Talk:Vauxhall Firenza

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Hi, all. A couple of points. The Firenza was available in a 2279 cc version before the Droopsnoot and before the Magnum. I know, 'coz I had one! It was the Firenza 2300 Sport SL, which was the only version to feature the seven dial dash (speedo, clock, RPM, fuel, oil pressure, water temp, & battery charge). This model was available in 1972 and 1973, before being re-badged the Magnum Coupe (along with the 1800). The engine was the same as used for the basis of the Droopsnoot, i.e. single overhead cam, slant four, with twin strombergs (smaller than the Droopsnoot) producing 122 bhp. The Droopsnoot had other goodies added to produce 135 bhp. The Firenza 2300 Sport SL was raced by the DTV team in the saloon car series in Castrol colours, which were white with green and red stripes down the side and over the back of the boot and spoiler. I have not been able to find a picture of the race cars on the net, but my car was painted in these colours (before I bought it) complete with factory optional extra spoiler.

There was also an earlier top of the line version which featured the 1975 cc engine, which I think was the same engine as used in the earlier Viva GT. This was replaced by the 2279 engine at the same time that the 1759 cc engine replaced the 1599 cc engine.

Meanwhile, the discussion on the Droopsnoot which says that a production of only 204 was a blow compared to anticipated 30,000 is wrong. The Droopsnoot was only ever a homologation special. To qualify for the British Saloon Car Championship, there had to be a minimum of 200 produced. The expectations to which the article refers is for the normal production car, presumably the 1800 and 2300 versions.

If nobody disagrees, I will update the text some time. Cheers. Brendan Fitzgerald 06:53, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Sport SL, etc should be mentioned in the section referring to the non-droopsnoot model. The fact it isn't currently mentioned is really an omission rather than trying to suggest that such a variant didn't exist - I had one too, so they definitely did exist! (Mine also had the rear spoiler). Adding the Sport SL and other flat-front variants would definitely improve the article - go for it!. Regarding the 204 versus 30,000 figure, this is based on remarks made during a presentation by Roy Cooke at the DSG's Thruxton Anniversary event in 1999 (it's thus hard to cite, though I have a copy of the speech he made on tape, which was written up as an article for the DSG's club magazine also). The 30,000 figure was mentioned at pre-production meetings trying to forecast sales, and definitely refers to the droopsnoot model only, not the other variants, since the Firenza name was dropped entirely for all other models when the droopsnoot was released. This figure includes possible future variants such as a 1976 fuel-injected variant which was already being worked on and productionised versions of "Silver Bullet", etc. Vauxhall wanted to take on the Capri head-on. It's true that the 204 manufactured allowed the car to be homologated for racing, but that was after production problems surfaced and sales proved to be slow (the car hit the market at a very bad time and was also perceived as too expensive). Vauxhall thus decided to abandon full-scale production once the homologation figure was realised. However, it's one thing to say so and another thing to prove it - documentation is notoriously hard to come by and this is mostly based on conversations with Roy Cooke (who was the HPFs chief engineer, so he should know!). Roy presented some original hand-written design notes some of which were reproduced in the DSG magazine. Some of these were notes from these meetings, and the 30,000 figure appears there if I recall correctly - I'll try and dig one out and check. 203.87.74.230 (talk) 00:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]