Vauxhall Firenza HP

Despite wind-cheating shape car always noisy at speed. Rare Avon safety rims may well have been ditched.

Well equipped dash but electrics can play up, especially headlamps and the fuse box.

Unique cloth seats virtually extinct.

Engines are robust and bits still available but is a proper HP? It’s hard to check

Nosecones still available but few other panels replicated. Search those autojumbles

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What is a Vauxhall HP Firenza?

It’s a mass-market coupé (Firenza) fastback that’s been sexed up with a sharper nose and a hotter engine, as well as various other go faster upgrades, all taken from Vauxhall’s growing success in motorsport. HP stands for High Performance - and with a top speed of a claimed 120mph the ‘Droop Snoot’ (which is how it became known) is one fruity Firenza and a fine find.

History

In the early 1970s Vauxhall was trying to capture a bit of the ‘’yoof’ market - the 25-40 group with a bit of money to blow on a sporty motor. With the likes of the Capri 3000, BMW 2002, Triumph Stag, Alfa GTV and Datsun 240Z available, the lads at Luton had to come up with something a bit special to make an impact. The result was a Firenza coupé with a heavily tweaked Magnum 2.3-litre engine, beefed up transmission and a wind cheating glassfibre nosecone. The plan was to produce at least 1000 cars each year, with the potential for up to 50,000 to be made in total. But the introduction of a three-day working week due to the Gulf War and quality problems with those windcheating nosecones meant each car had to be finished by hand. So two years after its introduction the Firenza Droopsnoot bit the dust, after just 204 had been produced - all painted metallic Starfire silver with matt black window surrounds. But Vauxhall still had a pile of nosecones sitting in a corner of the factory, which needed to be used up. The answer was to produce the Sportshatch - more or less an estate version of the Droop Snoot. Unfortunately it didn’t get the souped up 2279cc slant-four that the Droop Snoot enjoyed; instead the stock 110bhp motor normally found under the Magnum’s bonnet was utilised, albeit with a few minor head and carburation tweaks to give it a bit more zip. And while the Sportshatch was never officially listed as a production model, no less than 197 rolled off the line - just seven fewer than the officially listed Droop Snoot. Thanks to the new nose cutting drag by 30 per cent, top speed of the Firenza increased to around 120mph, claimed Vauxhall although no road test matched the boast.

In any condition these cars are sought after, but most desirable of all the HP Firenzas are the 20 pre-production prototypes that were modified by the factory then raced at Thruxton in 1974. Most of the remaining HP Firenzas and Sportshatches are owned by members of the Droop Snoot Group (DSG). It’s estimated that about half the HP Firenzas produced have survived with 50 or so Sportshatches having escaped the crusher. For Vauxhall the Droopsnoot was the right idea at the wrong time. The press loved the car; it starred on the front cover of Motor’s 1973 Motor Show issue no less and the magazine heaped praises on the Firenza, saying that Luton had done much more than an enthusiast would dare hope - and it was hard to believe that Vauxhall was going to actually produce it. Alas circumstances meant that it was dead before it left the showroom and the original sales figures were pie in the sky. Indeed Vauxhall had so many Firenza bodies left over that it made an economy special called the Viva E, which at £1399 was almost half the Droopsnoot’s price!

Driving

For a Vauxhall at that time the Droopsnoot was a revelation to drive. Performance was considered strong, although road tests couldn’t get anywhere near the 0- 60mph time of 7.5 seconds claimed by Vauxhall; Autocar was almost two seconds shy of this but midrange pull (always a big-engined Vauxhall forte) still remains pretty impressive to this day. Handling is equally very modern in feel (another Vauxhall trait), but the ride is naturally firm. Despite the fitting of a fivespeed gearbox (big news for 1973), the car can’t be called refined at speed. The ratios of this competition bred ZF ‘unit are well-spaced although the change is notchy with first at a dog-leg. Front seat space is generous but those in the back don’t have it quite so cushy. The boot is enormous however. Autocar summed the car up saying that it was a good effort by Vauxhall although for the price was too rough around the edges… however we at Classic Cars For Sale reckon that compared to an Escort RS2000 the Firenza is equally as good!

Prices

The most a really nice example should set you back is £3500 – and that represents a heck of a lot of individual classic car for the money. One needing a lot of time and effort is closer to £1000, although are becoming very hard to actually find. Something in the middle - a good usable example – is worth somewhere in the region of £2000, but again prices are rising due to the car’s rarity.