1975 Vauxhall VX4/90. It's about to begin...

Blimey, that rust is BAD, even i would have been a bit depressed having unearthed that lot. Good luck with it!

Blimey that does look a tad on the crusty side...!!!

However, if anybody needs to save it then I think it is the right hands... An FE nut wouldn't let this slip away without giving it their best shot would they...?!

I really do hope this makes it back on the road, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day soon...!!!

I have found the photos of USA 333S after a bit of a rumage and there are no sign of any front wipers or fuel injection. It was just a regular 490 in a garish colour. I bought it from a retired miner in Thornton, Fife, hell, ive even got a photo of him. All that drivel about it being a Swedish import or whatever is just that,,drivel. The car was a clunker I bought for scrap and when Mike Nash heard about it through the 490 drivers club (which i was member 14 in 87) he about wet himself and i made a very healthy profit and he got a lot of rust to deal with

I've seen that car in a couple of mags, it even appeared in 'Your Classic' back in the day

Fitment fail...... (well, I say fail......)



Yeah, it turns out they're a bit bigger and wider than I anticipated....





Fitment win......

Slots are fitment win if ever I saw it

The thought had crossed my mind to break it but I can't help thinking that a car with no history, extensive repairs and 99% complete is the ideal blank canvas for me to do something with. I really can't get the slots on the green one unless I pull the arches by 5 inches...... I do have a lot of inner wing panels now too.

Currently thinking of a way to get that HP Firenza from evilbay. Only need to raise another £7990 ...

I'll just throw this in here.. had some down time at work today and my banger racing buddy had dropped me over some Fiesta steels (only 3 so far).....





so these are the inner part of the Fiesta wheels which are a sort of cone shape and they add an inch to the width so I now have 2 6J rims and 1.5 6.5J rims (waiting for another donor wheel).

Wider but not mega wide.

A most interesting thread, this, and nice to see JAY 355N go to a good home not too far from my neck of the woods. It wasn't ever one I recorded when I kept the FE / 5-speed register for the VX4/90 DC all those years back. Incidentally MonzaPhil, the 74/75 model year cars only had a straight 4-speed gearbox, and the two-spoke steering wheel on yours reveals it to be a '75 model year car. Its grille should be black and not silver by the way! There used to be a few P-reg ones around, and I even photographed an R-reg 4-speeder in Derby once.

I was most interested to see mention of my own car, USA 333S, and wish to correct a few details and dispel a few myths about this very well known VX490, which appeared in numerous magazines when it was first restored.

I've owned USA now for some 22 years and did indeed buy it from a Scottish vendor, collecting it on 31/12/89 if I remember correctly. I paid the grand sum of £295 and still have the receipt, so the vendor's claim that he made a healthy profit out of me is perhaps a little wide of the mark. And bearing in mind that it had only done 37k, had a simply immaculate interior and a first-rate engine and box, plus it was the only ever Kashmir Yellow example ever discovered, oh and it drove all the way down to Surrey, I'd say it was a very good buy indeed!

USA did indeed look superficially very rough, but much of the shell was solid and reflected the mileage. When during 1990 it was stripped and rebuilt, it required inner and outer front wings, rear arches and front chassis-rail sections, and that was it other than patches of a minor nature. A-pillars, all four doors, boot, bonnet, front and rear panels are all still original. Only now at 35 years of age is it just starting to go around a few edges again. It's going to be hard to match the paintwork, because it was top-coated with a subtle layer of pearl lacquer. In fact it was a bit too subtle as no one ever spotted it.

It never was a Swedish spec car, nor fuel-injected, and unlike some of the early (77 model-year) 5-speeders, the V5 didn't say FI. But it does have by some margin the earliest VIN number of any 5-speeder known to the club, apart from a pre-production car in Coppertone which has long since died. The VIN indicates that USA was built in March '77, but it didn't get registered (by SMT, Aberdeen) until the September, hence the 'S' registration. Who knows where it was inbetween?! But it is quite probable that it was the same Kashmir Yellow car as used in some launch material.

Now on to the 'silly bits' that the vendor referred to. These do indeed comprise an authentic Swedish specification headlamp wash-wipe system and front seat head-rests, sent to me by Allan Karlsson, then a Swedish club member. It gained a vinyl roof (because I like them), Sundym glass and stainless steel sill covers from a GLS. It also has quad front indicators because the relevant space in the foglamps of a 5-speeder isn't used, whereas it is on a GLS. Orange bulbs but white lenses made it look slightly different to the rest.

Mechanically, Bill Blydenstein in person fitted it with one of his big-valve head kits and it took a fair while for this reap rewards, aided by a custom-made 4-branch manifold and Lumenition. It always pulled well and of course 5-speeders are ridiculously low-geared. But once the mods had settled down USA could red-line in 5th. Amazing! So then a fully rebuilt Ventora back axle was sourced and fitted, which very much tamed it and makes for long-legged and quiet motorway use, but still with loads of bottom-end.

When Dennis Green, a noted VX490 expert, drove USA he proclaimed it the best VX he'd ever driven. Praise indeed if you knew Dennis and his own totally rebuilt 5-speeder TAN 41S. So, silly bits? No, I don't think so. The car drives closer to how they always should have done! And surely it's all down to personal taste really isn't it?

Since I moved house in 2002, USA has hardly turned a wheel, not least because I have a few other 'toys' around such as a much loved Stag, a fine RS3100, a very early 2.8i Capri, and RS6 Plus Avant, and a few vintage buses. But I do plan to resuscitate USA in the Autumn, if only to empty out my garage and find out what else I never did unpack when we moved ten years ago.

Meanwhile I have another 5-speeder in need of a good home. Terrific engine and box terrific, MOT just about to expire, needs inner-wing repair sections (supplied) but superficially tidy and plenty of spares thrown in, if anyone has a grand for it. Very rare cars thesedays, and worth every penny in comparison to what most Fords are making.

You can email me on nashionalbus1@btconnect.com for more details.

I hope a few of you have found this piece of interest and that it stimulates some more feedback on these very handsome and most underrated of 70's saloons!

Mike