Meet the Owner – Frank Claypole and his Vauxhall Viva HC 1800 GLS

Signs that time is passing; police officers looking younger, complaining about modern music – and noting there is apparently only one HC-series Vauxhall Viva 1800 GLS on the road in the UK. As a child, I regarded the GLS as a handsome machine. Frank’s 1978 example in Linden Green proves I had very good automotive taste when I was eight.

The story of the Viva HC makes the average episode of The Prisoner seem straightforward by comparison. It debuted in September 1970, and three years later, Vauxhall decided to badge almost all 1.8-litre and 2.3-litre Viva saloons and estates as the Magnum, aside from some lower-specification Viva 1800s. Apart from the newly launched Firenza HP ‘Droopsnoot’, all coupes were now Magnums.

The arrival of the Cavalier in 1975 heralded the Magnum’s eventual demise, starting with the Coupe. Production of the last saloons ended in December 1977. Fifteen months earlier, Vauxhall introduced the GLS - “The most handsome Viva yet” - essentially a 1.3-litre version of the Magnum. By January 1978, they offered an 1800GLS four-door saloon.

You were warned this was a complicated saga...

As fitted to Frank’s Viva, automatic transmission was a £283.14 option on the 1.8-litre versions only, with a vinyl roof and ‘Starmist’ metallic paint the only other extras. In 1978 the 1800GLS Automatic cost £3,405 compared with Morris Marina 1.8 Special at £3,313 in manual form and the Triumph Dolomite 1500HL Automatic at £3,921.

From a dealer’s perspective, the GLS was a Viva with genuine showroom appeal, with its quad halogen headlamps and “Sports road wheels and trim rings”. In addition, the HC’s styling also dated very well; it did not seem as locked into the era of The Persuaders! and The Protectors as the Ford Cortina Mk. III.

The GLS helped to maintain the Viva’s profile before the HC’s demise in July 1979. Frank acquired his example:

From a chap in Hull around six years ago. It has had five owners from new - the second owner was a Vauxhall main dealer, and the Viva sat in their showroom for a number of years. It has done less than 20,000 miles and Linden Green was a colour only available for the last two years of production. The GLS has never been restored, so it is all original; not a Concours car, but in very good order.

Seeing Frank’s Viva is an immensely nostalgic experience, from that ‘seven dials’ fascia to the “Velour cloth trim”. It is also a reminder that in the late 1970s, Vauxhall could market a car with a “stainless steel fuel cap” as a luxury feature.

And a Linden Green 1800 GLS is an immensely appealing machine, a car with a sense of mid-Atlantic joie de vivre. It would have been ideal for the hero of a Thames Television sitcom.

Not to mention that any Vauxhall with “Front continental door armrests” was bound to cut a dash in the A27 Little Chef car park.

With thanks to Frank Claypole for his time.

With thanks to Frank Claypole for the permission to use the images in this blog.