Classic cars on the road

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Tim SP
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Tim SP »

What a lovely change to see a Vauxhall- its a shame that most folks think of that marque as it is now, rather than the high end quality product it so was-
obviously I am a huge fan of the later (1970's) models, in fact a super fan, but Vauxhall does get over looked,saying that, it gets utterly over shadowed, latterly by Ford.
Why people go nuts for a mk1/11 Escort when a 2300 Magnum will utterly destroy it- the VX490 (5 spd) makes more power & imp (like big Jensen's) tons of torque than a RS2000- yet worth nothing like!
I am a Ford fan too- but the slant 4 Vauxhalls are king in my opinion!
DTV cars, well Big Gerry owned the track- almost always in a VX- Yet in UK there is a lack of love, as a Aus mate said " yer either GM or Ford mate" followed by a mega punch up!

Seeing that Spirit- well what a ton (or 3!) of car for no money- Bentley Turbo R, Eight's, Spirits etc-
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Chris_R
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Chris_R »

How many of those VX490s are there left Tim?
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by sespie »

Jeepers! What class of racing are those first two pics - open slather, whatever modifications you can dream up and go for it??? I'm impressed.
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Grant
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Grant »

Tim :P
That VX of yours is a stunning looking car :wink: ... Do you have that vinyl and roof re-trimmed buy that friend of yours?.. looks brilliant :wink:
When I was moped age, my mate who I hung around with parents looking back were obviously into the Vauxhalls like you are, on the drive was the Firenza droop snoot and I am sure a VX too looking back, when we got to 17 he was insured by his parents on the Firenza and used to drive that about giving all it had as we did at that age... luckily he didn't prang it.. silver it was.. he loved it :D .. a rare car also now isn't it.. never see them do you :shock:
The bit about Big Bertha I wanted to tell you was this .... I had my old york aircon pump vapor blasted the otherday by a blaster I use for everything, anyway he loves thunder-saloon racing and has an SD1 with a small block chevy in, we got chatting as you do and he loves a chat... we talked quite in depth about the thunder saloons era because of the Series X Capri I have (it was used as the pace car for a training school), while talking he happened to mention Big Bertha, he is quite into the thunder saloons as it is still going on and is in which he races, he told me that Big Bertha was now owned by a colleague of his and is going out on the track again soon, I don't know how true this is and I am sure you will know as much about it, :shock: , I did wonder if maybe it was a cloned car as I though Big Bertha would be in a museum somewhere due to the nature of it's history, I did tell him that I have previously been in talks with Gregor Marshall (Gerry's son) who is a lovely helpful person and absolutely adored his Ole Dad Gerry, he wrote a book about his Dad's career or was writing one anyway.. not sure if its finished, I'm always down there and can try to find out more if you want me too, he said he bought it for circa £25k, I thought that was cheap and it was at the point I wondered if it was the real thing or not? What say you Mr Clarke? :wink:
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Tim SP
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Tim SP »

G-man, yes please do find out more on the car!!
The DTV Droopsnoots are rare, they were always desired & never been cheap- unlike all other Vauxhalls!
Jensen did head development on the VX Twink head- very interesting stuff......

Chris- not sure how many left, so many 5 Speeders were scraped to get the getrag box for the afore mentioned Droopsnoots & Chuv-ittes esp if rallied.
They only made 943 in first place so always a very rare bird indeed.
BCH is the worlds finest remaining example- I knew it was exceptional but the Vauxhall guru's have known the car many years & all say it so, so much the Vauxhall heritage would have it.
Its very unusual in that it was a run out model but Vauxhall made the ultimate versions to see the FE's out, the 490 & the very plush VX2300GLS-the luxo version.

490's had full plaid trim sports steering wheel & ventora 5 stud with 14" (as Rover P6 & ultra rare) rostyle rims, different front end panel with spoiler, tuned 2300 twin carb & exhaust- the original plan was to install a 2300 Injection engine -yup the very one that was developed for poss use in the Jensen-Healey & GT, the GT poss to be made for Vauxhall by Jensen & badged as such! (info from board meetings, Kjell's own words) anyway, the prototype was so superior to the new range that the big knobs at GM binned it on sight!
so the 490 had an uprated version of the old 4/90's 2300 twin carb, with a bit more poke.

If I could retained as its keeper I'd happy have it there or on display.

Big-Bertha. Well it was destroyed during testing beyond help, it was then decided to build 'Baby-Bertha' a sort of droopsnoot, but like Big bertha & all those mental thunder saloons, only the outside shape was familiar as they were space framed race cars sharing nothing with the road cars.
Big-bertha's rep-co Holden V8 went into Baby & that went on to be a killer race car with Big Gerry at the helm- there is some awesome footage of him racing & commentating at the same time, awesome!

Old nail is pictured on 2 wheels, almost standard Vauxhall Firenza 2300, Baby is the wild be-spoiled thunder saloon- again some great footage on both, I think there is some at Chrystal palace on u-boat-tube.

G-man, stick up some phots of the X-Pack, its awesome as is its story mate.............
Sorry, got a bit geeky this!!! :mrgreen:
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by felixkk »

A Golf parked in Zurich
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Another one on the same lot
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Dion »

felixkk wrote:A Golf parked in Zurich
What a depressing sight. Everything is ugly in this picture. Almost back to the doom-eighties. :(
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by felixkk »

Dion wrote:
felixkk wrote:A Golf parked in Zurich
What a depressing sight. Everything is ugly in this picture. Almost back to the doom-eighties. :(
:D Zurich in November is not the place to be (actually also December, January, Febuary, March and usually also April. In May it gets better again).
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by JHV8 »

Healey generations
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16 valves but 4 extra pistons.

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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Grant »

JHV8 wrote:
20171119_091449.jpg
Where was you to get those pics Rob? .. You didn't ask me to go!! :evil:
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by JHV8 »

Grant wrote:
JHV8 wrote:
20171119_091449.jpg
Where was you to get those pics Rob? .. You didn't ask me to go!! :evil:
Sorry about that. Third Sunday of month new breakfast meet at The Surrey Oaks, Newdigate. So next one will be 17/12 if your interested.
Are you up for the Walton Bridge Breakfast Club on Sunday 03/12?
16 valves but 4 extra pistons.

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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Grant »

JHV8 wrote:
Grant wrote:
JHV8 wrote:
20171119_091449.jpg
Where was you to get those pics Rob? .. You didn't ask me to go!! :evil:
Sorry about that. Third Sunday of month new breakfast meet at The Surrey Oaks, Newdigate. So next one will be 17/12 if your interested.
Are you up for the Walton Bridge Breakfast Club on Sunday 03/12?
Yes yes yes ... plonk some reminders in somewhere Rob as I tend not to check too much, many thanks Robby Williams :P
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Kevin Birch »

Couldn't believe I saw this on the way home from work, rush hour traffic in Brum and raining too. What are these fetching now, £400K, £500K, £10.50?
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by shaun »

I thought they turned into a pumpkin if they got wet!
Excellent spot and fair play to the driver.
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Re: Classic cars on the road

Post by Barrie »

Yes, well spotted.
I've never seen one on the road and that's probably because they're a real handful!
7' wide without the mirrors and very low. The 3.5 litre racing Metro engine was a disappointment to the original owners as they were promised a 7 litre V12. (I'd be disappointed too!) The engine sounds awful in my opinion and the interior is plain.
Forward visibility is challenging with the space between the top of dashboard and the roof being only 8".
Maybe that's why DVLC reveals MOTs showing only 6500 miles since it was built in 1993. Some of this info was gleaned from a Coys auction about three years ago where the car didn't sell at c150k although I see themselves advertised now at £300k+
Still a great spotting and I've seen more Veyrons on the road than these.
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