieten down........a little" 😁 lovely car and vid
Loved the closing scene, the exhaust note and transmission wine was beautiful. My neighbours Charlie and Mavis used to take me to Birmingham Speedway every week in one of these in the 70’s. Very happy times.
Just love a good old Viva! My nan's friends had a metallic green 4-door HC....I remember a trip down to a coastal resort in Cornwall sometime around 76 or 77....
Thanks for the spin down memory lane with the small engine Viva.😎👌👍
Reminds me of my English teacher at primary school - he had one and used to designate 2 pupils at the beginning of each term to push start the thing. Thanks Hubnut for another great review.
Done a wonderful job, looks incredible
That took me back to driving my wifes Viva, her first car in 1987. It made all the same noises and was good fun chucking it around on the local lanes. We had it for quite a few years and it rarely let us down. We were overtaken whilst asending Porlock Hill!! I think we paid £195 for it.
Very interesting. Nice to see Aberaeron as I have flown over there many a time and had a cup of tea by the harbour on a very windy day.
My Dad had a blue 3 door HB Viva when I was very young. I remember the petrol cap being on the back of the car and the flat speedometer that went from left to right. The smell of the boot and the noise of the catch came back to me when I saw you open the boot; funny how things stick in your mind.
As a 59yr old, this was the car that caught my eye as a child. I've never been in one and no one close to me owned one. So this was a visual thing on my part, but I might have seen Viva ads in the TV. I think the front end is exceptional, but all based on a child's view.👍
The modern blue looks so good on the car! Really makes the shape pop too! Absolutely love the Saisho speakers on the shelf - so period! Really appealing car, thanks for sharing. And he has a 740 too? Top man!
Thank You, One of my fave Cars.
Jolly little car, love the colour, the noise and the looks. Thanks to your neighbour for letting you have the drive.
1984. I had just arrived at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk. I walked to the local garage in Barton Mills and rented their green-gold Viva until I bought a new car. Great time.
Thanks, Ian. I enjoyed this from the Torana angle, even though it's clearly not. Interesting to see those mods the owner has done. Cool
Lovely to see. My first car was a J plate 2-door HC 1100 in white ... cross-ply tyres needed a bit of respect in the wet! I moved on to an L plate 4-door, dark metallic red with the slanted 1800 engine. That went very nicely - radial tyres were a big improvement!
My god that car is beautiful! The camera angles at 2.11 look fantastic. I want it!
A trip back in time, nearly 40 years since I last drove one of those, wonderful video of a distinctly average car !!!! HBs always struck me as more entertaining, brief research reveals that the HC gained at least 50kg so that may explain that, not seen a Nikki "goldfish bowl" carb for many a year either....
I drove my second hb seventeen years after I drove my last hc.
HC, my second Vauxhall ( after first hb ), came across a tidy hb 400 miles away whilst on holiday.
Bought back a red hb 4 door with high performance Deluxe 90 stromberg engine ( 1159cc ).
That stromberg would carry on late HC's and ohv Chevettes/ Chevanne(s).😊
My grandfather had one, never failed him, Good car. Also rob seems to be the kind of neibour we all want.
Top work mr hubnut!
This is a nice Viva. I love the colour. Thanks to you I have been looking at windscreen wiper patterns and comparing 'Triangle of doom' sizes. I love what you do. I have a 2005 MINI ONE and I love it.
Talking about triangle of doom.
I remember that early hb's had a choice of both single & two speed wipers, with different motors & wiper racks.
I was only interested in replacing the rack only to reduce the triangle of doom, and had the misfortune of buying a dual speed ( different geometry etc ) and just didn't go back together.
Back to the Breakers and repeat.
Great days for learning about 🚗 cars. ( 1982-6 )😊
Always loved these. That colour really suits it. If you hadn't said it was non standard, I'd never have known. Very nice car.
I've had two of these both blue. those wrap around rear lights were a work of art .
I remember my HC Viva which I fitted a Brabham conversion which consisted of twin Stromberg carbs & for a 1256 cc it certainly didn't hang about !, They always had alternators fitted that were Delco remy units which were bloody awful & were notorious for bearing failure, I converted mine to a Lucas unit which cured that, I was a Viva nut for years for my sins & spent as much time welding stuff on it as driving it !
My first car! Same colour too, but mine was the 1100. Got me back and forth to Manchester from Chester every day for three years and never let me down.
I had a HC back in the early eighties, a bit rusty but reliable transport. The only issue I had with it was there was a huge flat spot when accelerating - this was solved by pulling the choke out at the same time! My wife once got it up to 85mph with 5 kids sliding about on the back seat (no rear seat belts then) .... obviously they weren't our kids!
In New Zealand 🇳🇿 lap belts on the rear seat were mandatory.😊
I remember the hours my Dad spent fixing ours after a day's work in the 1970s. It was replaced by a '76 Marina Special. A reliability upgrade😁. That said I loved it and so did Dad. His face still lights up now when we chat about it. Will a modern Kia or VW do the same in the 2050s, I think not. A great trip down memory lane, cheers Ian.
Great video. good memories of my 1978 HC gls with twin headlights, velour seats , 7 dial instrument pack , didn’t know what most of them did , but never mind ! It had one of the best gearboxes I have ever used, very low gearing though, 15mph per 1000 revs in 4th . Very whiny back axle. It took me all over the country. Happy days far simpler times . You have a cool neighbour.
That whinny axle in 1997 was the clearest memory of my hc with quad lamps.❤
Love it now, never used to, great colour and the reassurance of some transmission whine! proper motoring.
Good review. I've had my 1977 1300 GLS since 1998 and it has been great fun. I took it from the North-east of Scotland to the VBOA rally in Billing in 2003 and it got me and my mate (and our camping gear) there and back with no problems. As you say, the HC is a simple car, but that is what makes it so enjoyable to drive. :)
What color was your 1300 gls ?
I'm not that familiar with Vauxhall as I grew up in Germany and we had almost no cars of this brand over here on the mainland.
But man, this is a gorgeous car. I absolutely love it.
Similar cars branded as Opels.
Opels are common place in New Zealand.
New Zealand was once home to both Holden ( australian ) and Vauxhall ( UK ).
This is no longer the case, as both manufacturers have left our shores.😮😮
Nicely executed, Hubnut's neighbour.
A nice Viva.
My first car in the 80's was an HC. It was a steed that was 100% guaranteed to foster relations with local Plod.
It used to get me stopped at least twice a week and was brush painted Gas Board blue with 'accents' splashed onto the tyres. The doors were self opening, often on corners but always on roundabouts, and thankfully, the non inertia reel seats belts would choke you before you could fall onto the road.
Every evening when the dashboards light flickered out, you'd be treated to sparking fireworx display. I got really fit owning that car and burnt off my puppy fat thanks to the long walks home. I used to keep a hammer and a specific piece of wood in the footwell for the frequent times i needed to encourage the jammed starter motor, (assuming the bendix hadn't found itself in the no man's land of my near toothless ring gear).
It used to smoke like a Beagle in a laboratory, and you could drop the windows with a single blow to the door card. Also, the gaffa tape secured, presumably stolen Axminster throughout, gave the interior that familiar scent of pub carpet, and lent the car an earthy, lived in authenticity which would always invite admiring comments from the lucky girls I was chaffeuring home, having succesfully indoctrinating and intoxicating them earlier in the evening.
Very nostalgic, especially the gearbox whine, for some reason. We had one of these, L reg, which my parents bought new. It was a very similar colour to this one. We left the UK in 1978, and I have only seen one or two of these in the past couple of decades, most recently a couple of days ago outside the house of a classic car parts dealer that I buy parts from for my Ford Fiesta MK2. Very high on my bucket list of cars to own.
My Dad drove many of these as company cars and that transmission whine brought back so many memories.
My mum knew when to serve his dinner as you could hear it from half a mile away.
My first car in 1985, was my dads and he gave it to me for passing my driving test PYG145M Viva SL 1256.
Gearbox snapped where the lever goes in, rear suspension arms rotted through and the cills were like paper but it was mine and I loved it. I always wanted a Magnum with the six dial dash and Rostyle wheels.
Brilliant video Ian what a very nice car
Ahh the memories. My dad's old Viva estate was a bit of a heap but it kept on going. It was dead slow and very loud. You had to slam the doors shut and whole car would shudder.. It didn't have inertia seat belts and the belt would always get trapped in the door..
I used to like the stubby gear stick and the horizontal speedo though.
Thank you. This video brought back memories of my very first car which was a 1972 Viva SL in Honey Starmist with Rostyle wheels. This was modified to give it a bit more zip as these were my boy racer years and Gerry Marshall was my favorite driver of that era. I fitted Spax adjustable shocks and took the Viva down to Bill Blydensteins in Shepreth for a stage 2 head twin choke DCD Weber with a special Blydenstein aluminium pancake air filter and a sports exhaust. It sounded faster than it was but with Firenza Cream and Orange side stripes and matching chin spoiler it was all a boy could wish for. Until my dad bought a 2.3 Magnum coupe which was a lot quicker straight out of the box!
Keep up with the good work of reviewing these old cars.
My late dad whom past 27y.ago brought Vauxhall after Vauxhall like it was his favorite past time.
Mother 👩 worked for Vauxhall franchise.
Consequently, my brother & I had Viva, Magnum & CF & Chevettes for our early cars.😊
That gearbox whine takes me back 40+ years. Can anyone else remember cars of the era sporting the warning "Discs" stickers on the back telling you to keep your distance due to their superior stopping power?
I had a Viva in the 80's and I bought another scrap car ( worth fixing today ) just for the wheels on it . Neighbors adored it sitting on bricks for a week or two before it was collected. I also found that covering the door cards and dash with fake fur was not for the asthmatic types.
The HC was a gorgeous looking car! wonderful styling , that said i like the HB as well for its mini Cortina MK3 Coke bottle styling. An HB Viva GT today would be on my desire list!
Had a 1978 1256 HC back in 85. 14,000 genuine miles and the deepest metallic blue I’ve ever seen. 2 part chrome hubcaps, looked fantastic with the chrome bumpers. Added fog lights and bought a genuine reversing light kit. You just replaced the plate at back of the gearstick for one with a switch in it. All the wiring was already there. Mine even had round dials!!
Flat out it could achieve 60mph!
Great video. I learned to drive in my Dads K regd 1256 standard Viva but bought an 1100 Super Escort Mk1 after passing my test. The Viva was more spacious and felt slightly quicker, but the Escort had a better gear change, handled better and had disc brakes. Both rotted terribly, but on balance the Escort was slightly better and was more reliable. The Vivas Zenith carburettor was terrible and cold starting was a big problem. So good to hear that gearbox/ Axle whine after 40 years!
I love the old Viva design I loved the rear lights especially.
Lovely restoration from a bygone era of UK motoring. Nice colour and detailing. A time when cars had their unique acoustic signatures. Nice to hear a Viva 'whine' again (in a nice way of course) 😊
I had an HB viva which I loved . Never drove an HC but always admired it . Keep these coming for us old foggies !!!! Great work.
The hb / hc floorplan was always the same.
Underneath the giveaway was either a single / two part prop ( drive ) shaft or exhaust system ( single / dual ).❤
Mr. Hubnut, you are breaking my heart with this Vauxhall, as it reminds me of my beloved Opel Kadett B.
A peculiarity of the North American market: Opels were only sold in the United States until the early seventies, while Vauxhalls were Canada-exclusive except for a brief period from 1958-62 when the Victor was sold through US Pontiac agencies.
If I recall correctly, they were badged as Vauxhall when sold through Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers, and as Envoys at Chevrolet-Oldsmobile.
Cheers from Costa Rica!
Oh yes, made my evening, my first car. I had a 1971 1256 in beige with beige vinyl seats! Happy days. Window squirty never worked on mine and my stereo used to turn on and off with the indicator. I mistakingly too the power off the indicator wiring :) Cheers Ian
My father had a Vauxhall Viva HC estate. Also on a J plate. It was the first car I ever drove, with help from my father. It was on a private dirt car park in West Bromwich, when I was aged about 12 or so, I am 53 now. At the time it felt a fast car, which makes me smile now :-)
The paint and the sky in the opening is very striking