Typically aimed at pirates moving their booty

I was thinking very Alan Partridge.

Yes those were the days when we weren't so anally retentive about how other people did things.

Look at him, 'cause he's on a boat.

yeah - its a test drive film in which he doesn't appear to test drive it - the art of delegation clearly ha ha ha

I missed the 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' episode where Frank Spencer was fitting interior carpets in Vauxhall Chevettes.

😂

I keep hearing all sorts of stories like this from the 1960s and 1970s. It does sound like fun compared to now. Modern cars are all rather samey and very few of them are truly terrible.

With that hideous headlights, going backwards was for the best way to not spoil the sales.

If they had stuck the seats facing the other way round and re positioned the steering wheel the other side, it could have been driven in reverse as standard and would have made the car looked good!

Lol. I thought it went more backwards than forward in the clip

@@MrAndreCoutinho I do like the headlights. Better styling than what you find on any modern car.

But not as well as the Allegro. DC was better in reverse.

the only thing that went wrong on these engine in my experience where the points and dizzy, If you kept on top of that they where bombproof. They ate up points though. but only cost pennies to have a few sets spare and keep them gapped right.

MonkeyHunch1 I think most British cars ate points . They would gum up or burn on my cars after a few thousand miles . However I think some Vauxhalls were worse because they had faulty condensers fitted or they failed far too soon. The Chevette was very modern for the time although Vauxhall didn't have enough pennies to upgrade the pushrod ohv engine and the early cars had very poor headlight ability . I wonder how many bought the new Chevette over the new mark two Escort that year ?.

Glpi lpi what are ‘points’?

We had two Chevettes, 1975 and 1982 in L spec. The post 1980 ones were much better built and had Bosch distributors which were much better than the Delco ones on ealier cars which ate points and needed lots of cleaning of contacts inside the cap. The Bosch equipped engine was more tractable and combustion sounded much healthier.

same here always in the driveway never worked...

cassette radio not part of chevette, it was your brothers cheap aftermarket radio

I could slide it in the dry without trying. Front double wishbone with a rear live rear axle, no guesses to which would lose grip first. When I did push it, it stuck down on 3 wheels thanks largely due to that double wishbone. I think I might have been dead with an equivalent car with front MacPhersons.

@@stingingeyes yes the Chevette was great fun to drive

Eitan Rosenberg yes Thames TV as well as Yorkshire TV were quite innovative in the 60s and 70s with early video production. The picture and sound on early Thames colour programmes from the late 60s is very impressive.

Microphones have been very good since the 50s if you get the right thing. In those days they used to record onto Nagra field tape recorders which had really good characteristics too. Put that through a bit of EQ in the mix and you get a great result like here. Standards of audio engineering have fallen somewhat in the laptop age. It used to be taken very seriously but now not so much. I used to work for TEAC servicing reel to reel recorders often for broadcast.

All of the above and the use of quad videotape with audiotrack with a speed of 15 inch per second is part of the quality!

Back when ITV regional programming was something unique to every part of the UK, something to be proud of! Nothing like it exists now, in fact regions don't even have idents anymore. Kinda like how every radio station became a Heart or Capital. Local stuff bit the dust. A shame, but there sure are lots of fond memories. Check out the old idents here on KZfaq for old ITV regionals. Proper trip down memory lane.

Four words: The Benny Hill Show

Yep classic

yeah :( no stunt car athletics here :(

That was a long and worthwhile journey he couldn’t walk facing forwards….

The indicator stick fell out on mine while driving (just push it back in), and the back drums would stick if you left the handbrake on a little too long (release with flat-bladed screwdriver through slot, while lying on road) ... I thought in 1991 it was like a Meccano car.

Ah, the 1256cc engine - that was from the Viva --- didn't know that, cheers. Gearbox was nearly sporty apart from the gears didn't really like being changed!" 2nd gear was an animal up to 33mph!

I put a 2400cc Magnum engine mated to a Vauxhall Victor gearbox and an Opel Ascona limited slip axle in my Opel Kadett and it worked a lot better

I bet it did! The power-to-weight ratio of a 2.4L in a small car like a Chevette would make it a much more fun car!

Loved the Vauxhall Viva. My Grandad had one.... a Viva SL. .... DAD 416K. Happy days.

The Chevrolet version had these clever latches that only locked the seatback when the car was decelerating. They were an improvement on the annoying electric latches on my Coup Deville, which cackled every time you opened or closed the door.

RTFM, read the fucking manual

@@pcno2832 what you talk`n`bout willis?

150,000 miles in 16 cars is an average per car of 9,375 miles. They don't last long do they? :)

haha they are not that bad.(:-) I was buying and selling them for a profit and made some good money back then.

That panel gap is beyond belief isn't it?

@@darrenwilson8042 Alas, it is common on Thames tv show, the bonnet is already released, I watched the Golf test yesterday, same routine.

Classic

Another Banger Bought from the Scrapyard. ? Was it FIFTY QUID ? He was Robbed, They were £20.00 upwards. for a good one.

Brilliant, bring back the old days!

not really, it was built in 1977, it only lasted 11 years

@@Grant.G.Simpson 'N' reg was 1975, so it lasted 13 years. Not bad at all for a car of that era

i have 3 so there

... or he could just use his flares....

LOL, give John a job at Vauxhall quick! He knows his stuff :-)

you had more engine choices tho!

amojak Yeah, but every one of them was rubbish

heh you didn't have the 1256cc engine from 1963, it looks to be an old bastardised GM engine that was bored out from its original under 1000cc size. interestingly the rockers and valve setup is very similar to the chevy v8 engine, just 4 cylinder and small :D I run one daily here and it is remarkably reliable considering its vintage :p

I had a Pontiac Acadian, which was a Canadian version. It was a piece of crap and a menace. The driver's side door fell off and seat snapped off its supports. No power steering or brakes.

@@amojak We had an isuzu 1.4. An isuzu 1.6 in a "sport" model which despite being very rare has no collector's interest today. From 83-86 we had a diesel Chevette. Around 1200 were sold. During its last year of availability, it was outsold by the then-novel Hyundai Excel.

there is a guy sat in it ahah

All cars leaned to the right in Britain back then, now days they all lean to the the left.. there was a brief period from 1997-2010 where all cars in Britain looked as though they leaned to the left but in actual fact they leaned to the right. I suspect after brexit cars will start to lean to the right again and then suddenly and unexpectedly lunge over to lean to the left without warning.

LMFAO

the weight balance of the chevette was poor due to it being developed from a left hand drive car. the petrol tank, battery exhaust and driver were all on the right side! I know i own 7 of em :)

brexit cars lol You're a funny man!

way better than the vauxhall viva I had, my mother had one and I loved the sporty handling it seemed to have

noticed that and laughed :)

MonkeyHunch1 Taking a break from arguing in pug1's comments are ya? ;)

Touch of the Alan Partridge about it.

It's a safety feature that allows the emergency services to access the vehicle should the doors fail to open due to inconsistent, overly tight panel gaps.

lol lob are you stalking me :) ? I never say anyhing bad about pug . But hey i don`t let BS slide! Guilty!

The Chevette was also sold with the same name in USA and South America but in the Chevrolet brand, both had very different styling but it was essencially the same car

I bought one for £100 in 1990. I was surprised how well it handled. Had it for six months whilst i fixed another car. Hand painted it red from chocolate metallic brown. Then sold to a friend for £60 and he drove it another 12 months up and down the m-way until the camshaft went, but still got him home.

Yeah the engine was its Achilles heel. I remember thinking at the time that if they'd put a better engine in it it would have out classed the Manta, the road holding was that good. It was fitted with double wishbone at the front and a panhard at the back, coupled to anti roll bars both front and rear it was technically a sports chassis. They did however do the HS1800 but not enough to make it really viable from an economic standpoint. Shame really, the chevette was basically a still born sports car.

The HS was 2.3, not a 1.8 & there was also a 16 valve version, which was quite a thing back then. They did very well in rallying.

I tried setting the timing on the rotor as per book and it ran poorly, until someone just said set it so that it just runs smooth as the cam lobes wear unevenly.

Most of the time, knackered cams were from either not changing the oil often enough, or over tightening the rockers.. A lot of people did this as they went out of adjustment a lot, same applied to Fords Kent/Endura engines.

They were Very Sharp & Nimble cars . Better than the Electronic Crap we have today.

@@A1DJPaul Rose-tinted glasses anyone ? the electronic crap we have today will easily go 300k kms reliably. The same cannot be said of British cars of the 70s. As a bonus, cars of the 70s tried to kill you with every accident more serious than a fender-bender.

Doublethink I was lucky enough to have a 2300 Chevette for a few months in the mid eighties, I really needed a four door car so I sold it for £1800 and bought a Dolomite Sprint. Wish I'd kept both of them now.

Getrag was a dogleg box. Great to bash the car behind when pulling off ... "Got an HS and can't drive it mate?" ...

@@stingingeyes - And, as I recall, with no detente on the reverse gear. So as you say, you go to the usual first gear position & find yourself going backwards fast!

That is weird.

That's because it was better in reverse. Could beat anything other than an Austin Allegro in reverse.

In the UK, this was considered quite an advanced car for its time and the Chevette developed a reputation for being a fairly reliable, well made car, something that wasn't true of many British cars at the time. Also unlike previous Vauxhalls, it didn't rust badly after a couple of years. Yet against the 1979 German made Kadett, the Chevette felt old.

@@Glenn1967ful To be fair, also the Kadett C (predecessor of the Kadett D, first generation "Astra" in the UK) had a really good reputation, it was a very succesful car in Germany, iirc it even outsold the Golf 1. The 3-door hatchback was called "City". Its production ended in 1979 and from there on Opel had no rival against the Polo and Fiesta. The Chevette was then imported from britain to fill up the gap.

@@Timico1000 The Chevette was a British take on your Opel Kadett City, but the range expanded in 1976 to saloons and estate cars. It also used the Viva 1256 cc engine to reduce costs, rather than import engines from Opel, and to keep jobs in the UK at a time of rising unemployment. Not a brilliant car, it was rwd when most cars this size were moving over to fwd and basic models were horrible inside, nevertheless the Chevette helped to save Vauxhall from probable closure as their other cars weren't selling enough.

@@Glenn1967ful I grew up in the 80s and always thought that Vauxhall was nothing more than an Opel with a different grille and the wheel on the wrong (joke!) side. I was actually surprised when i learned some years ago that they were completely seperate brands in the early days and that even in the 70s the cars were quite different when it came to styling and drivetrains. Same with Ford UK vs. Ford EU, i was never aware that especially the Cortina and our Taunus were THAT different.

Whats a lane change indicator?

@josephmullin5845 it's when u just flick the stalk but not fully up or down to flash only a few times for lane changes....all.cars have had in for my decades now,but was rare in the 70s

That was a C-O-R-V-E-T-T-E 2 seater sports car (much larger and the body made out of fiberglass).

@@syxepop Nah, Prince's UK label changed it to Little Red Chevette.

Greg Daniel, that might be (if it really happened) one of the sticking points for "His Purpleness" to be so much in war with Warner Bros. Records (today is Warner Music Group) as he was for quite a while... Changing it from a sports car to a "semi-unloved" econobox is so much BOGUS.

@@syxepop Kidding, of course. I think if his purpleness ever found himself in a chevette he would have changed his name from a symbol to an expletive!

Greg Daniel, sure. But that's not something to take THAT lightly.

in 1975 most cars were still rwd, all the fords, , just not the austins

twocvbloke My mate had one in the early 90's and we had to flush the radiator out every couple of months when it silted up. Eventually he got sick of it and got a recon rad. That one silted up every 4 months...

mr y mysterious video lol

ooh get her!

Very 70's?

The the higher the hair, the closer to God; the larger the shirt collar, the more angellic one is?

Hahaha! I could not see why ANYONE would want any of the three!

Like pretty-much every GM plant...

The GM version was very reliable. I know a few people who bought them new and got their moneys worth out of them.

.....when it worked.

I'm sure it did ... in reverse ... that car's drag coefficient was inverse.

Sadly/funnily it's true!

Amazing car, if only I'd been older to afford one.

Crazy Jay It was in 1983 when seat belt wearing became mandatory that drivers found it easier to drive in a forward direction. Prior to this it was easy to twist around in the seat and adopt a position suitable for safe driving in reverse.

It looks as if it's not latched down properly - they're not THAT bad! Not a good look though, you'd think they'd pay attention to that for the TV.

Also the lack of front headrests just made driving in reverse so much easier.

Yeah, I noticed the panel gap at the front of the bonnet. I had a Chevette years ago and the panel gaps were much better. Everything else was wrong with it though. But when you pay £15 for a running car you get pretty much what you pay for...

My dad used to reverse everywhere back in those days. We used to reverse from London down to Somerset regularly. It was just fashionable at the time for some reason

me also! We are probably entitled to some sort of honour!

@@pigknickers2975 Still remember the license plate OGA 825P in Glasgow

CA18DETHK STW 20R

@@pigknickers2975 😁 good old days I still have my A4 size driving license

@@CA18DETHK the green one?

:) well said

syxepop It is related to the Kadett C, not A. The Kadett had an Opel engine though and different front and rear.

Most of the Chevette tech was from the 1960s - it was a regurgitated car - but built on proven steel lumpen. And the front double wishbone was amazing - I would have been upside down and somersaulting multiple times in other FWD/MacPherson equivalent cars. Others rave about the torque tube, afraid I never noticed that, but it was supposed to be good over the Viva.

Chevettes were Brilliant cars. Mine was Great & Reliable.

@@A1DJPaul Fantastic and fun little motors these, i love em myself, very clever design too, theyre like a tardis, look tiny outside but inside quite a good amount of space.

@@Synthematix Hatchback looks so cool even today. Also Love Mk 1 Polo, & Mk 1 Fiesta. Also Great cars. Polo's Were Very Slow & under Spec'd. Fiesta 1.1 was excellent. Until You Drove a Fiesta 1.3 OHV = Blow Your Socks off Back in the Day. Crazy little tool Ran Clean off the Speedo at over 100 mph. BONKERS FAST as Hell Fire. MY BMW for a 1.3 Ghia Fiesta in Mint Condition ! WOW What an amazing Little car. FORD at it's Very Best. 1980 - 83. Mk2 Escort 1.6 ghia was also Great Fun Fighting Hard against the Dolly Sprint for Comfort & speed. 3 cars i want to Turn the Time Clock back on, 1.3 Ghia Fiesta, 1.6 ghia Mk2 escort, Triumph Dolly Sprint, Ok Make that 4 Cars, Triumph 2500'S' Pure " WAFTING VELVET" Magic Carpet Comfort & Hell Fire FAST !! Silly Fast Back in the day. Subaru / Evo Fast Back in the day. The Police Used them to chase Bank robbers in old Jags etc. I think they Were Happy at 130 mph in EARLY 1970's Chasing a Mk2 Jag.

@@A1DJPaul This might sound really silly but my favourite older car is the original vauxhall corsa, small, economical and very nippy. i learned to drive in the MK2 escort, so for that reason they hold a special place for me.

@@Synthematix mk 1 Corsa's were Seriously Crap on handling & stability. I bought A new / Ordered From the Factory, Corsa 1.2 Diesel Turbo last of the Model 2006 "56 " reg . The van Version of the Car. Same size as a car But Steel sides & no Rear seats , ( Like a BT van ) HELLS BELLS BRILLIANT SPORTS CAR. It was like a GO-CART. Prior to that i Had A BMW Ti SPORT ( Baby M3 ) Factory 'M' Tech 1.9 16 valve 140 bhp. Before that a Mazda MX5 1.8 Also ordered New. TRUTH HERE :- They were FAST CARS. as you would expect. . I Ordered The Last Runout Model Corsa van for work, (They Were Almost GIVING THEM AWAY FREE . in late 2006, BT had gone to the Newer shape. £6450 New Un Reg'd. + VAT. It was Reg'd From New on My PRIVATE REG PLATE. DIRECT from VX Factory. I Test Drove One & Said Hey I Like It ! I Bought one of the last 22 in the VX factory. Follow up after sales call from JIM, Hi Paul How's the Little Corsa Van ? F****K ME !! FKIN HELL JIM ******* Soddin hell I LOVE IT ! It Makes Me Smile Every second I Drive it. Yes I thought you would be happy with it. 1 Yr on , Hi Paul How about Calling in for a coffee I can Do a Great deal on a new Corsavan , My Reply . Giggle Giggle Are You FKIN JOKIN ???? NO WAY !! I Havn't stopped Smiling since i collected it ! 3 Yrs on, Come on Paul We Can Do a Mega Mega Deal , I Have buyer for your van. I Replied YES I also Have a buyer for my van. ........ ME ! I Love It. MR New 1.8 Mazda MX5 , / New M40 318Ti Sport BMW Owner is Totally Loving My Corsavan. JIM, This is the Best Sportscar I have Ever owned or Driven . Sadly it Had to Move on last yr after 12 brilliant Years Fully Laden Hammering up & down the Motorways & Country Lanes Like a Rally Car all over The Hills of Yorks' & Lanc's. FLAT OUT , Fully Loaded With Heavy Business Equipment. I Called it My SNOW BUGGY. It Just Never Failed to get me home into my driveway on a very steep hill. & never Failed to Drive out of the driveway & UP the Hill in all Weathers. In Yorkshire we call them Hills, Most would Call them Mountains , Do you get up this hill in Summer ? How Long are you Housebound ? September to June ? NAH Mate, I Have a SNOWBUGGY CORSAVAN ! Never Got Stuck in 12 years. A Corsa Gets Stuck When the Snow builds up Below the Rear Bumper & Creates a WEDGE lifting the front wheels off the Ground / Surface & you are Riding Up a Bank of snow. Reverse Very Slowly Keeping the Fr Wheels in Contact . Down Hill is Far Worse than UPHILL, CRAP YOUR PANTS TIME, Select 1st Gear. Pull up H/Brake to a point of Grip / Action. ( Just less than Locking the rear Wheels, ) Feet OFF ALL PEDALS. STEER Gently all the way Downhill to the bottom. DO NOT BRAKE. DO NOT Touch the Clutch. NO throttle unless you actually Stop due to snow. The Engine will Pull you DownHill NO PEDALS , JUST STEERING ALL THE WAY. With A Little Grip Of Hand Brake to lower your rolling speed. Set the Hand brake at the top of the hill & Guess it Right 3 / 4 Clicks 5 ? know you car. Feet off All Pedals Flat on the floor As per 4 X 4 off roading , / Hill Descent in Discovery's. etc. Keep All 4 Wheels Rolling & Steer Very very Gently. Touch a Pedal & YOU WILL CRASH !! Drive Downhill in snow Slower than People can Walk Down. My corsa was All Original at 12 yrs old except i Had the bonnet painted due to Fast Motoring Gravel Rash. = 100's of stone chips. HEY it was a Work van Out in All Weathers 7 days a week. 15,000 miles per yr, FLAT OUT FULLY LADEN With Heavy Business Equipment. I have Other Vans & cars in my Business. Another 20,000 miles per yr. My other van has 335,000 miles on the clock & Doing Great Smooth & silent at 115 mph. No rattles or squeaks. Will hold 115 mph Constant for a full hour ++ at 335,000 miles. London , Scotland, Wales, Kent , etc 115 mph when overseas obviously !!

I love the TR6, a proper sports car, shame the U.S. federal laws killed it off.

Vauxhall never made a 4 door chevette, even the estates were 2 door

learnt to drive in one, there was a hill near me, you came off the roundabout and had about 20-30 secs to thrash the Chevette up it. The world record was 55mph from the dubious speedo. When I got a BMW I was doing like 85 over that hill but a different era. Fond memories.

Christ, I've driven some embarrassing cars but I've never suffered that level of bullying on the road. Time to fit bullbars and start ramming, get some respect man...

you do realise the choke turned, if you turned it to the right it held it out :)

I bought a 1.0 1991 Nova that had transverse version of that Viva motor. I was surprised

Bl were doing fwd in the 50s ,the VW was more expensive that Vauxhall their build quality is better than any car.....