Sometimes finding a remarkable survivor of cars that were built in the hundreds of thousands but have now largely been lost is just as exciting as discovering a hand built exotic.
Vauxhall produced well over half a million Viva HBs between 1966 and 1970. Now there are just a couple of hundred surviving making over them 10 times rarer than an E-type Mk1.
This example, resplendent in Pampas Green, with 2 doors and in SL 90 trim, is as close as one could get to factory condition today, amazing since it was first sold in 1969.
The engine bay, for example, still shows original paint on original inner wings!
This is a car that was clearly cherished from the start, and seems to have stayed in the same family for decades. The 2014 MOT was carried out only a couple of miles from the first owner’s address in Swindon!
Supplied by Skurrays Ltd, the Vauxhall dealership for Swindon and Marlborough with delivery on 1st March 1969
The car lived in a garage attached to a modern bungalow on a surprisingly large plot in amongst the Victorian terraces close to the railway works in Swindon. But clearly got away on holiday occasionally . .
An incredible piece of documentation survives with the car – a small brown notebook where every fuel fill up and running cost is recorded from delivery until 2002!
Over 30 years of detailed mileage and maintenance records! The handwriting changes as, presumably, the car changes hands within the family – but what dedication!
The little book even explains a bit of a mystery – where did the car acquire its sporty Viva GT bonnet from?
In 1980, with just under 50000 miles on the clock, a little knock? Maybe by then only GT bonnets were available from Vauxhall stock?
The MOT history shows a clean pass in 2006, with the next in 2014 at Lucknow Garage Swindon – still just down the road from whee the story started in 1969.
Perhaps this hiatus is where the comprehensive refresh of the exterior paintwork took place.
Lucknow Garage issued an MOT from 2nd March 2016, but then we find the car at auction with Richard Edmonds down the road from Swindon in Chippenham.
The current owner was unable to attend, and missed out that time. The car left for Kent, presumably the first trip out of Wiltshire for a very long time) and joined the stock of a classic car dealer. Some time later the car finally joined the current owner, to live alongside his Viva GT . . .
A car with this provenance is a rare find indeed.
An unlikely survivor in incredible condition – and priced at just £15000.