Solved - NEH 5552: Vignale Vauxhall Viva HA - 1965

[Carnut]

What's this, by whom from when - for 1 point?:

Remember - solving puzzles using 'Google Search by Image' is BANNED on AutoPuzzles!

[Carnut]

Experts..

[fromwien]

Vauxhall prototype? Viva?

[Carnut]

Vauxhall Viva is right, but it's not a prototype.
Since that part was fairly obvious I won't lock it yet.

[fromwien]

Envoy Epic?

[Carnut]

Not an Envoy.
It wasn't a Vauxhall-made protoype..

[D-type]

A prototype for a Viva HA / Kadett-A / Holden produced by GM in the USA?

[fromwien]

Something to do with Opel Kadett? As the rear lights are from a Kadett A...

[Carnut]

A prototype for a Viva HA / Kadett-A / Holden produced by GM in the USA?

No; not any sort of GM prototype..

Something to do with Opel Kadett? As the rear lights are from a Kadett A...

Nothing to do with the Opel Kadett.

[D-type]

If not a GM prototype, is it perhaps a Brabham-Viva?

[Carnut]

No, not a Brabham Viva (think that only came with the HB model).

[D-type]

I've just re-read the answers.  Answer #3 says it was not a prototype but it was a Vauxhall Viva.

Is it a limited edition?

[norberthanke]

Italian version

[fromwien]

1964?

[Carnut]

I've just re-read the answers.  Answer #3 says it was not a prototype but it was a Vauxhall Viva.

Is it a limited edition?

Very limited; there was only one!

Italian version

It was done in Italy, yes.

1964?

Very close..

[alltag]

Vauxall Viva De Luxe berlina made by Vignale in 1965

[Carnut]

That's it, yes.
As far as I know it wasn't commissioned by Vauxhall, so I don't know how it came about.
Maybe they just wanted to show the Brits how a small car could look if it was left to the Italians!

Here are the front view and unmodified picture of the rear:

[alltag]

I've seen the photo before when leafing through a book about an Italian coachbuilder and thought I remembered it was a book about Bertone.  It was not. It was Vignale.
I knew that Vignale had designed a very elegant coupe and convertible based on the Opel Kadett in 1965.  That was their connection to GM.
The solution was quite obvious, namely here in this forum.

Going ahead with Vignale book...  This is a picture from their archive, supposed to be a Vauxhall Viva De Luxe prototype.

Thank you for this puzzle 

[Carnut]

Vauxhall were obviously not influenced by it.
When they replaced the Viva soon after it was with something completely different!

[alltag]

Seen from the continent all Vauxhall of the 60s and 70s looked like crashed Opel.
From a British point of view, it must have been the other way around.

[Carnut]

Vauxhall styling was heavily influenced by America, perhaps more so than Opel. They were regarded as 'a bit brash' by the notoriously conservative British buyers, who loved buying the stodgy British offerings at that time, e.g. most BMC cars.
When GM wanted something a bit more up-market in the UK they started to import Opels and sell them as 'premium' cars (at appropriately higher prices); most people in the UK had no idea they were so closely related to Vauxhall of course, but just viewed them as premium German cars..
They seemed to sell quite well and I bought a few Asconas and a City Kadett for my company drivers to use, but the experiment was not specially long-lived and once Vauxhall reckoned their cars were premium in their own right the importation of Opels stopped.
The public never agreed with Vauxhall, however...!