Everybody harps on about the whacky (read: pig-ugly) styling of ’70s Datsuns, and quite rightly too. At the time, some rather peculiar-looking machines were also made by the likes of Lancia (the Gamma berlina), Citroën (the Ami 6, the Visa), British Leyland (the horror… the horror), VW (the 411/412), not to mention some dubious COMECON products. But you know who repeatedly created some of the most esthetically-challenged vehicles ever mass-produced? The good old Régie Renault.

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Dad only ever owned one car—or, more accurately, half a share in a “sit-up-and-beg” Ford Popular with his brother, my uncle. Yet among his belongings in his desk were two car leaflets: one for a Bond 875 three-wheeler, the other for “A New Kind of Viva,” a fold-out brochure introducing the third-generation Vauxhall Viva in 1971. This was Vauxhall’s bread-and-butter family car, a straightforward offering. The Viva would go on to serve British motorists until 1979, but Dad never bought one. He stuck to his pedal bike, despite having a driving licence and occasionally hiring a car for family holidays. So there’s a certain irony in finding a beautifully restored, basic 1974 Viva today—a reminder of the kind of everyday family transport that once filled Britain’s roads, and that now survives only thanks to the dedication of enthusiasts.

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