{"id":44013,"date":"2016-03-10T15:34:18","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=44013"},"modified":"2022-06-14T12:25:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T11:25:26","slug":"vauxhall-chevette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/cars\/vauxhall-chevette\/","title":{"rendered":"Vauxhall Chevette"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shovel-nosed, Pinto-esque, uniquely strange and oddly appealing, the Vauxhall Chevette was a Likely Lads car before Likely Lads were Likely Lads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And what am I talking about when I use the term Likely Lads?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking about kids who infuse their cars with a certain energy, the distinct sort of creativity that is born of living in a suburb with tasty A-roads, enclosed street systems on low-rise estates where few coppers dare to tread.<\/p>\n

It might have been a made-over Opal, but in the early-mid seventies the Chevette was a really strange looking shape \u2013 especially the coup\u00e9. That droop snoot was of course closely related to the rarer bird that was the Firenza – and it was perfect for housing the goodies that turned your car into something greater than that consumed by the mass of men.<\/p>\n

\"Chevette-5\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

In rally homologation mode, the HSR model Chevette (above) was rarer than hen\u2019s teeth – and you could see the beginnings of the true hot hatch in the Chevette\u2019s lines well enough.<\/p>\n

The Chevette was phased out and finally disappeared in 1983 – to be replaced with the Nova. More of that in next week\u2019s feature thread…<\/p>\n


\nCars like the Chevette, stripped down everyman classics, laid the groundwork for a culture of car modifying that was a powerful force in youth culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t