Britain’s Favourite Fast Vauxhall – The search is on!

Organisers of the UK’s premier show for performance Vauxhalls is looking to name the nations favourite flying Griffin

  • The Performance Vauxhall Show takes place at Santa Pod on June 11, 2017
  • Special anniversary display for Cavalier turbos
  • Early bird tickets still available with £5 entry discount
  • Camping and live entertainment from DJ Pied Piper and MC DT

 

Fast Vauxhalls have been a part of British motoring culture ever since the Prince Henry laid claim to being the world’s first ever sports car in 1911.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The Generation Game. Fast Vauxhalls continue to this day. Here’s the mighty 16v Astra GTE with the current 200PS SRi 1.6 turbo Sports Tourer

Hot Griffin-badged cars have come a long way since then, with multiple icons along the way, from rally-bred Chevettes through to hot hatch Novas and Astras, V8-engined Australian imports and the current range of VXR high performance models.

And with them comes a whole culture, as will be seen in evidence at the Performance Vauxhall Show, set to take place at Santa Pod, Beds, on June 11th.

Ahead of the event, the show organisers are looking to discover which of the Griffin greats is considered the most iconic performance Vauxhall ever, with a special survey taking place. Fans of Vauxhalls and performance cars in general are encouraged to take part here.

 

magnum
You can forget Ferraris, Handlebar tashes, Hawaii and Helicopters… Here’s a real Magnum – The rather insane two door coupe with slant four 2.3 power unit.

 

The Survey will run until May 31, 2017, with the overall favourite being announced a week ahead of the Santa Pod spectacle.

This year’s Performance Vauxhall Show is set to be one of the most action packed yet, with various attractions to draw fans of the British brand’s most thrilling models.

A special 25th birthday display to celebrate the silver anniversary of the Cavalier Turbo will be one of the star attractions, celebrating the Cavalier with attitude. With a 204bhp C20LET turbocharged engine, four-wheel-drive and Chevrolet Corvette-derived six-speed gearbox when it made its debut in 1992, but with just 49 examples left registered on the UK’s roads according to www.howmanyleft.co.uk, it’s now one of the rarest and most cherished of 1990s performance saloons.

At least 10 of the surviving examples will be on display at the show, from immaculately preserved standard variants to the wildly modified.

The Cavalier feature will be just one part of the ultimate show for fans of hot Vauxhalls, sponsored by Hardrace, Ksport, BC Forged Wheels, BC Supsension and Goodridge, which regularly attracts over 10,000 visitors to the famous drag strip.

 

cav sri
Another legend in fast fun was the Mk2 Cavalier. The SR was well received, but once that magical extra letter was added on the back and Bosch fuel injection was fitted up front, the Cavalier SRi became one of the most talked about cars of the 1980s

 

With on-strip action, including the chance for owners to enter their own Vauxhalls in a VX-only ‘Run What Ya Brung’, Santa Pod will be spilling over with classic and performance models, be them retro Novas, Chevettes, Cavaliers and Astras, or more modern VX220s, Monaros and VXRs.

As well as the drag strip action, PVS promises a host of other features including an Autotest, entrance photography, a lively retail village for the latest parts, mods and memorabilia, a show and shine, and some of the best and busiest club displays going.

The show itself takes place on the Sunday, but many fans making their annual pilgrimage love to make a weekend of it, so this year PVS is putting on some live evening entertainment, in the form of DJ Pied Piper and MC DT, the sound behind the famous Ayia Nappa hit ‘Do Your Really Like it?”

 

lotus-carlton
The Lotus Vauxhall Carlton – Nothing more needs saying!

 

Camping is available at the show on the Saturday evening, and that’s where the fun really begins. Camping costs £25 per person if booked in advance, with a late night bar and Santa Pod’s funfair in action all evening.

An early bird offer also applies to show day tickets – £18 (plus booking fee), as opposed to £23 on the gate. To buy tickets, visit www.performancevauxhallshow.co.uk

For the first time in 2017, there will be a second Performance Vauxhall Show later in the year, which takes place at Rockingham Motor Speedway, Northants, on October 15.

One comment

  1. Definitely the Magnum / Firenza Coupe for me. Between 1987 and 2002 we had 4. Mrs B ran an 1800 magnum 2 door saloon as her daily for nearly 8 years amd it never missed a beat. I had 2 Firenza Coupes and finished up with a Bronze Gold Starfire Magnum Coupe which I bought for £45 in 1992, spruced up and ran for 10 years. I sold it to buy a ST183 Celica Convertible which was probably the biggest mistake of my life.

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