LS1 into Vauxhall Firenza
12-31-2005, 10:31 AM
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LS1 into Vauxhall Firenza I'm guessing most of you don't know what a Vauxhall Firenza is! Vauxhall is the UK's GM product and in the 70's the mainstay of Vauxhall's range was the Viva, which is a small family sedan powered by a 1.2L or 1.3L engine. To spice the range up and compete with Ford's Capri (think European version of the Mustang) they introduced a swoopy Coupe body, gave it a bigger range of engines (up to 2.3L) and they called it "Firenza".
As a kid, my dad had a Viva and have loads of happy memories of family trips etc. and I always loved the Firenza with it's "sporty" twin headlights and Rostyle wheels but even when new, they were pretty rare. And, if you know anything of British cars in the 70's and British weather, they're even rarer today.
I managed to find one that has been stored in a dry garage for the last 10 years and it was completely stripped ready for restoration by the previous owner and comes with boxes and boxes of spares, NOS (new old stock, not nitrous!) parts and impossible to buy replacement body panels. It cost me £100 (about $190?). There's a lot of work to do on the body (mainly replacing some floor sections, the sills either side and a section of chassis rail, the wheel arches, front and rear panels and all of the paintwork. Oh, and the doors need either new skins or replacing completely) but it's actually pretty solid for one of these.
The engine bay is huge as the standard motor is a slant 4 (basically half a V8) and in South Africa, they made a limited run of Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am's using the Z28 5.0L small block to compete in races against the Ford Capri Perana 302. I figured that if a small block fits, then an LS1 shouldn't be too hard to squeeze in there. I measured the stock motor. Length and height are identical and the width from crank centre line to the widest part of the cylinder head also matches perfectly (on the side of the V that I actually have on my current motor!)
Here's some pics. This is where the car has rested for 10 years and these were my first view of the shell.
I'm finally bringing the shell home next week so should be able to get some better pics but I'll keep you all updated on the progress and I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions over the next few months!
Something like this is the final goal:
As a kid, my dad had a Viva and have loads of happy memories of family trips etc. and I always loved the Firenza with it's "sporty" twin headlights and Rostyle wheels but even when new, they were pretty rare. And, if you know anything of British cars in the 70's and British weather, they're even rarer today.
I managed to find one that has been stored in a dry garage for the last 10 years and it was completely stripped ready for restoration by the previous owner and comes with boxes and boxes of spares, NOS (new old stock, not nitrous!) parts and impossible to buy replacement body panels. It cost me £100 (about $190?). There's a lot of work to do on the body (mainly replacing some floor sections, the sills either side and a section of chassis rail, the wheel arches, front and rear panels and all of the paintwork. Oh, and the doors need either new skins or replacing completely) but it's actually pretty solid for one of these.
The engine bay is huge as the standard motor is a slant 4 (basically half a V8) and in South Africa, they made a limited run of Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am's using the Z28 5.0L small block to compete in races against the Ford Capri Perana 302. I figured that if a small block fits, then an LS1 shouldn't be too hard to squeeze in there. I measured the stock motor. Length and height are identical and the width from crank centre line to the widest part of the cylinder head also matches perfectly (on the side of the V that I actually have on my current motor!)
Here's some pics. This is where the car has rested for 10 years and these were my first view of the shell.
I'm finally bringing the shell home next week so should be able to get some better pics but I'll keep you all updated on the progress and I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions over the next few months!
Something like this is the final goal:
Last edited by NotoriousREV; 12-31-2005 at 10:43 AM.
thats gonna be a pretty cool project. GL 
