With David Saunders’ recent Storage Field Classic on the Vauxhall Victor, I was reminded of a brace of Vivas posted to the Cohort by KiwiBryce some time ago. They look quite nice, don’t they?
I am assuming it is a museum of some kind–lots of interesting cars in the background. And is that black sedan in the foreground a Triumph 1300? I’d love to see some more pictures of this place!
My money’s on that black sedan being a Triumph Dolomite- and by my reckoning it’s Russet Brown (the C-pillar had a black vinyl covering)
Or a Toledo these were shot at the British Car Museum at Te Awanga Im only a few clicks away I could check one day there are 350+ cars in these sheds all British but for a Skoda, I really must take you guys back there.
I’ve been wanting to go there for ages – I often see him buy interesting old Brit cars off trademe. Would love to see more pics Bryce! 🙂
Those are NZ plates of course. Kiwi plates are striking since they have nothing besides the registration. No “Upper Slobovia” or “Famous Potatoes” or anything. Why should they, you can’t drive anywhere else. Very cool plates.
They’re our old black-background 2-letters-4-numbers-series number plates that began in the 1960s (they were still plain before that but the plates themselves had different colour backgrounds and different symbols depending on year).
The black background plates changed to white background in 1986, when the ‘NA’ series began. The first few came in for quite some criticism as the black for the numbers came off in car washes, rendering the plates almost unreadable (which was great for speed camera fine avoidance!).
The 2-letters-4-numbers-series ran out with ZZ9999 in 2000. Since then we’ve had a 3-letters-3-numbers-series, still black letters/numbers on a reflectorized white background.
At some stage over the last 10 years the white background received very faintly ‘ghosted’ images of a circle containing a silver fern every few centimetres. The only other real change was a couple of years ago when the ‘FAA’ series started and the font was changed.
Personalised Plates are available here (and have been since the late 80s), and they’re available in extra-wide or extra-deep versions with images or slogans. You can get coloured digits too. We have to pay (through the nose!) for them though, and all standard issue new plates are still plain. A current craze (for want of a better word) is new issue plates on classic cars being stripped of paint and given a black background so that they look like the old black plates. As well, some owners of classic British cars have their NZ plate number made into a UK-spec/size plate in the UK and then sent back to them to affix to their car here in NZ. This helps the plate shape better suit the design of some cars – eg the square UK plates are ideal for the boot-lid of 60s Jags.
There we go, a brief history of a subject most folks won’t care about lol! 🙂
Mr. Kilowatt is making me hungry… I could really go for some of those famous Upper Slobovian potatoes right now. And BTW, how many of us here had the bronze-colored Matchbox car, just like the one on the far right? I can’t be the only one.
The 2nd one in was named a “Firenza” in the Canadian market. They were noted for spontaneous combustion and improper threads on the lugs which allowed the wheels to fall off. But they looked kinda nice when new!
As one who appreciates quality wordplay in titles, I salute you, Mr. K.
While I am on that topic, I understand that these were popular with clergy because it is said that there are no atheists in Vauxhalls. Sorry.
Yes, that is terrible; so bad, I wish I’d thought of it.☺
Vaux Hall is a very famous place in London the site of the Original Vauxhall Iron works was where this mob kicked off These HC Vivas are quite rare now and are getting good coin for probably the first time, They rusted when new and the Stationwagon/Van versions were worked into the ground by the time the 80s rolled around, Vauxhall fitted Bedford CF Van ohc engines into some Vivas they went well they were called a Magnum in England that meant a 1800cc motor and resonable performance, This fact was known to the NZ public but GM-NZ pulled a fast one and slapped Magnum grilles and badging on innocent 1300cc and jacked the price. Canada also got the HC Viva because some canadian spec cars were imported my dad used these things as runabouts and the Canadian version had stiffer suspension and cornered better.
We did get some of the 1800cc Magnums, but I’m guessing they were super-rare. One of Dad’s long-time customers when he was a mechanic had a NZ-new 1800 Magnum – it was gold with the rostyle type wheels. Even when Dad retired the lady still brought the car to him to service at home. It was a bit iffy in the electrics (like many old Brit cars!) but was about the only Viva I thought had halfway decent looks. Eventually some time in the early 90s it suffered major engine issues and was a nuisance to get parts for, so the lady swapped it for a 1-owner Mk2 Escort with only 20,000km on the clock. I still can’t decide which car was the better buy.
Little known fact Vauxhall Viva HC coup’es were sold with Chevrolet badging in South Africa. These cars were also called a Firenza in the UK and elsewhere and came with a 2.3litre OHC engine. GM SA decided to make a limited edition performance model. They produced 100 Chevrolet Viva Firenzas with a 305 V8 engine Ive seen one in the Targa Tasmania it went like a bullet and cornered, awesome car.
You mean like this one? The Firenza Can Am? I’ve only ever read about these cars, but am absolutely fascinated by them. I can’t imagine one of these little things (to my midwestern USA eyes) powered by a 302 Chevy motor.
I think the droopsnoot Vivas would have made good Pontiacs in the US, but I remain a fan of the North American H-body, particularly the later versions.
The South African Vauxhall with the Chevy V8 was called the Chevrolet Can Am,a rare bird as few were made and they had a short and brutal life on the race tracks.Would like a look at the PA Cresta a highly sought after car in my misspent youth.
I owned a couple of PAs as a kid good cars but rust buckets I had a 60 PAY that shook like jelly on bad roads but the 61 PAX was solid and held the road better bigger wheels more spot welds rusty as NZ was a Vauxhall buying country but the English models Australia built its own versions of Vauxhalls and me I covet me a 54 Velox Vagabond over damn near anything else in fact give me the right EIP body sections and I’ll assemble my own.
Youd like to see more Tom ok I took us all to wheels on Windsor today I’ll send the file lots of very cool cars some you’ll know and some you may not understand and while there were 2 Sunbeam Rapiers 3 SuperSnipes there was only 1 Hillman Minx and it drew a lot of attention and nice comments, I have just discovered its quite rare I will send you some blurb on it and some pics that tell its story Im learning how.
my dad used to have a hillman avenger that looked very similar to those above.1600 cc engine was very tough&reliable.good old days.