The Cohort gives us another gem, courtesy of Corey Behrens. When did you last see a Vauxhall Cavalier Sports Hatch on the road?
I recently shared a 1972 Ford Capri 1600GT to CC. The Capri was Ford’s secret weapon – well, perhaps not secret but it was something that was not really challenged by the key competitors, especially in the UK market. The effect of the added glitz, even glamour, to the rest of the Ford range should not be underestimated, yet BL, Chrysler and Vauxhall had nothing to offer there. Ford let the market……do the maths.
Until 1975. Then Vauxhall brought us the first Cavalier. Nothing more or less than an Opel Ascona B with a new front clip and positive attitude to teaching Ford a lesson, it was an instant success for Vauxhall in the UK. In business terms, exactly what the Doctor ordered. The following Cavalier Mk 2 from 1981 (a J car) was soon selling 130,000 a year in the UK, and the Ford Cortina was being genuinely challenged in the market for the first time for over 10 years.
Vauxhall and Opel were not content with just a saloon. The earlier Manta A from 1968 to 1975 had sold around 40% as many as copies as the Ascona A, so another Manta was obvious. This time, there would two styles of Manta – a two door coupe from 1975 and, from late 1978, the Sports Hatch.
The concept was straightforward and aimed directly at the hatchback Capri II. The Sports Hatch concept was something Vauxhall had been working since the early 1970s, as part of an aborted programme to develop a mid size, Vauxhall specific product, and the Vauxhall styled rear was blended very successfully onto the Opel front end. These shots are from 1974, within Vauxhall, not Opel.
Mechanically, it was the same as the Coupe, so 4 cylinder 1.6, 1.9 and 2.0 engines, rear drive, with a well tied down rear suspension using coils and trailing arms rather than the leaf springs of the by then ageing Capri.
The rest, as they say, is history. Vauxhall had a car with such brochure and showroom appeal that “they go out as soon as they come in”. This appeal was backed up by ability. Autocar called it “Just plain nice”, CAR identified it as knocking the Capri off its perch and being well worth £162 (3.5%) extra. List price in late 1978 was £4393, around £25,000 now.
Records show fewer than 100 Sports Hatches surviving in the UK. Vauxhall retreated from the continental Europe market as the cars became common with Opel and this is likely to one of the last Vauxhalls sold in Europe. So for Corey to see this one in Amsterdam, albeit missing a rear wiper and with an aftermarket exhaust, is quite a find.
Well worth that £162.
Chevrolet should have used this for their Monza…
By the time the hatchback coupe showed up the Monza was more than halfway through its’ run.
They really should’ve had a better 2.0-2.5ish four than the Iron Duke though.
Anyone else think those red 1974 mockups look Pacer-esque, especially from the rear/side view?
How much commonality did the Vauxhall Cavalier have with the U.S. Chevrolet Cavalier? They have a very similar shape, yet don’t appear to share any sheetmetal.
None in this generation, but the next one, the Mk.2, was another version of the J car (in fact basically an Ascona C with different badging) so would have some commonailty.
I see some Pacer there, as well.
I see more of a Porsche 928
but before the 928
The last one I saw was in the winter of 2019. I manged to get a photo of it on a driveway in early October of that year.
And the picture I failed to attach!
This would have sold here but GMNZ had gone with the Holden range by then which meant Australianised Opels, We got Chevettes and Vivas from Vauxhall but cost dictated nothing bigger from Vauxhall.
I don’t think I knew that Vauxhall built any LHD cars for sale on the continent. Was this badged as a Manta or an Ascona when an Opel?
Would be a Manta – the Ascona was always a 4 or 5 door.
It was sold as Opel Manta B in the rest of Europe.
But that doesn’t explain why this one is LHD. We can assume that Vauxhall was still exporting some LHD cars at the time, which is a bit odd. I could see it happening to other Commonwealth countries that were not yet in the EEC, but therwise I would have assumed that only Opel was still selling on the continent at this time.
Vauxhall Vivas were steady dealers in Holland and Portugal as different to Opel Kadats. Ford Lusitania produced Cortinias along side the Taunas in its Lisbon factory.
Most probably the Antwerp GM plant (which sadly closed its doors in 2010)
produced these for the continent, Vauxhalls for the UK were made there as well and once upon a time a car called Ranger, a sort of Vauxhall-Opel mix was exclusively produced in Antwerp for Belgium Holland Portugal maybe Scandinavia and Switzerland in an effort to keep the diminishing group of Vauxhall clients for these countries.
Vauxhall were exporting into certain markets in Europe and Scandinavia until the cars in production in 1979 ran out. So, when the Cavalier mk1 finished in 1981, Vauxhall sales in Europe would have ceased, by which they were negligible anyway as the cars were re-badged Opels anyway.
Strongest markets IIRC were Scandinavia, Holland and some old Empire areas like Malta.
My assumption is that this would be one of the last Vauxhalls exported to Europe, although it was probably built in Belgium.
Likewise, mainstream Opels were withdrawn in the UK by 1984, having been sold literally alongside Vauxhalls in the same showrooms for 4 years or so. Only the Monza and the last Mantas remained available until 1987/88.
“Strongest markets IIRC were Scandinavia, Holland and some old Empire areas like Malta.”
That’s right. Until the early/mid 80’s Vauxhall Vivas, Chevettes and -to a lesser extent- Cavaliers were a pretty common sight on Dutch roads.
I think we acknowledged it at the time, but maybe didn’t fully appreciate it. Despite cars like the bustle back Seville and Monte Carlo, GM had the best global, in-house corporate styling of any major manufacturer in this era. I like the US Monza and this is equally nice despite being a tad awkward around the headlights.
Thanks for the 1974 Studio shots of the clays and sketches! I would love to see all those design sketches. I don’t recall any of the CAR STYLINGs I have featuring these; maybe I missed the issue?
Nice writeup, from when cars did NOT look like origami projects…..thanks! 🙂 DFO
I’m going against the grain here, but I find those protruding headlight positively ugly.
The other question is: where was this actually styled? You imply it was at Vauxhall, but there’s no actual facts to back that up. My understanding is that the Opel studios were the ones that actually did the Ascona and Manta B. They undoubtedly coordinated with Vauxhall, but I have to assume the Vauxhall studios were quickly becoming irrelevant at this time. It doesn’t take much to put on a Vauxhall badge on an Opel.
It was mainly Opel but with a bit of a warming over from vauxhall
Vauxhall was working in its own car, and even their own version of the late 70s Kadett (that became the vauxhall astra, but both were pulled by GM when it consolidated it’s European operations.
The cavalier is some of the earlier vauxhall project salvaged and applied to the Ascona.
The base saloon and 2 door coupe were pure Opel.
The Ascona became a Cavalier saloon by adding a droop snout, similar but not exactly the same as the Manta and in a theme with several Vauxhall designs (Firenza droop snout for example) seen over the previous few years.
The Sports Hatch adaption, which came 3 years after the 2 door coupe, is, at least visually, a combination of the 2 door coup.Vauxpedia.net suggests Opel Russelsheim took up the Sports Hatch idea in early 1976, after the launch of the Manta B and Cavalier. Photo is from Vauxhall in Nov 1972
So, as presented, it was not styled by Vauxhall Luton but by Opel, evolved from Vauxhall concepts by blending the Opel front and the Vauxhall concept rear. I am not trying to suggest this was a pure Vauxhall design, but Opel did not plan for a Sports Hatch.
This example has lost some brightwork and a big red Griffin badge, which degrades the front appearance measurably. But the lights can be a full-on.
I suspect Ford’s Capri II going hatchback in 1974 convinced Opel that the sports hatch idea was worth pursuing, especially as it could be derived from the existing model. The headlights were used on the Manta too, exactly the same after the 1982 facelift.
Wayne Cherry was head of Vauxhall design in Luton, and had a thing for both the famous “droop snoot” theme and hatchbacks. His contributions where the Chevette hatchback that GM adopted for the Opel Kadett City, and the Cavalier Sports Hatch of this generation that GM adopted for the Opel Manta hatch. He didn’t design the entire car, only what differs between the Opel body in white and his contributions. As I understand it he did this on his own and GM bought his contributions wholesale. His was also the droop snoot front end of this generation, that Opel tweaked slightly for the Manta.
http://www.cavalierandchevetteclub.co.uk/cavalier%20mk1%20in%20continental%20europe.htm
Up until 1981, Vauxhalls were sold in some countries in continental Europe.
Thanks for the write-up, Roger. I was pretty surprised when I walked behind this to see it was a Vauxhall. I had no idea Vauxhall was sold in mainland Europe at that time. It certainly looks like it could be related to the H-bodies, but probably has absolutely nothing in common…except the mother company.
I’m with Paul on the headlights being not easy on the eyes. This one looks better from behind.
I’m very short-sighted. If I was a car, I’d probably have headlights like this; protuberant with thick glass around the edges. Not a good look on a car.
Now correct me if I’m wrong Roger (or anyone else), but I get the feeling that Vauxhall had aimed too high with the Victor from the FC on in making it bigger and taking it upmarket. It kind of wound up in a no-man’s-land – too big for the Cortina segment but not big enough for the Granada, a marketing black hole. Although I was disappointed at the time that Vauxhall couldn’t do their own design, I can see that borrowing the Opel gave them a car that was bang on target. And I reckon it was brilliant to sell the coupe and hatch as a Cavalier variant rather than giving them a different name – kind of gave a halo effect to the sedans.
I wouldn’t disagree that the Victor (and the Viva) had got too big compared with Ford’s template.
The FE was the most obvious , lost in a no-man’s and between the Cortina and Granada. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/curbside-outtake-1977-vauxhall-vx2300gls-the-end-of-the-british-vauxhall-the-end-of-americana/
The illegitimate evil spawn of Avanti & Vega,
The dominatrix Christine is in there somewhere, as well.
Opel Manta B hatch! I do like it, but as others have pointed out, the insect-like headlight treatment isn’t my favorite, nor do I like its looks quite as much as any Ford Capri. But, then again, I’m a big Capri fan.
It’s cool that this example is from the last year of this design.