The Carchive: 1966 Vauxhall Viva


The last few weeks have been a little Americentric, so I figured I’d stick a little closer to home today. We’re staying with 1966, but visiting Luton, Bedfordshire to take a look at the upgraded Vauxhall Viva range.
Keep the last fortnight’s AMC Rambler and Marlin, and the Buick Riviera before that, in mind and remember – this is what mid 1960’s family motoring looked like in the UK. Welcome back to The Carchive.

Click to engorge the pictures


“Here, right, is a Viva de Luxe. Note the comfort and driving convenience. Through the wide, deep windscreen we see a Viva ‘SL’.”
Note it! Vauxhall had plenty to celebrate in ’66. The Viva lineup was expanding. The Standard and de Luxe models had been ‘supremely successful’ and were being joined by an all new ‘SL’. “Super Luxury”, they reckoned, for the “man – or woman – who wants wholehearted performance, plenty of room and unfaltering reliability in a 1-litre saloon”
One litre. Welcome  to England.

The lines of the Viva have the rightness which is the hallmark of all good design
The proportions of the first-generation “HA” series Vauxhall Viva always seemed a little odd to me. The waistline was high and flat, the front wheels pushed far enough forwards that the Viva could almost qualify as a front mid-engined car, and a huge rectangular boot hung out back as if to counterweight the front end. In fact, the Viva closely resembled the Opel Kadett of the same era – the generation that one Hamster Hammond would form a meaningful relationship with on a TV trip through Africa – although there was officially no joint-development programme.
Vauxhall was proud of its performance figures, though, promising 0-50mph in “less than 13 1/2 seconds”, with a top speed around 80mph. Indeed, in the UK, going quickly hadn’t yet quite been democratized.

“This is the basic 1057cc power unit that has put the famous punch into Viva performance. Quiet, supple, gratifyingly economical”
Sounds like me. The engine that delivered the performance claims above was rated at 50bhp (gross), while the ‘hot’ version, the ’90’, was rated at 60. It was distinguished with bright red paint, and provided “swift, spirited performance”.
Both were the same four-cylinder pushrod lump, but the latter was given a different carburetor, higher compression ratio, bigger valves and uprated bearings to spin out that formidable power. Sadly, the brochure makes no mention of exactly what kind of road-burning performance we could expect from all those rampant extra gee-gees.

“Sure-footed as a mountain goat…with liveliness and agility to match”
Well, quite. Much was made of the Viva’s compact nature and, apparently, nifty handling, although I’ve not looked around for any contemporary accounts of just how these stacked up against the competition. Around that time the Viva would have slightly undercut the Ford Cortina, and sold against the rather more flamboyantly-styled Ford Anglia. I’ll have to keep a look out for an old Autocar or Motor with a side-by-side test.
’66 was the last year for the HA Viva, but it would actually on way beyond the arrival of its HB replacement, but in a different form. It was also the basis of the Bedford HA van (as found in The Carchive here) and was still being made, incredibly, in 1983 – mainly for sale to nationalised organisatons such as utilities providers. I remember yellow British Telecom versions still roaming the roads in the late ’80s.

“The ‘SL’ facia shown here is representative of the functional instrument panels of the complete Viva range”
Yep, that’s yer lot. The British family motorist’s time behind the wheel was a straightforward one. There were none of the gaudi fripperies, such as autronic eye headlamp dimmers, cruise-o-matic speed controls or select-aire airconditioning. You got something to tell you how slowly you were going and a gauge that showed how long you could keep doing it. Oil pressure was monitored by a light, headlamps and indicators were controlled by a stalk. That was it. The ‘SL’s main benefit was the ‘rich Ambla seating‘ and ‘padding above and below the matt silver facia‘. Sheer luxury.
Today, the Vauxhall Viva name is once again in circulation, having been foisted upon a contraption built in South Korea and sold elsewhere as the Opel Karl. It’s ostensibly our equivalent of the Chevrolet Spark, a thoroughly nondescript bargain battler that’s quite a long way away from the cutting edge. It’s inoffensive enough, though, and appears to offer good value. Perhaps the Viva name isn’t quite so inappropriate.
(All images are of original manufacturer publicity material, photographed by me. Copyright remains property of, well, PSA group now, I suppose. Who even knows any more)

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11 responses to “The Carchive: 1966 Vauxhall Viva”

  1. nanoop Avatar

    Courtesy link to the Bedford HA van.

    1. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

      Cheers! I left the hyperlink out while I was putting this together at 23:00 last night. Now fixed.

  2. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    I occasionally see these Vivas at shows, they aren’t the best design I’ve ever seen, more like the box it came in. Not sure about the Viva but I have seen a few racing Anglias.
    The Viva name made a comeback for Holden a few years ago as a Daewoo. Can’t remember which one and life is too short to spend it looking up info on Daewoos!

      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        That is the one and what I meant, I don’t think they were necessarily a bad car, but definitely not competitive.

    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      Vauxhall in the UK also brought back the name on a sub-corsa budget hatch. Not sure why, no-one in the target age group is old enough to remember.
      https://images.cdn.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/gallery_slide/public/vauxhall-sdj349ws-viva-013.jpg?itok=Hbi-qb6N

      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        Arguably better to resurrect an old name from the back catalogue than try to invent something new and meaningless. After all it worked for the Dodge Dart and the Lancia Flavia. Hang on…

      2. theskitter Avatar

        That’s how it was explained to/by management.

  3. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    Much of the underpinnings for the HA Viva were shared with the contemporary Opel Kadett. It’s well described on the excellent Vauxpedia site. http://vauxpedianet.uk2sitebuilder.com/vauxhall-ha—viva
    So the Viva/Kadett was the first joint venture between GM’s two separate divisions, long before they were merged into GM Europe. Doing this meant that Vauxhall’s own proposal for a transverse engined FWD car which looked much the same was dropped.
    http://files.uk2sitebuilder.com/uk2group53061/image/6v.vauxhallha-resume2_1.jpg

  4. tonyola Avatar
    tonyola

    How about a Pinzgauer to replace the FJ?

    1. tonyola Avatar
      tonyola

      Oh damn. Wrong topic. Where’s the delete button?