Bespoke Exhaust help?

I'm on the home straight finally finishing the rebuild of my Vauxhall Firenza HPF after owning the car the last 5 years, she was originally restored back in 1994!

After an extensive engine rebuild I now have one last piece of the puzzle to solve.........I need a company to make me a 2" exhaust system (manifold and exhaust). I have an existing manifold (1.75") as a pattern plus an existing

2" system which could be used as a pattern.

Could anyone advise of a company who could provide me with a new 2" system?

Any ideas MUCH appreciated.

Kind regards, Richard Kerry

Reply to
Richard Kerry
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Hayward & Scott in Basildon Essex (tel 01268 727256) will make any exhaust system from scratch, although as they specialise in stainless steel it won't be cheap.

There's also an outfit with the wonderful name of "Mike the Pipe", well known in racing circles. Used to be in Wallington, Surrey, but may have moved. Should be easy to track down. They would certainly be able to do what you want.

Assuming there's an owners' club, have you tried them? Might be some NOS somewhere.

Geoff MacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Richard Kerry ( snipped-for-privacy@btopenworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

PD Gough in Nottingham.

Reply to
Adrian

After General Motors began selling the Vauxhall Firenza here in Canada, disgruntled owners formed "The Firenza Owner's Association" and sued for the terrible quality of the "lemons" they had been sold. They staged rallies from Toronto to GM's headquarters in Oshawa, and the press would report on how many of the cars had broken down along the way, including one which had a wheel fall off. Needless to say, with such negative publicity sales of the model languished. One morning a co-worker announced that he had bought a new car. When asked what he had bought, he replied, "A Firenza." It took a while for the laughter to die down, but then he happened to mention the price, and at the end of the workday, there were quite few of us who set off in search of a half-price Firenza. The dealership I went to had just sold their last one, but the salesman was a decent chap, and phoned around until he found me one, cautioning me NOT to try and haggle the price down further. It was a silver grey coupe, looking rather forlorn at the back of a dealership, next to the dumpster, so coated in dust it was difficult to tell the colour. I was told they would need a few days to get it ready. I bought it, for $1500, less than half the normal price. This was 1973, but it was a new 1972 that no one had wanted. On delivery day, a friend came along to drive my Camaro back home for me (The saleman eagerly asked, "do you want to trade it in?"), and I set out on the freeway with him following. He soon pulled alongside and made motions indicating the car was smoking, which I was all too well aware of, but decided not to bail out until I saw flames. I made it home, a rough ride with the wheels badly out of balance, and there discovered the cause of the smoke - the oil had been overfilled, and was pouring out the dipstick tube onto the exhaust. Draining out a couple of quarts brought the level back to the "full" mark. I took the car to the local GM dealer with a long list of things to fix - the out of balance wheels, missing door switches for interior light, can't remember what all else, it's been a while, expecting to be told to get lost since I hadn't bought the car there, but all was taken care of under warranty. It was actually a solid, weel-constructed car, with enough breakdowns that had I paid full price for it, I too would have been pissed. With a fair number at work, we pooled our knowledge, and I never regretted the purchase. A frequent fault was failure of the alternator, actually, the electronic regulator built into the alternator, which failed because the position of the alternator, low down, subjected it to road salt. The solution was to remove the smog pump sitting up high and dry, and bolt the alternator onto the smog pump bracket. The car was an early use of cam drive belt, instead of a chain, and it had a habit of breaking often, usually at the most inopportune time. The worst part of that was the plastic cover over the belt which had at least fifty thousand hard to get at fasteners. Some judicious use of a soldering gun with a cutting tip made short work of offending parts of the cover. The car handled well, was quiet, comfortable, attractive design, had sufficient power (I towed a small boat trailer with it)the one complaint being a rubbery vague feeling shift linkage, and upholstery that looked cheap and chintzy, but stood up well. I drove the car for five years, and then sold it to a co-worker, and bought a pickup truck more suited to my needs. I was rather surprised when a few years later, General Motors brought out an Oldsmobile model called the Firenza - I never thought they wsould dare use the name again in this country.

Reply to
john(godspam)l

I seem to remember it was Janspeed that manufactured the big bore exhaust systems for the Firenza and were sold through specialist Vauxhall dealers around the country and through Blydenstein Racing of Royston.

I am sure that Janspeed should still have the plans they used to be in Salisbury.

I hope this is of assistance.

Dixie

Reply to
dixie

Richard, do a search on our site at

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for exhausts as a service under the trader section. This should return you a list of companies specialising in exhausts.

Kindest regards

Tom

Reply to
Classic-Car-World Ltd

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