As a Yorkshire based BLOG I really enjoy telling local stories and giving a platform to enthusiasts and businesses. There are incredible stories where enthusiasts are reviving cars or competing in events enabling the rest of us to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Mick Strafford is one such person and here is his story.
I’ve always had an appreciation for old Vauxhalls (probably more of an illness) since my father bought his first new car, a Vauxhall Viva, in 1971. It’s a bit like supporting Accrington Stanley rather than Manchester City or United and is a constant source of pain, particularly when it comes to buying body panels in comparison with a Ford Escort!
I took a real interest in rallying when they brought out the Chevette HS and have been a participant on and off since then but, as always, money has been the issue and I’ve never been that competitive in terms of results. When Motorsport UK (the MSA back then) announced their new Post Historic class it opened up an opportunity to use the Vauxhall Viva / Firenza / Magnum HC bodystyle.
The problem was that parts for the old slant four engines were getting difficult to find but a friend had a genuine Chevrolet Firenza Can Am in the UK and I started to do some digging on this new fangled internet thing. The rules for Post Historic are very helpful and, as long as you can prove that a model of car was used in rallying in period, they will allow you to use it. I found a picture from 1973 in South Africa of a V8 being used on an event over there, managed to get in touch with the driver, five times ZA rally champion Jan Hettema. He very kindly sent me a basic spec of the car from that period by fax! I showed this to the head scrutineer for the Historic Rally Car Register’s Paul Loveridge, and away we went.
They built 100 Chevrolet Firenza Can Ams to homologate them for the Group 2 class in South Africa to attack the V8 Ford Capri Perana (sic) that was wiping the floor with the other manufacturers in their racing series. (Sadly, none of the Capris were used in rallying in period so they’re not allowed to compete, nowadays.) They had to be no more than five litre and had to be based on a production saloon bodyshell. They’re basically a 1970’s ‘flat front’ (as opposed to the Droopsnoot cars) Firenza, fitted with a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 engine and gearbox. Several race cars were built and the two rally cars that were, sadly, broken for spares during the 1970’s.
The preparation of the car took a good few years and was finally completed in 2010 by XS Racing under the guidance of Jon Cropper, the old MD and a friend of mine since I was 16. I entered Race Retro at Stoneleigh that year and it was a very nervous me that parked the car up in parc ferme on the Friday evening. The following day I sat in the car waiting to move up to the ‘paddock’ and, apart from a few glances, very few people seemed that interested in the car. Well, right until I thumbed the starter button… The first person to speak to me about it was a friendly chap who explained that he’d been in the Vauxhall team during the 70’s – it was Mike Broad, Russell Brookes’ co-driver! Once I got the car on track the weekend just got better and better. I even had Brian Culcheth look under the bonnet at one point and say “Maybe if they’d stuck that engine in the British cars, they’d have been a bit more successful!”
That year I took part in three rallies including an event in Belgium and we spent time developing the car and dealing with overheating issues; something that took a long, long time (years) to get on top of. A large, iron block engine in such a small space was always going to be an problem. A fourth event was the (sadly final) Chatsworth Rally Show. I’d managed to get hold of Jimmy McRae and, as he was coming down to do the event, asked him if he’d take the Firenza for a couple of stages and see what he thought. That began a firm friendship and the start of him using the car on many rallies and demos over the next few years – Jim’s done over twenty such events in the car since then. Chatsworth culminated in one of my proudest achievements; I won the inaugural Colin McRae Memorial Trophy for being the most popular driver and car performance over the weekend. Apparently there was some discussion about this because people thought that, with Jim driving the car, maybe it would be seen to be a bit of a fix but I was told later that it was pure coincidence and that the car was “very popular with the spectators and deserved to win”.
Since then, the car’s been used on many, many events including competitive rallies, hillclimbs, sprints and demonstrations. We built a twin cam engined Magnum for Jimmy to use in the British Historic Rally Championship in 2014; the idea being to finally allow him to drive the Group 2 car rather than the Group 1 he used in period and at the start of his career. Unfortunately, we had two major engine failures in testing and had to miss the first two rounds of the championship and so things were getting desperate when he suggested that we used the V8 while the Magnum engine was being repaired.
We’d just had a new engine built that was giving over 400 bhp and I raised both my eyebrows at the thought. Jim said “No problem; I’ve got built in traction control!” and pointed to his right leg! The car was being repainted due to an accident and was still in all over white so I made some green and red Castrol stripes plus some old sponsorship stickers to make the car look like his old Group 1 car. This went down very well with the fans and Jim’s old rallying pals when he did the Scottish Rally that year – it was only supposed to be like that for three months but stayed on the car for seven years! There was a lot of development carried out over the next few years with careful attention to spring rates and genuine Bilstein dampers. Jimmy went on to do three Wales Rally GB’s with an agonising ball joint failure just yards from the finish in one year when he was leading the Historic class. He also had a great result on the Roger Albert Clark Rally in 2017 and has been to Ireland several times with the car for the Circuit, Killarney, Donegal and a few others over there and in Belgium.
It amazes me how popular the car is whenever it’s taken out; I think that very few rally fans have ever heard an American V8 used on a stage rally (unless they were old enough to remember the big Camaros used on an Avon Tour of Britain back in 1973 – one of which was used by James Hunt to win the event). It sounds different to a Triumph TR7 V8 with perhaps a harder edge to the exhaust note. We made a megaphone, side exit exhaust for the car a few years ago which, apparently (I’ve got a helmet on, remember) is ear splittingly loud but usually goes down very well with the spectators. We also made a ridiculous looking rear wing for the car that is definitely rather ‘Marmite’ for some people. It is, though, a pretty accurate replica of one used in period by Jan and, before he died, he told me that it made a big difference to the car on faster stages where it was frequently flat out in top gear; a speed of over 130 mph in 1973!
I like to try and entertain the spectators when I’m out in the car. I’m too old to even try to be competitive nowadays so any stage times are usually measured in hours rather than minutes; hence the fact that I like to do demos that are untimed! If you drive the car sensibly, it is amazing how well it puts the power down; testament to the Vauxhall rear axle set up. If you drive it like I do, however, you can just light the rear tyres up whenever you want! We currently use a larger engine in the car than was used in period and gives a memorable 555 bhp and around 460 ft lbs of torque. Those wheels at the back are quite small for that sort of output and the tyres are only 225 wide – hence the smoke!
I’m a member of several classic rally car clubs including Rally History, Rally With Group B, Ralli 22 and, just this year, I joined Slowly Sideways. There are usually a reasonable number of demos run by these clubs or ones that they’re invited to. There’s one in Northern Spain called Rally Trasmiera that I’ve done three times, now, and the amazing 50 000 spectators that visit it are crazy for rallying – that’s always great fun to do although it’s not running in 2023, sadly.