MY OTHER CAR'S A VAUXHALL!
Then came Chris’s own conversion – ‘My Vauxhall-owning started in March 1968 when I was given a choice of a new car for my 21st birthday. I narrowed it down to two, the new Ford Escort or the Viva HB. Having looked at the Escort, my suspicions over the finish and refinement were confirmed and I opted for the Viva. My one had a problem with fuel starvation that meant it would sometimes “conk out” for a few minutes, but apart from that I have had virtually 100 per cent reliability from most of my 33 new Vauxhalls that followed – any problems being very minor indeed, and easily sorted by our local Vauxhall dealer’.
The list that follows is amazing, and Chris’s loyalty to Vauxhall total. A new car virtually every year; three more Vivas first, then two Chevettes and two Cavaliers to take him to the end of the 1970s.
He started the ‘80s with two Astras, carried on the sequence with Cavalier, Nova, Astra, Nova, Astra, Nova and Cavalier – through to the end of the 1980s and another Vauxhall decade.
In April 1990 Vauxhall number 18 was another Nova, a Calypso Red 1.4SR. Then the ‘90s read Cavalier, Nova, Astra, three Corsas, Vectra, Corsa.
The new millennium started in March 2001 with Vauxhall 27, another Corsa, then Astra, Corsa, two more Astras, and two Vectras – including his current SRi CDTi, from April 2007.
Then another love kicked in – ‘Because I’m such a Vauxhall fan, and also a historian – two years ago I bought my first classic Vauxhall. It had to be a Victor HB, the car which started my love for the make. Since then it has spiralled and I have bought examples of cars my father owned, cars I owned over the years, and ‘dream’ cars that I couldn’t afford when they were new – the Ventora and FE VX 4-90 being two examples’.
His thirteen classics also include a 1971 Victor 200SL, 1982 Chevette ES, 1977 Cavalier 1.9GL, 1994 Cavalier 1.8i LS, 1987 Cavalier GLi 2.0 and 1963 Victor Super.