For those interested in old cars.

[alastairq]

I have owned, at various times, two Victor FBs [one a deluxe...basically a 4/90 without the LSD, leather interior, 4-on-the-floor, etc....as in, four gears located somewhere within the forward passenger area..good for 70mph-plus on the motorway, B-reg.....surprised many a cavalier-toting rep!].....and a Cresta PC.....which, although it blew core plugs, was a nice car to drive.

 

Imagine the relief my wallet got, when I swapped the Cresta for a pre-suffix 948cc Austin A40!

[MJI]

Seeing all those Vivas reminds me of so many models of car of which there were always zillions around and then you'd turn around and, suddenly, there weren't.  A while ago I was informed that there were fewer than ~200 roadworthy Morris Marinas remaining in the wild.  My reaction was one of stunned disbelief.  I mean, they're all over the place aren't they?  Apparently not..........

 

Too many pianos about

[PhilJ W]

My mate's Dad had a very cool car (for me at the time):  

The "coke bottle" shaped  FD Victor VX4/90 with Overdrive on third and fourth (useful to prepare for overtaking on 2 lane blacktops). Obviously "inspired" by US cars of the Challenger era.

 

Best, Pete.

I had one of those, could do a ton without any effort even with six persons on board.

[Kelly]

The VX4/90 was Vauxhalls top line car for the day. Not many of them left now.

 

As for Brabham Viva. There was a Brabham HA Viva, which had mostly trim items changed and a few teaks to the carbs/engine.

 

The HB Viva GT was a very different beast.

 

My ex has collected various info over the years and put them on his website/blog. You can also see his GT restoration progress there I believe.

[Nimbus]

Seeing all those Vivas reminds me of so many models of car of which there were always zillions around and then you'd turn around and, suddenly, there weren't.  A while ago I was informed that there were fewer than ~200 roadworthy Morris Marinas remaining in the wild.  My reaction was one of stunned disbelief.  I mean, they're all over the place aren't they?  Apparently not..........

 

375 known to VOSA in Q2, 2013, and more than half of those SORNed: http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/morris_marina

 

 

And only 39 Rover 214S wedges on the road. No wonder spares are getting a bit difficult for mine...

 

The Nim.

[RANGERS]

375 known to VOSA in Q2, 2013, and more than half of those SORNed: http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/morris_marina

 

 

And only 39 Rover 214S wedges on the road. No wonder spares are getting a bit difficult for mine...

 

The Nim.

Sounds like there's 375 cheap pianos needed.....

 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FTf1siNx5_4

[PatB]

And only 39 Rover 214S wedges on the road. No wonder spares are getting a bit difficult for mine...

 

The Nim.

 

But they can't be extinct!  They're practically new .

[Tony_S]

We had a Chevette. It was our first car and was a gift from my parents-in-law as no garage wanted it in part exchange. I think the Chevette was probably made of the worst bits of the Viva and the Opel Kadett. It always broke down on Fridays and was very rust prone. It finally died bravely overtaking a BMW on the Southend Arterial. Although it was not that reliable it did allow us to visit places not on bus routes! We did get  a couple of Vauxhalls years later though, both were Astras (a GTE and a GTE 16V),

[Kickstart]

Hi

 

Apparently when Lotus were developing the 2L (later 2.2) twin cam they found the bore centres matched the Vauxhall engine and did a deal with Vauxhall. They landed up with 3 Vivas fitted with the suitable engine and with the Lotus head on them (in exchange Vauxhall got to see how the bottom ends coped with far more power than they were designed for). Apparently driven regularly from Hethel to Luton to be checked, and so frightening drivers of supposedly faster cars.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[PhilJ W]

The Vauxhall slant four engine certainly pumped out the horses, even the 1.6 litre FD Victor was good for the ton. The problem was that they were a b*gg*r to work on, some independent workshops even refused to do any engine work on them. Incidently IIRC they were the first production engines fitted with a toothed cambelt.

[Kelly]

We had a Chevette. It was our first car and was a gift from my parents-in-law as no garage wanted it in part exchange. I think the Chevette was probably made of the worst bits of the Viva and the Opel Kadett. It always broke down on Fridays and was very rust prone. It finally died bravely overtaking a BMW on the Southend Arterial. Although it was not that reliable it did allow us to visit places not on bus routes! We did get  a couple of Vauxhalls years later though, both were Astras (a GTE and a GTE 16V),

 

Ah, the Chuvvit... To be fair all the Vivas I drove had the 1067cc, 1159cc or 1256cc engine, which was the same as in the Chevette. Never had a problem aside from a few occasions. One was braking hard downhill killed the distributer cap, but as we were driving to Billing there was a spare in the boot. The other time was when a HT lead welded itself to the exhaust manifold, I was amazed the ony damage was a blown bulb! and the final one was when the brakes on the HA died (drum brakes, brake fade) downhill.

 

All Vauxhalls were prone to rust, especially the rear wheel arches. The joke with the Victor FB was it left the factory with paint holding the rust together!

[bodmin16]

375 known to VOSA in Q2, 2013, and more than half of those SORNed: http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/combined/morris_marina

 

 

And only 39 Rover 214S wedges on the road. No wonder spares are getting a bit difficult for mine...

 

The Nim.

Just checked triumph stag, one of which I had for 18 years, interesting to see how many summer drivers there are!

[Del]

I was looking for a new car a while ago, and whilst idly browsing eBay during a night shift, I came across a car I'd always wanted, a Vauxhall Viscount.

And not any Viscount, but one I could easily find the history of, as it had belonged to a member of another forum I frequent. Unfortunately, since leaving his care, it had been abused a little so I decided against it.

But then I came across this instead:

It's a 1992 Ford Granada Scorpio, 2.0i automatic, full leather, electric everything, cruise control, heated seats, heated front screen. If it had a telly, it'd be like driving my lounge!

It's had one driver before me, a chap who had it as his company car then bought it when he retired. 139k on the clock, and serviced regardless of expense. he even ruled extra boxes in the service history book so it could be stamped!

Edited October 20, 2013 by Del

[Robert]

I have always been rather partial to the "big Vauxhalls" - it is just a shame that there are so few of them left.

 

My ideal would be one of these...

 

 

I remember seeing one in the showroom of our local Vauxhall/Opel dealer when my Dad took his car in for service - and it was love at first sight. The chances of laying my hands on one are negligible though. Only 400 were made to get them homologated, and there really can't be more than a few tens left.

[MJI]

Ah, the Chuvvit... To be fair all the Vivas I drove had the 1067cc, 1159cc or 1256cc engine, which was the same as in the Chevette. Never had a problem aside from a few occasions. One was braking hard downhill killed the distributer cap, but as we were driving to Billing there was a spare in the boot. The other time was when a HT lead welded itself to the exhaust manifold, I was amazed the ony damage was a blown bulb! and the final one was when the brakes on the HA died (drum brakes, brake fade) downhill.

 

All Vauxhalls were prone to rust, especially the rear wheel arches. The joke with the Victor FB was it left the factory with paint holding the rust together!

 

Not keen on the Chevette engine, 3 bearing, pain to work on, everything is on one side .

[Horsetan]

....(drum brakes, brake fade) downhill.

 

I didn't actually know what brake fade was until I "discovered" that my old BMW 635CSi (discs all round) was also prone to it, which resulted in a 360-spin and an "off" at Silverstone.

[skipepsi]

I didn't actually know what brake fade was until I "discovered" that my old BMW 635CSi (discs all round) was also prone to it, which resulted in a 360-spin and an "off" at Silverstone.

New pads and discs alround then? Or just harder pads?

[Robert]

Brake fade

 

My Mum had a Fiat 126 - "The runaway shoebox" as the guy at the local filling station used to call it.

 

It was quite nippy, considering it had a two cylinder air cooled engine - but the brakes were truly terrible.  You would have probably had a better chance of stopping it by doing a "Fred Flintstone" and putting your foot outside to slow it down.  The road into our village was at the bottom of a steep hill, and slowing down enough to make the turn meant really planning ahead because otherwise the brakes would fade when you needed them most!

[PatB]

Not keen on the Chevette engine, 3 bearing, pain to work on, everything is on one side .

 

Theoretically no worse than the BMC A-Series which didn't seem too disadvantaged by its lack of mains and non-crossflow architecture.  However, the one time I had to work on a Chevette I was disappointed to find that, although everything looked roomy, it actually seemed very difficult to get spanners/sockets to the necessary fasteners.  Mind you, I'll allow that some of that may have been lack of familiarity with the beast.

 

I did always fancy a Chevette with improved suspension and all the Blydenstein tuning goodies as a bit of an alternative to the once two-a-penny hot Escorts though.

[Robert]

Theoretically no worse than the BMC A-Series which didn't seem too disadvantaged by its lack of mains and non-crossflow architecture.

 

Try changing the clutch on a Mini with the Engine in, and you'll know what "challenging" is

[Fat Controller]

Try changing the clutch on a Mini with the Engine in, and you'll know what "challenging" is

Our first car was a Mini van (I can remember the reg, even now, as we had to call the RAC so often); being keen, we even bought the proper BL workshop manual for it. In that, replacing the clutch without removing the engine was 'covered' in two places in the text, which didn't actually entirely agree with one another. There was one bolt head that was tight up against the wheel-arch; you could always tell a Mini that had had a clutch replacement, as either there was a bit of wheel arch that had been cut away, or the bolt was absent. There was a gem in the text about alignment;- 'Using BL Tool XXXXXX... Alternatively, a six-inch length of broom handle may be used'.

Its replacement was a Viva HB, which survived two summers of running around France on a minimal budget; there were some jobs on that, such as stripping and cleaning the carb, which I could (and did) do with my eyes shut, as I had to do them so often.

Another of ours was a 1951 Austin Somerset, which we bought in 1984; we had 'issues' with blowing head gaskets and sudden oil leaks. On stripping it down, we discovered that we had three right-handed, and one left-handed, connecting rods- there were marks scored on the inside of the sump, where the 'wrong-handed' one scraped it. I recollect the head-gasket being of a design where the two copper-faced surfaces sandwiched a layer of clay- the thing was supposed to be soaked in water prior to installation, but the first two we put in didn't have instructions telling us this, so didn't last long.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Fat Controller

[Oldddudders]

New pads and discs alround then? Or just harder pads?

Or did the road-going brake fluid boil?

[Platform 6]

Its replacement was a Viva HB, which survived two summers of running around France on a minimal budget; there were some jobs on that, such as stripping and cleaning the carb, which I could (and did) do with my eyes shut, as I had to do them so often.

Must have been the crappy French 'essence'      .. I never had to touch my Viva HB carb in 4 years of hard use as my first car.

 

It went through gearboxes like nobodies business though - I ended up being able to do that in the dark. And fitting an HA Van gearbox meant it would beat 1600 Cortinas from the lights (only up to 40mph though!) 

[Horsetan]

New pads and discs alround then? Or just harder pads?

 

I was actually on harder pads at the time, and the discs had recently been renewed!

 

There were up to twenty old 6-Series being exhibited at Silverstone that day, but only two (mine, and this mad bloke from the Czech Republic) dared to go out onto the F1 course. The Czech driver didn't actually touch the brakes on his at all and just drifted his car round the corners, the flash git.

 

Or did the road-going brake fluid boil?

That might actually be a possibility. I can't actually remember the last time I changed the fluid....

Edited October 21, 2013 by Horsetan

[MJI]

Theoretically no worse than the BMC A-Series which didn't seem too disadvantaged by its lack of mains and non-crossflow architecture.  However, the one time I had to work on a Chevette I was disappointed to find that, although everything looked roomy, it actually seemed very difficult to get spanners/sockets to the necessary fasteners.  Mind you, I'll allow that some of that may have been lack of familiarity with the beast.

 

I did always fancy a Chevette with improved suspension and all the Blydenstein tuning goodies as a bit of an alternative to the once two-a-penny hot Escorts though.

 

My dad once had to strip one to fix an exhaust manifold leak.

 

A right nightmare.

 

BTH I think the later Rootes group lumps were among the best push rod lumps in that size range, seen over 7000rpm on a > 100,000 mile engine, only thing the XFlow had over it was port size.