Hmm, love the ride height and the stance, but I hope mine looks a bit prettier when it's done

 

it looks just as it was designed to look i guess..functional rather than pretty,ill have to try and scan some old pics of my magnum coupe with droop snoot front end and baby bertha rear spoiler and post them up,might look ****e now,but as a first effort for a 17 year old i thought it looked great

 

tee hee, here is my kitted Firenza, 20 years ago now, honestly, it did look real cool then! check out those 13" rims

 

I fully intend to stick with 13's on my project (either Revolutions or Superlite's) if I can fit some brakes behind them

 

ok.heres my effort....poor quality pic as its just a digi pic of an original pic as i couldnt get it scanned....looked better all those years ago..( 23 years eek)

 

I'm so pleased to see these pics and the time they were taken!
I thought i was alone in being this 'age' I am.

We should start an 'Old Cars of my Youth' thread as i bet there will be many memories we can all relate to.
Excellent!

While some were doing Viva's (I had one too) I was very into Street Rodding, even had 2 articles in Custom Car magazine, one my daughter thinks is a 'bit rude'!

Great time!
Graham.

 

Great to see these pics, thanks guys!

Graham, got any pics of your cars?

 

A few, will digi photo the scrap book ones to amuse you all of the 'Good old Days'

My 15 years of Street Rodding were the best.

Will post some up tonight when i find them.
Graham

 

Yep, post em up 911!

Here is my 'sports hatch' essentially a 2.3 magnum estate they built with left over nose cones and wheels from the HP Firenza apparently.. pity it just had the stock 2.3 not the HP version.. sadly it was left to rust in a field somewhere before being bought by someone who just wanted the nose off it

 

Ace!
Hope you didn't go to the Classic Car Show at the NEC, and 'snooted' Vivas were there in force.
Nice estate.
Will bring back memories looking for the snaps ans Santa Pod in the early days!

Graham.

 

Must get around to joining the DSG.

 

Learnt to Drive in an Austin A35.

Was a toss up between a Mini 1275 Cooper S or a Chevette Silhouette as a first car. The Mini won on having less rust.

 

Now, DO NOT take the p!ss out of these. They were a l o n g time ago!

Street rods, simply the Best:

When I was young and .....


When I was young and famous....the rude bits....



After a few years it got a Capri V6 and auto and fresh 'image'...





Not long before it was sold.....



The car was my pride and joy which i built when i was 19.
It was (is) a Y Type Ford 8hp with a jag rear end, Viva HA front end with VX490 discs.
I chopped the top by 2'' and painted it myself, infact it was all DIY as had no money to do anything else.
Have you noticed the genuine reg number?
DTV 230 (Dealer Team Vauxhall 2300 (cc))
Tried to sell it to Bill Blydenstien but no joy..

Those were REAL flares then!

Hope you have had a smile from these.

Graham.

 

^^ looks like an awesome ride dude some great pics there!!

Just found this one, was at a DSG meet in 1987, think it was called 'silver arrow' a Vauxhall prototype and IIRC sat on their styling dept roof for many years, check out the 6, yes 6 Cibie headlamps!! and the bonnet vent..

 

saw the silver arrow a few years back down at the luton car plant in the on site museum they have,was on some course and had an hour or so spare so had a tour....some very interesting old cars in there,and two old boys whos job was to make/restore parts for these cars that are obviously no longer in production.....nice HS chevette in there as i recall,and i got very close to bringing a mint s reg HS back from hong kong a couple of years back...... car of my dreams as a 17 year old apprentice

 

Wooh your wife was/is good looking

Mark A

 

Get down to the opticians!
It was a long time ago, and I'm 20% heavier now, and my wedding suit just about still fits.(made from high tensile nylon).
Anyway, this is about Vivas and there was a lot of Vauxhall on that car..plenty in the scrap yards, but cheap!

Scarey picture though I agree.

Graham.

 

It's a shame you don't look like that now, as you'd save about 50kgs off the weight of the car

It's funny how everybody seemed so thin in the 70s

Mark A

 

My hair (still got tons of it) is shorter now, so that must help (get the helmet on)!
That pic is just one of several, and you are right, everyone was thin!
Just look at all the players in Rock Bands then, all skinny dudes with stupid hair by today's fashion.
You are in the Health game, why are so many people lardy in thier 20's/30's etc today?
Graham.

 

bryn0

Is your car one of the sport hatches on here

http://www.droopsnootgroup.org.uk

 

^ used to be a member of the DSG in the late 80's, sadly my Sportshatch is no more, but it's prized nose cone lived on to be grafted onto someones race project Firenza somewhere

Slightly off topic, did someone mention HS Chevette? whens the last time you saw one of these on the road?



Pic was taken in 1987 as you can tell by the mullet standing near the car

 

HS chevette was me..... used to get a couple in at work,and a local guy had one converted to hsr spec for road rallies,not original but very rapid for the early eighties,had a big sectional drawing of a HSR on my wall as a kid and always lusted after one,the guy i did my apprentership under had the opppotunity to go in the old russell brookes Andrews heat for hire chevette for a vauxhall open day up here in brum,had to go to luton to collect and bring it back up here...was in the DSG for a few years and tryed to locate a HS for my self a couple of years ago,and found a stunning one over in hong kong,and went a long way down the road to re-importing it,but fell through in the end........ great little cars and very succesfull in road staged rallies

 

I had 'HS' wheels on my Chevette; off a Sportshatch similar to the one in the picture (if you look closely youll see that they were the same). A friend had two going fallow on his drive, they were brown though, as all Firenza Sportshatches were I thought? I didnt manage to get an engine out of him though.....

Simon

 

Yeh IIRC the HS, Sportshatch and HP Firenza all shared the same 13" Dunlop 'safety' wheels with the grey centres. Sportshatches were all the same colour, Vaux called it 'extra dark wine' (those marketing boys ) it was a really deep purple colour, quite nice actually, with unusually for the era painted red bumpers, fibreglass on the front (in the days when just about everything was chrome still) twin red stripes down the side and a natty Sportshatch decal on the rear lid below the spoiler in that 'Space 1999' typeface, soooo cutting edge..

 

Is that Robin Gibb stood next to the car

 

No, he's rich!

I note nobody else is brave (stupid) enough to show their youthful years.
Graham

 

That's 'coz I'm still there just

 

You will all catch me up soon enough.

 

Forgot I'd hung onto this all these years, the handbook from my old Firenza..





1970 eh, when they were offering a years subscription to Vauxhall Motorist magazine for 90p

It's even got some handy wiring diagrams in the back if you ever get stuck Rev

 

LOL, I might be needing that Bryn! I actually bought a Vauxhall engineers training manual i.e. the book used by the people servicing the cars but if you ever want to sell the handbook, I'd be interested!