70 replies to this topic

[eldougo]

Originally posted by Ray Bell

eldougo, of course, was little more than a glorified storekeeper... as he'll readily attest. ????

Thanks for listing me with such names as you did,however i don't remember ever discribing myself as you have stated here ,either on the net or to you personally.

[Ray Bell]

Thought I'd get a response to that...

I know you weren't anything of the sort, but BRG had mentioned 'storekeepers' and I thought of you telling me that story about ordering parts from the Rat Factory when you were in Italy. Just trying to make a little joke, I think anyone here would recognise that.

Sorry if I've offended you.

[ian senior]

Originally posted by BRG
When Vauxhall shoehorned a 2-litre OHC engine into it and sold it as the Viva GT, it became a real prospect. If Vauxhall had had more of a competition image then (it was the height of GM's no-competition policy) it could have been a real competitor to the hot Escorts of the day and sold loads. But in reality it was a bit of a non-event and they didn't sell well at all for no good reason excpet lack of image. Now, if that model had been marketed as the Vauxhall-Brabham Viva GT, it might have been a different story.

I think a lot of people were also distracted by the look of the thing. The Viva was basically an attractive looking car but Vauxhall went way over the top in making it look sporty - matt black bonnet with air scoops, four exhaust pipes, at least two of which were purely for decoration, nasty wheel trims....the kind of stuff that present day chavs apply to their knackered Novas. This attracted no end of criticism in the press and put a lot of people off the car before they had even driven it. Surely Jack wouldn't have liked it at all, so it's probably a good thing that they simply called it "GT".

[eldougo]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Thought I'd get a response to that...

I know you weren't anything of the sort, but BRG had mentioned 'storekeepers' and I thought of you telling me that story about ordering parts from the Rat Factory when you were in Italy. Just trying to make a little joke, I think anyone here would recognise that.

Sorry if I've offended you.

No offence taken ,i just thought my Memory had gone again.

[soubriquet]

IIRC the Viva engine couldn't be made to breathe because there was no room in the head for bigger ports. If it had been tuneable, or someone had come up with a new casting, they could have sold well. They were a better looking car than the Escorts, and were coil rather than leaf sprung.

[ian senior]

Originally posted by soubriquet
IIRC the Viva engine couldn't be made to breathe because there was no room in the head for bigger ports. If it had been tuneable, or someone had come up with a new casting, they could have sold well. They were a better looking car than the Escorts, and were coil rather than leaf sprung.

I've heard that kind of thing too, but Bill Blydenstein had a few good ideas how to make that engine work better. Surprising that Vauxhall never took him up on them.

[Ray Bell]

Siamesed inlet ports that came in the top of the head... probably had two right angle bends in them...

Strangely enough, one of the Lotus 6 replicas that raced here in the sixties had a Viva engine (1057cc?) to cart it around... and a driver that topped 19 stone (266lbs) stripped to the undies!

[soubriquet]

I know he was very successful tuning the bigger engines, but wasn`t that the answer: putting the 2 litre in an HC and calling it a Firenza? Certainly, I`d be happy to be corrected if the Viva was tuneable.

[Vicuna]

Was that Pete Geoghegan?

[Patrick Fletcher]

From an old car club mag c. 1967 -
"Torana is not just another car model, it is a completely new car." ... so says Blackwell Motors of Christchurch NZ in describing the Australian-built Vauxhall Viva named Holden Torana.

[ian senior]

Originally posted by soubriquet
I know he was very successful tuning the bigger engines, but wasn`t that the answer: putting the 2 litre in an HC and calling it a Firenza? Certainly, I`d be happy to be corrected if the Viva was tuneable.

A couple of things, really. Before the OHC engine was plonked in the Viva shell, Bill B was running a Viva in races and hillclimbs in Britain in '68 or thereabouts. I remember seeing Gerry Marshall giving it a good thrashing at Harewood in September of that year. I have a recollection of that racing Viva featuring in a special Vauxhall supplement in "Motor" some time in that year.

A bit later on, by some miracle Bill took the engine out to around 1500cc and did some fairly extensive work on it (not sure what though) to improve both performance and fuel efficiency - mainly the latter , I think. This was in about the mid 70s, I think, and I do remember reading about it in magazines at the time. The journalists were fairly gobsmacked at the results that had been achieved - as well as the performance and economy gains, the engine had a much smoother and pleasant nature. Can't remember if the engine was in a Viva or Chevette, though.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Vicuna
Was that Pete Geoghegan?

and when and under what circumstances did you see him in his undies

[Vicuna]

I know the story and ain't laughing.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by 275 GTB-4
and when and under what circumstances did you see him in his undies

You forgot this one, right?



But it wasn't him.

Bill, I think, was the driver's first name, I never saw him race, but I remember I was told about him, and Malcolm Smith later owned the car so I knew a bit about it.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Vicuna
I know the story and ain't laughing.

The only bit that would inspire laughter was when he was a 'trusty' at Oberon and they sent him to get some hardware from Kelso...

The ute and its occupant weren't back at nightfall, so they sent out a search party. Seems he found himself a lot of friends in a pub at Bathurst and didn't have to worry about paying for the beer until he was ironed out on the floor.

[Gary Davies]

Originally posted by BRG
Yes. It was just a regular 1256cc OHV Viva HB 90 with a sports air filter and a tacky little vinyl Brabham sticker across the nose and down the front wings.

At severe risk of becoming an unintending Viva apologist, may I say that is not correct. As the excruciating copy in the ad below gushes, it did, amongst other things, have twin Strombergs with separate air filters, different inlet manifold and big bore straight through exhaust. Oh, and a 'burnished mahogany gear knob with an inlaid Brabham badge.'!

[eldougo]

Another pic of the MAN....

[Pils1989]

I've started reading his auto-biography "When the flag drops", published in 1971, and it sounds quite amusing so far.
Did he really write it himself?

[Barry Boor]

I hope his spelling was a bit better....

Sorry, couldn't resist that one....

[Pils1989]

Corrected! Thank you

[eldougo]

Found this John Smails interview in a SCW Magazine 1971.