With the News at the top of this thread that a new model of the Vauxhall Firenza is to be released by 'OXFORD DIECAST' and the fact that a couple of the forum membrs have obtained examples of the 'LONE-STAR' Firenza, I thought a little background info might be interesting here.
During the development period of the Firenza range, Canada was a major market for all Vauxhall cars and the new range based around the commonly termed 'HC' body style to be introduced during 1970, was directly aimed at Canadian motorists with a range of cars based on British Viva bodies and mechanical components.
The cars would simply be called Firenza, not Vauxhall Firenza and sold through Pontiac dealerships, but before this was achieved, they had to be developed for the UK market and several engines would be offered and several trim levels would exist.
For completeness, I show a picture of an early 'Mock-Up' for the 'HC' Viva...
- MAY 1967, Viva HC 2 door mock-up..JPG (60.53 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
May 1967, clearly showing the idea of a coupe body style. This was based around a shortened 'FD' Victor.
The Viva name had proved to be very popular for Vauxhall and they decided it would be kept in use on the new car, they played with the idea of the sporty Viva with the...Viva '72 GT', shown below.
- DECEMBER 1969, Viva '72 GT' Coupe proposal..JPG (48.9 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
When this car was being made as a proposal, the 'FIRENZA' name did not exist!
A new name was created for the new cars and there would be Viva and Firenza cars based on the same body styles with the Firenza now seen as the sportier version, but marketing and some bad management decisions failed to capitalize on this idea and the end result for the first series of Firenza cars turned them into rather bland cars, looking no better than the Viva cars.
Shown below is a preproduction car badged as Firenza.
- APRIL 1971, Firenza preproduction..JPG (69.37 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
They must have been kicking themselves when this went into full production, because it looks no different from the Viva cars they were going to make as their mainstream product!
They persevered with the model and slowly fine tuned the specifications, they did use twin headlamps and a few other detail changes to distance it from the Viva.
- SEPTEMBER 1971, Firenza 2000 'SL'..JPG (79.76 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
This is in fact a sportier car than a matching Viva, it has the 2Ltr engine and the 'SL' trim level, it has the optional 'Ro-Style' wheel rims and wing mounted mirrors. Hmm, not quite a ball of fire just yet...!
- Firenza 2000 'SL' (this has twin headlamps)..JPG (85.05 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
Another angle showing the lovely clean lines.
Here is another prototype Firenza, this was for the 2300 'SL' but visually no different from the Viva with those rectangular headlamps, but that would change later.
- DECEMBER 1971, Firenza 2300 'SL' prototype..JPG (67.92 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
This car was really for developing the 2300cc engine and uprated suspension, fortunately when the 2300 'SL' went into production it looked much better then this.
I mentioned earlier the Canadian market and the use of the Firenza name on the cars, the car shown below is a Canadian Firenza from October 1971 and you can see the unique front wing mounted auxillary lights, but you don't see them on the rear wings, because the rear lamp cluster was designed in a way to wrap-around the corner of the wing, so separate lights were not needed.
- OCTOBER 1971, Canadian Firenza..JPG (67.19 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
I actually had one of these but it was not a runner, as I brought it with all the running gear and engine removed and while I had all the parts, we had to move from our property quickly and I could not get anyone to take it off my hands from the Two lock-up garages it was being stored in, the Vauxhall Heritage Centre did not know of the car and they tried to tell me what I have does not exist and they would only be interested if it could be moved on it's own wheels, which was not possible. All I have of it now is some parts I saved off the car and a picture which I will search out and show here.
By March 1972, Vauxhall had started to get their act together with the Firenza and the car started to show signs of being a proper sports coupe. The picture below shows the 2300 Sport 'SL', with the correct twin headlamps, distinctive trim and colours, a Black front grille moulding, different interior and the twin Zenith-Stromberg carbed 2300cc engine.
- MARCH 1972, Firenza 2300 Sport 'SL'..JPG (70.82 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
- AUGUST 1972, Firenza Sport 'SL'..JPG (113.15 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
Another Sport 'SL' in colour, because they are so nice...
This is August 1972 and the Firenza is growing up with some serious looking details and trim levels, but Firenza is soon to be replaced by a car with a new name, 'MAGNUM', and a prototype top of the range Firenza from April 1973 had everything included that would become the standard trim and specification for the Magnum, on it's introduction in September 1973.
- APRIL 1973, Firenza 2300 Coupe prototype..JPG (60.73 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
This car can be seen as an early prototype Vauxhall Magnum and I would love to find this car still in existance today, I think she is fantastic!
- A Magnum in all but name..JPG (64.03 KiB) Viewed 6142 times
From the rear.
The idea behind the Magnum was to rationalize the range by replacing the Firenza name altogether and allowing the Viva to become the basic car it was always intended to be, so Magnum badged cars would all have the same trim levels apart from the dashpanels.
The Magnum was not produced for very long, it was taken out of production during 1977, and a surplus of Coupe bodies had to be used up as Viva 'E' with the remaining Magnum interiors and trim components being used up on saloon Vivas to create the Viva 'GLS' with 1300cc or Magnum 1800cc engines, but this was not the end for the sport Vauxhall, as the Firenza name was revived on a new really fast sports coupe, that is outside the scope of this article for now, but maybe I will come back to that one later.
GHOSTHUNTER.
