LUR440L - click to enlarge
On 19th September, I was lucky enough to be taken for a spin in the glorious 1973 Vauxhall Firenza you see pictured here. It is owned by Gary Lewin, who, in a bizarre twist of geographical fate, just so happens to live on my estate. Aside from car shows, it’s rare enough to see a Firenza anywhere - to find that one is garaged just around the corner from my house is amazing.
I have been a fan of HC Vivas and their derivatives for a very long time now. Regular readers will be familiar with the plethora of articles posted since 2011 - some shared below in case you need reminding. In my life, I have owned two Vivas and a 1973 1800 Firenza.
In September, I posted a Facebook comment and a photo but thought that a full-blown article was also worth creating. Why, well there were lots of comments and plenty of people clearly appreciated this car.
Gary’s Firenza is far from standard, the base car was a 2300 Sport SL, but it has been augmented with the Magard “Old Nail” body kit, it sits on Wolfraces, has a pair of 48 Dellortos feeding petrol into the slant four, a Getrag 5-speed box, a rear spoiler, a rather smart custom rocker cover, and it has the battery, water reservoir and fuel pump located in the boot.
The Firenza has been featured in the media too, it appeared in the December 1988 edition of “Fast Car”. And on the subject of speed, that article suggested that the car was good for 175bhp and a 0-60 time of about 7 seconds. Top speed 138mph.
LUR440L is glossy black with red accents inside and out and the car just looks sleek and so damn cool. In my opinion, if “Knight Rider” had been filmed in the UK, Hasselhoff wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at driving this KITT contender. Seriously, it’s that cool.
I caught a sideways glimpse of this car a few times before I actually got a proper look at it. In one instance, I literally ran from my back garden and down the drive to see the car just as it turned right out of my estate. Once I knew for sure that the street machine was a Firenza, I took to my estate Facebook group with a request for more information. I subsequently found out who owned it, and then went to meet him.
Gary expressed his surprise that someone actually knew what the car was, he is more used to people asking him what it is. He certainly didn’t expect to find a super fan on his door step. But to his credit, even if he thought I was a weirdo, he was kind enough to show me around his pride and joy and let me take some photos.
The thing about cars like this one is that they bring people together and it’s not the first time that I have made an effort to contact someone with an eye-catching motor. Back in 1994, a bright yellow Firenza with the same body kit was the catalyst that created a twenty-year friendship with a fella that, in the second bizarre twist of this post, was also called Gary. I wrote about the encounter with Gary Martin in this piece - https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/gary-martin-good-bloke-gonegutted - please have a read, but in the meantime, here’s an extract:
“The manner of our meeting amuses some because (uninvited), I just went up to his front door and introduced myself. At the time he lived in Barton-Le-Clay, Bedfordshire; I used to drive past his house almost every day on my way to work in Flitwick. Gary had a 1971 Vauxhall Firenza (EXE674J) with an “Old Nail” fibre glass body kit fitted to it. The kit meant the car had a pointy nose cone, large bonnet bulge and flared wheel arches. What was also eye catching was that the car was painted in a very bright shade of yellow. At the time of our meeting, I was driving a 1300 GLS Vauxhall Viva and made a spur of the moment decision that I should say “hello” – my thinking was that we might have some stuff in common. And it turned out that we did! We became firm friends as a result.”
Having seen LUR440L in the garage, I was quite excited to be taken out for a drive a few days later. Though it hardly seems believable to me, more than a decade has passed since I last went for a ride in an HC.
The run out towards Welford was a delight, the car was fast and noisy and there was this sense of drama that is completely absent from a modern motor. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being able to smell a car, the whiff of petrol is something that used to be the norm, but is now a dim and distant memory.
All too soon the drive was over but I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the time it lasted. Honestly, I spent the whole time smiling from ear to ear and the experience is one of the highlights of my year.
Many thanks to Gary Lewin.
I have been a fan of HC Vivas and their derivatives for a very long time now. Regular readers will be familiar with the plethora of articles posted since 2011 - some shared below in case you need reminding. In my life, I have owned two Vivas and a 1973 1800 Firenza.
In September, I posted a Facebook comment and a photo but thought that a full-blown article was also worth creating. Why, well there were lots of comments and plenty of people clearly appreciated this car.
Gary’s Firenza is far from standard, the base car was a 2300 Sport SL, but it has been augmented with the Magard “Old Nail” body kit, it sits on Wolfraces, has a pair of 48 Dellortos feeding petrol into the slant four, a Getrag 5-speed box, a rear spoiler, a rather smart custom rocker cover, and it has the battery, water reservoir and fuel pump located in the boot.
The Firenza has been featured in the media too, it appeared in the December 1988 edition of “Fast Car”. And on the subject of speed, that article suggested that the car was good for 175bhp and a 0-60 time of about 7 seconds. Top speed 138mph.
LUR440L is glossy black with red accents inside and out and the car just looks sleek and so damn cool. In my opinion, if “Knight Rider” had been filmed in the UK, Hasselhoff wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at driving this KITT contender. Seriously, it’s that cool.
I caught a sideways glimpse of this car a few times before I actually got a proper look at it. In one instance, I literally ran from my back garden and down the drive to see the car just as it turned right out of my estate. Once I knew for sure that the street machine was a Firenza, I took to my estate Facebook group with a request for more information. I subsequently found out who owned it, and then went to meet him.
Gary expressed his surprise that someone actually knew what the car was, he is more used to people asking him what it is. He certainly didn’t expect to find a super fan on his door step. But to his credit, even if he thought I was a weirdo, he was kind enough to show me around his pride and joy and let me take some photos.
The thing about cars like this one is that they bring people together and it’s not the first time that I have made an effort to contact someone with an eye-catching motor. Back in 1994, a bright yellow Firenza with the same body kit was the catalyst that created a twenty-year friendship with a fella that, in the second bizarre twist of this post, was also called Gary. I wrote about the encounter with Gary Martin in this piece - https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/gary-martin-good-bloke-gonegutted - please have a read, but in the meantime, here’s an extract:
“The manner of our meeting amuses some because (uninvited), I just went up to his front door and introduced myself. At the time he lived in Barton-Le-Clay, Bedfordshire; I used to drive past his house almost every day on my way to work in Flitwick. Gary had a 1971 Vauxhall Firenza (EXE674J) with an “Old Nail” fibre glass body kit fitted to it. The kit meant the car had a pointy nose cone, large bonnet bulge and flared wheel arches. What was also eye catching was that the car was painted in a very bright shade of yellow. At the time of our meeting, I was driving a 1300 GLS Vauxhall Viva and made a spur of the moment decision that I should say “hello” – my thinking was that we might have some stuff in common. And it turned out that we did! We became firm friends as a result.”
Having seen LUR440L in the garage, I was quite excited to be taken out for a drive a few days later. Though it hardly seems believable to me, more than a decade has passed since I last went for a ride in an HC.
The run out towards Welford was a delight, the car was fast and noisy and there was this sense of drama that is completely absent from a modern motor. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being able to smell a car, the whiff of petrol is something that used to be the norm, but is now a dim and distant memory.
All too soon the drive was over but I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the time it lasted. Honestly, I spent the whole time smiling from ear to ear and the experience is one of the highlights of my year.
Many thanks to Gary Lewin.
Click on any image to enlarge
Previous Posts:
1) https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/gary-martin-good-bloke-gonegutted
2) https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/september-car-shows-at-billing-aquadrome
3) https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/vboa-annual-rally-market-harborough-showground
4) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/annual-vauxhall-pilgrimage-washout.html
5) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/vboa-all-car-club-rally-2013.html
6) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/that-petrol-emotion
7) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/reflections-from-the-vboa-national-rally-billing-2015
8) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/vboa-national-rally-at-billing-aquadrome-july-2016
9) Not Billing – a VBOA National Rally review
10) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/a-trip-down-memory-lane-pot-holes-and-all
11) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/the-droopsnoot-celebrates-its-40th-birthday
12) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/vauxhalls-heritage-centre-ndash-a-nostalgic-trip-to-luton.html
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
1) https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/gary-martin-good-bloke-gonegutted
2) https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/september-car-shows-at-billing-aquadrome
3) https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/vboa-annual-rally-market-harborough-showground
4) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/annual-vauxhall-pilgrimage-washout.html
5) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/vboa-all-car-club-rally-2013.html
6) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/that-petrol-emotion
7) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/reflections-from-the-vboa-national-rally-billing-2015
8) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/vboa-national-rally-at-billing-aquadrome-july-2016
9) Not Billing – a VBOA National Rally review
10) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/a-trip-down-memory-lane-pot-holes-and-all
11) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/the-droopsnoot-celebrates-its-40th-birthday
12) http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/vauxhalls-heritage-centre-ndash-a-nostalgic-trip-to-luton.html
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
RSS Feed
