Dream cars: Chevrolet Firenza Can Am

Vauxhall Viva meets muscle car

Today the dream cars series makes a long-overdue return with a surprise new entry. This car is pretty obscure and I have known of its existence for little more than two weeks, but even in that short time I have already developed a strong desire to own one. It is another product of the fascinating but little-known South African motor industry, although this one is far more exciting and desirable than the dull old Sao Penza I have previously featured. It's a true muscle car in the American tradition but with the benefit of right-hand drive and a more manageable size, so what's not to like? It all started with a chance encounter at the recent Earls Barton Classic Car Meet, an event pretty much guaranteed to turn up something out of the ordinary...

No ordinary Firenza - there's a ridiculously big engine under the bonnet

The name of Chevrolet will no doubt conjure up images of famous American cars like the Bel Air, Impala, Corvette and Camaro, or maybe the rebadged Daewoos of the early 21st century, but South Africa also used the Chevrolet brand and had its own indigenous range of cars, including some locally-built versions of British Vauxhalls. You'll hopefully know the Vauxhall Firenza as the coupe version of the HC Viva, most famous in 'Droop Snoot' form, but what you probably won't know is that this was among the Vauxhall models made in South Africa as Chevrolets. Their version was a bit different from the one we got in the UK though, and instead of the 2.3 slant-four had a locally-made 2.5-litre unit based on that designed for the American Chevrolet Nova (not to be confused with the completely unrelated Vauxhall Nova).

WLC 845X is the only other Can Am in the UK
(Image: Hooniverse.com)

Like the Americans and Australians, South Africans too have a penchant for the V8 engine and some readers may have heard of Ford's Perana cars that combined big American V8s with the lightweight bodies of the Escort and Capri. The 1973 Firenza Can Am was General Motors' response to these cars and became something of a legend in its homeland while remaining virtually unknown elsewhere. It was the brainchild of saloon car racing champions Basil van Rooyen and Geoff Mortimer, who initially took a Firenza GT and shoehorned in an Australian Holden V8 just to prove to GM South Africa that it could be done.

The Can Am was equally at home on race circuits and rally stages
(Image: Hooniverse.com)

GM were impressed and gave their backing to the project, but the rules for the Argus Production Car series stipulated a maximum capacity of exactly 5 litres so the 5045cc Holden engine was sadly slightly too big to compete. Fortunately, at the same time Chevrolet in America had just pulled out of the Trans Am series and had a stock of suitable engines going spare. Built for the Camaro Z28, these were fully race-tuned versions of the fabled 302 cubic inch 'small block' Chevy V8 developing an impressive 290bhp, which was plenty quick enough in the big Camaro so in a car the size of the Firenza should result in blistering performance.

Mmmm, V8. Not what you'd expect to find there!
(Image: Hooniverse.com)

Homologation for the series required minimum production of 100 roadgoing versions, so exactly that number of road cars were made, along with half-a-dozen racers. They were largely hand-built by a specialist team using engines imported from the US and other performance parts supplied by van Rooyen's Superformance company. The advertising made much of this exclusivity, promoting the car as being for "you and only 99 others", but even with only 100 to shift it didn't sell quickly. At 5800 rand it cost more than twice as much as the most expensive standard Firenza, and the oil crisis really hurt sales of thirsty big-engined cars like this so the last didn't find homes until two years later. Today about 30 remain and, needless to say, they are much-prized by South African collectors.

For you and only 99 others. The Little Chev was very exclusive.
(Image: totalvauxhall.co.uk)

The Can Am's appearance is fairly subtle and doesn't shout too loudly about its amazing performance, making it another of those 'Q cars' that so appeal to me. All were white with matt black fibreglass bonnets, 13-inch alloy wheels and a relatively small rear spoiler, and lacked the 'droop snoot' so at first glance they were hard to tell apart from ordinary Firenzas and it wasn't obvious what was looming in your rear-view mirrors. UK roads were full of Vivas that looked very similar but were powered by pedestrian 1.1 or 1.3-litre engines, which combined with its obscurity means the Can Am could still give drivers of modern sports cars quite a shock nowadays.

Spoiler and twin exhausts aren't just for show

Nicknamed the 'Little Chev', the Can Am was a true muscle car and soon established a reputation as a legendary giant-killer that could annilhilate pretty much any competition, allegedly including a Lamborghini Espada that was left for dead in a drag race! With 290bhp in a car weighing just 1100kg, it could get to 60 in about 5.4 seconds and go on to a top speed of over 140mph, which are pretty impressive figures for a saloon car even today. The V8 was more than twice the size of the 2.3 slant-four fitted to the closest British equivalent, the Vauxhall Firenza HP 'Droop Snoot', which was itself no slouch but the Can Am makes its 131bhp seem positively feeble.

The Droop Snoot was pretty quick but pales into insignificance alongside the Can Am

Until recently there was only one Can Am Firenza in the UK, registered WLC 845X, which has been here since 1982. About six months ago a second was imported, and it is this one (CDM 840M) that I encountered at Earls Barton. At first I thought it was just a tarted-up Vauxhall, but fortunately the owner had provided an information sheet that revealed the full story of this fascinating car I had been completely unaware of up to that point. Reading that told me this was something very special and even though I had never heard of it before I immediately knew the Chevrolet Firenza Can Am deserved a place in my dream garage. Vauxhall fans may lust after the Droop Snoot and not be aware of the Can Am's existence, but the South Africans took things to a whole new level by shoehorning that race-tuned V8 into the diminutive Firenza shell, so this is without a doubt the one I would have if money was no object.

This basic Vauxhall Firenza 1300 looks pretty similar to the mighty Can Am