Vauxhall was the General Motors U.K. brand from 1925 to 2017. In this series we are looking at one model in the magnificent Vauxhall Heritage Collection representing each decade of the GM era. Our choice for the 1960s is the Vauxhall Viva HA.
After discontinuing the astonishing 10-4 model in 1948, Vauxhall abandoned the small-car market for a decade and a half before returning with the Viva HA. The inspiration for this new compact two-door sedan came from Detroit. At the turn of the 1960s, General Motors had no answer to small European models such as the Ford Anglia, the Renault Dauphine, the Volkswagen Beetle or the innovative front-wheel-drive Mini which were selling well in their home markets and increasingly being imported to the U.S. But Vauxhall had a plan, and that plan was called XP-714.
XP-714 functioned approximately the way a platform does in today’s auto industry, but GM brands had more freedom in how they could use it. Vauxhall was unique in deciding to opt for a transverse engine and front-wheel-drive configuration for what would become the Viva HA, though in fact the production car did not turn out that way. Instead, it used the rear-wheel-drive layout and many components from the first-generation Opel Kadett, which was also derived from the XP-714 program.
Among the Opel components was the four-cylinder engine, which Vauxhall modified extensively. Its intended size at first was 699 cc, but Opel enlarged it to 993 cc for the production Kadett. Vauxhall reckoned this still wasn’t enough, and took it out further to a mighty 1,057 cc. Nevertheless, it was the smallest engine Vauxhall had used in a production car since 1904.
The four-pot produced 50.1 horsepower and 62.3 pound-feet of torque with an 8.5 to 1 compression ratio, and 47.5 horsepower and 58.1 pound-feet of torque with a CR of 7.3 to 1. The 993 cc Opel engine, on a CR of 8.8 to 1, could make 54 horsepower, but it needed more revs to do so, and it produced less torque. The figures seem very modest today, but the lightweight Viva HA had the best power-to-weight ratio in its class, and no rival could match its 0 to 50 mph time of just 13.3 seconds.
The first production car left the Vauxhall factory in Luton on August 14th, 1963. Ten months later, on June 1st, 1964, a Viva HA became the first car to be built at the more northerly Ellesmere Port plant. Customers were offered the choice of two trim levels. The Standard was priced very competitively at just £527 (approximately $13,000 today), while the Deluxe cost £566 ($14,000). Servo-assisted brakes were available for a further £15 ($370).
The white Vauxhall Heritage Collection Viva HA pictured on this page is a Deluxe. This was by far the more popular version, with a tempting range of extra equipment including a wider choice of exterior colors, a chrome strip down each side, full carpeting, extra sound insulation, a front passenger sun shade, a rear ashtray and – most importantly for British motorists – a heater. The even more luxurious SL trim level was introduced in 1965.
Although it was far more conventional than Vauxhall had at first intended, with unadventurous styling even for 1963, the Viva HA was a good, cheap, reliable and reasonably quick car, backed by Vauxhall’s largest and most expensive market campaign to date. It was popular in the U.K., and was also offered in Australia and New Zealand. British models were exported to Canada and sold either with their original name via Buick and Pontiac dealers or as the Envoy Epic from Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealers. Vauxhall’s commercial arm produced its own version called the Bedford HA, which was in turn converted – by Martin Walter Limited of Folkestone, Kent – into a shooting brake called the Bedford Beagle.
Despite its success, the Viva HA sedan had a very short production life. Vauxhall stopped building it in July 1966, less than three years after it went on sale. It had taken more than four years to get from the launch of the XP-714 program to the completion of the first production car at Luton.
The fate of the Bedford HA was very different. Large British utility companies found the little van so useful that they continued buying it until well the 1980s. Fitted with increasingly large versions of the little Opel engine (latterly measuring 1,256 cc), it outlived not only the Viva HA sedan and its replacement, the Viva HB, but even the third and final HC version, which was discontinued in 1979.
Also in this series:
- Vauxhall 20-60
- Vauxhall 10-4
- Vauxhall Wyvern
- Vauxhall Velox PA
- Vauxhall Firenza Droopsnoot
- Vauxhall Astra GTE Mark 1
- Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
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Comments
My very first car in England was a 1965 pale blue Viva HA, I inherited it from my Uncle in 1976 with 20,000 miles. A great little runaround
Vauxhall was the worst car gm had imported, Evan worse than the Vega but grate to put a v8 in.
Thanks for the interesting story.
It’s a pity that the Vauxhall engineers could not prevail BV with ” transverse engine and front-wheel-drive configuration” which is tiday the standard for compact and even smaller cars.
I am convinced since many years that it wss a serious error if GM/Opel to start the Kadett with rear wheel drive and longitudinal orientation of the front engine, and an sedan like rear. Hadn’t Renault already shown the way with the R4 and later the R4?
Transverse engine and front-wheel-drive configuration combined with a hatch back woukd have given GM’s Eurooean brands several years of lead before VW finally set the standard with the Golf.
Bad decisions by what once was the largest automobile maker in Germany.
BTW, the model name Viva was much later used for what was called the Karl with the Opel badge, which actually was just mire or less badge engineered from the Chevrolet Spark.Under PSA rule, the Karl/Viva has been abandonded years ago.
I forgot the BMC Mini, produced since 1959, with front wheel drive from transversalky placed front engine. This must have inspired the Vauxhall engineers to their correct proposal to folkow BMC’s lead.
It is just that I had seen back then rather the Renault R4; the Mini was not so frequently seen on the European mainland.
Did I mention that the R4 had the engine longitudinally placed?
BMC = British Motor Corporation
I bought my first car $150 CAD for a used 1964
Viva.Time flies?
Vauxhall is one of the best cars I’ve ever bought ive had several currently own a 2006 vectra sri had it 3 years never let me down has plenty of pull for what I need id buy another one tomorrow
Our Viva in Rhodesia now Zimbabwe….. it was bought off my godmother in 1972 they were Morcambe people and as the Vauxhall’s came ready assembled via Southampton and Biera (Portuguese east Africa)
I saw them in red white brown and Cactus Green with mainly white interiors with the accep the Whit and brown had a red interior ….. I last saw these cars in the late 1990’s still going strong…
(Photo) Our viva in Rhodesia now Zimbabwe in1972. The car was bought off my godmother who she and her husband were Morcambe people. I remember seeing these cars in red white brown and Cactus Green with mainly white interior accept the white and brown had red interiors. They were imported ready assembled coming via Southampton and Biera(Portuguese east Africa). I last saw one in the late 1990’s still going strong 💪.
My first car was a 65 Vauxhall Viva. I remember the first time I drove through some water that was over the. When I applied the brakes nothing happened as water had rendered the drum brakes useless. The previous owner had put retreads on the car. I was driving on the open road when all of a sudden I got a banging sound outside the car. When I got out to check the eyebrow trim around the headlight had been hooked and pulled off by the tread which had separated from the tyre. The first thing I did was replace all tyres with good quality radials.
The standout feature of thr car was the boot. To this day it is by far the biggest boot I have seen on a small or medium car