The rarest of the catalogued Cavaliers when new – a Mk2 convertible.
Vauxhall Mk2 Cavaliers were once simply part of the street furniture, but now they are a rare sight indeed. The convertible version was always a little bit extra special though, the most expensive variant in the range. This is a long-cherished survivor.
When the sun comes out, do you notice the rush of convertibles and cabriolets that suddenly appear on our streets? It isn’t just in the sunny summer months either, because lots of people like to get their top down all year round, and in a car with a powerful heater it takes more than a blast from the Arctic to make them batten down the hatches. And you don’t need to break the bank with something like a modern BMW or Audi to enjoy that fresh air feeling, because there are some classic and relatively cheap options that allow you to savour the sunshine in this way; amongst them, perhaps surprisingly, is a Cavalier Convertible from Vauxhall.
In the 1980s there was a vogue for cutting the roof off many a mainstream saloon, one that was copied by most of the world’s major manufacturers. The Volkswagen Golf and Ford’s Escort spring immediately to mind, but Renault, Peugeot and Rover were at it too. General Motors in the form of Vauxhall and Opel were not going to be left out, so they commissioned nearly 3000 Opel Asconas to be coachbuilt into convertibles, 1283 of them being righthand drive and badged as Cavalier Mk2s. The Convertibles were the most expensive Cavaliers in the range catalogued at the time, and remain by far the most desirable today.
One distinguishing feature of the Vauxhall was that the conversion was done without any need for a disfiguring rollover hoop, which many others required to keep the strength and integrity of the car’s structure. The Vauxhall instead required the clever but discreet addition of metal, as will be described later.
The Cavalier Convertible caught the eye of Tony Coates from South Bucks, or rather the eye of his wife Liz, who first spotted the model in 1987. ' What a good-looking car,' she declared, and Tony had to agree. So much so that he purchased D333 SPP when it was just three months old, and the car has been a constant companion ever since. Tony and Liz loved the amount of room for a family of four, the clean lines and the absence of an ugly T-bar. And being essentially a Cavalier at heart, they also loved how easy and cheap it was to maintain. Many cars in the Coates family have come and gone since 1987, but the Cavalier remains their firm favourite over 33 years on.
Along the way, Tony and his Cavalier had a moment of fame when they featured on the very first edition of the new-style studio/airfield based Top Gear BBC programme in 2002. Tony’s car was under a sheet and when Jeremy Clarkson revealed it to the studio audience, they must have been slightly surprised that it wore his least favourite Vauxhall badge. The audience were then introduced to Harry Enfield, the very first 'Star in a reasonably priced car,' who proudly confirmed he had a Cavalier Convertible at home!
All the Cavalier Convertibles were based on the two- door, transverse- engined, frontwheel drive Opel Ascona C. Whilst a two- door Cavalier was amongst the launch models for Vauxhall in 1981, they were no
longer listed after the first few months. (Just try to find one today!) By 1985 the Ascona was the only two- door option and so that formed the platform which could be modified into the convertible. The conversion was designed and engineered by the German coachbuilder, Hammond & Thiede, and the cars were converted by an associated company called Voll, in Wurzburg. In creating their convertible, H&T had probably looked at the design and prototype built by Robert Jankel’s UK concern in 1982, which had proved that the concept would work.
Each genuine UK car carries a Hammond & Thiede builder’s plate bearing a commission number of 19 followed by four digits starting with 0001, which follow the sequence in which the cars were built. For reasons best known to the DVLA, the cars are all described as a 'Cabrio' on their registration document, despite being designated 'Convertible' in all the factory documentation and the brochures. All the cars were sold by Vauxhall dealers with full factory warranty. As already mentioned, it was the most expensive Cavalier in the range, costing initially nearly £11,700.
Mechanically, all RHD Convertibles were fitted with 1.8 SRi engines, which kept them in a company tax bracket below that occupied by Ford’s Sierra, who didn’t offer a convertible version anyway. However, the LHD Ascona Convertible conversions supplied throughout the rest of Europe came with a selection of engine options ranging from 1300cc through to the 2-litre SRi. The UK version is still punchy and unburstable, and it is economical to boot – 40mpg is easily achievable and 0- 60mph is dispatched in just under 10 seconds.
The suspension set-up was the same as the GLi saloon, so a little softer than the SRi, which suits this long- distance tourer. There are Macpherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear. The cars came with a five-speed gearbox, a radio/cassette, tilt adjustable steering wheel, remote electric boot release and electrically adjustable and heated rear-view mirrors. The only options were a three-speed automatic gearbox, the highly desirable power assisted steering, very pretty cross-spoke alloy wheels and metallic paint.
All the cars were fitted with the same interior in a tasteful grey, regardless of external colour. The front seats were Recaro style. None of the cars were fitted with electric windows, nor with central locking, which were actually standard fitment on some of the more lowly Cavaliers. The thinking must have been that the additional cost of these luxuries on top of an already expensive coachbuilt conversion would raise the price so much that it would take them well beyond what potential buyers would be prepared to pay. The cars are therefore relatively simple, but the lack of an alarm made them unfortunately somewhat easy to steal.
First deliveries to UK Vauxhall dealers were in November 1985. In August 1986 there was a facelift in common with the rest of the range – the black surround to the windscreen and the mirrors were colour coded to match the body colour, a revised painted grille was added and the grey seat material with black longitudinal stripes was replaced by a blue horizontal
striped material. The mechanical spec was unchanged. The last cars ran out two years later, just before the Mk3 Cavalier was announced; there was no Mk3 Cavalier Convertible.
To maintain the rigidity of the car with the steel roof removed, a lot of work went into engineering strength into the structure, though it isn’t obvious to an observer. There are four steel 'girders' in the car. Two of them are large box sections along the insides of the sills, and these are vital in keeping the front and rear ends together (or an appropriate distance apart!). Another shaped tubular structure connects the girders together across the front of the car underneath the dashboard, and the fourth member also forms the hood box, tying into the rear wheelarches on both sides, but not restricting capacity of the boot to any great extent.
The rear seat is not as wide as the one in the saloon due to the folding hood mechanism eating into the space either side, but there is still room for two full-sized people. If the sun comes out, the hood could not be simpler to release and put down; indeed, the operation can be effected by one person in a matter of just seconds. The vinyl rear window is commendably large, but has the disadvantage of going cloudy over the years and to stitch in a replacement requires the whole hood to be taken off the car. Incidentally, it should not be assumed that the hood from one car will fit another, as they were each hand-tailored to fit. Consequently, the fitting of a hood by an amateur trimmer is distinctly difficult if a ruck-free result is to be achieved.
To see Tony’s immaculate example and photograph it today is a rare treat. His 34-year old example is a credit to him and the TLC he has lavished on it over the years. Naturally it starts first time, and its perky performance belies the 112,000 miles on the clock. Such is the reliability of the car over that mileage that Tony has done little more than regular servicing to the engine. This Carmine Red car was treated to a top quality respray about 10 years ago, and
the replacement mohair hood is as crisp as the day it was fitted. The interior is original, which is just as well as Tony has been told that the original trimming material is unavailable and difficult to match.
Tony is a little embarrassed by what he describes as a scruffy appearance under the bonnet, but as there are no oil leaks, it is easily cleaned up and is testament to the fact that this car isn’t too pampered and is in regular use as a second car in the family. That said, it has won numerous awards, such as at the Vauxhall Bedford Owners Association annual gathering and Luton Festival of Transport, where there wasn’t a requirement to open the bonnet! Then again, Tony prefers driving it to cleaning it, and we can all understand that.
Those of you who are, like me, old enough to remember driving in the 1980s will recall that the car perilously close to your back bumper was often an SRi- engined Cavalier just itching to get by, driven by a sales rep keen to get to their next meeting. The car will still do that for a younger generation, but life tends to be less hectic now for those of us who were there at the time. The gearchange is notchy at best, certainly when compared to the slick change on a contemporary Ford. The front end is heavy so the unassisted steering is a bit of a throwback to earlier days, but its accuracy shows when the car is thrown into corners. But the car doesn't excel when driven like that, and you will have a far better time if you just relax and enjoy the ambience, the ride and the fresh air. Just don’t forget to take a hat!
A Vauxhall Cavalier might seem to be an unusual choice for a classic car, but consider the advantages. It is honestly engineered, with no badge pretensions. It is undoubtedly stylish, and the fuel injected SRi engine was considered a motorway basher in its day. It is reliable, but if it does break, then the spares are cheap and any garage can fix it. It also has rarity value, seats four in relative comfort and still turns heads today. If you are looking for one, buy the best convertible you can find and when the sun comes out enjoy it in the way it was always intended.