The golden buttery base Astra

[trigger]

As this got so much interest on the News 24 thread i thought I'd start it's own one.

During the week a friend of mine messaged me to ask if i knew if anyone in our car club was interested in a Mk1 Astra, he had meet them at Morrisons whilst in his 1940's Austin and they told him about the car that they had since new in the garage but due to old age and poor health it had to go, naturally i jumped at the chance even though i needed another car to a hole in the head.

I popped round and meet them yesterday and learnt the story behind it, whilst staying in a hotel called the Albemarle Hotel in Scarborough in 1982 the receptionist asked if he fancied entering a competition to win a Vauxhall Astra, he filled it in, had a lovely family holiday and forgot all about it. 3 weeks later he gets a call telling him that he had won, he couldn't even remember entering! So they drove back to Scarborough from Ipswich again to collect their prize.

He said the photo was in the Scarborough newspaper and the Ipswich Evening Star, he was so proud that he felt he couldn't ever sell it! Just lovely, obviously i took this opportunity to recreate this photo today!

Such a lovely family, the car hasn't ran for a few years so the battery was flat but my small jump pack and some easy start soon got it firing into life, out of the garage and onto dad's trailer.

It was at this point that it dropped it's water contents! this was the first time i'd seen the car outside and i had already paid for it and if I'm honest i was a little disappointed as the paintwork is a little patchy, i think it's had new wings and the colour match is piss poor and its had some arch repairs that aren't particularly painted well, but for a 40 year old Astra i probably should have expected that.

To be fair it's pretty good really, we found the reason that it lost it's water was because the stat was solid with crystallised anti freeze and so was the water pump so I'll get them replaced.

Shame about the zebartted engine bay but that's what has saved the car. It's only done 53000 miles, only 10000 of them was in the last 22 years!

The interior is really good apart from the dash trim that's popped out, unfortunately the radio doesn't work and the aerial needs fitting but that's no biggy.

and the very rare saloon boot!

[cobblers]

I don't know how you keep finding these mate. This is absolutely amazing! A bloody saloon FFS!!!

[mk2_craig]

What a find! I didn’t realise you could still get those Astras in 2 door non hatch flavour as late as Y reg. 

[Floatylight]

Fabulous find there!

The round headlights are a bit of an oddity my Mum had a 1983 1200s and a friend has a 1983 1300's both hatches both had the larger lights.

Watching with interest.

[hairnet]

redtop it

 

[Lord Sterling]

Fantastic Trig. Another clean old vehicle saved. Nice one. Will also be watching this with interest...

[RoverFolkUs]

Fantastic! An honest car with a nice background story

Shouldn't need too much to get it going "recommission not restore" 😉

[GeordieInExile]

Two door for the absolute win.

[RoverFolkUs]

On 3/13/2022 at 4:46 PM, RoverFolkUs said:

That Astra needs to be bought, immediately. Its too clean to get chucked on a Transit beavertail and barried 

Redtop = barrying, so.....

43 minutes ago, hairnet said:

redtop it

 

No 😛 

[High Jetter]

Sound. Well played.

[bunglebus]

Mk1 Astras have all vanished, that's an amazing find.

Didn't know they did a version with a boot rather than a hatch

[sutty2006]

That’s ace! Kinda fond memories of my mums friend having a 2 door hatch in hearing aid beige, B40 NRF was its reg. it got cubed about 15-20 years ago as it was so badly rotten it was too expensive to repair for her. Think it had about 25k on it too. Good luck with it, looking forward to updates! 

[dome]

What a honey! My uncle had a 4 door Opel Kadett saloon this shape in a lovely orange colour with I think the same headlights, I always wanted it as my first car.

[Dabooka]

Cor!  That's proper lush! My old man ran one or a while, can't recall anything about it though.

Two randoms please

[HMC]

Nice one! Have you still got the white Scorpio @trigger?

[D.E]

Me = very jealous, what a wonderful find!

10 hours ago, trigger said:

 

This is intriguing, where is the knob of the manual choke? Was the 1200 available with an automatic choke in the UK?

[Floatylight]

Think its behind the indicator stalk..

[D.E]

11 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

Think its behind the indicator stalk..

Ah, seems you're correct!

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

2 hours ago, dome said:

What a honey! My uncle had a 4 door Opel Kadett saloon this shape in a lovely orange colour with I think the same headlights, I always wanted it as my first car.

My uncle owned an X plate 4 door in a terracotta orange back in the day too. His was the rectangular headlamps though, which I assume most others were by X plate. 

Edit- Just checked and SFC 827X was registered in 1981. 

@trigger Who offered the car in the competition - was it a local dealership or something? I wonder if they're still going? 

[JMotor]

That is lovely!

[Split_Pin]

Definitely the most excellent car to appear on here since the base Sierra.

What a great back story to the car as well.

As you well know, old Vauxhalls are catching up with Fords so I think you paid a fair price. I'm glad you got it and not someone who will just stick a Saab engine in it.

Well bought.

[meggersdog]

What a lovely car. Great find trigger. Will it be ready for FOTU this year ?

On a side note. A friend of mine at the time had an Opel Kadett SR with the round headlights and a boot. That car was on a W reg.

[cort16]

 

Lovely car. I always thought the boot setup was weird with the external hinges and looking like it should be a hatchback.

[D.E]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

 

Lovely car. I always thought the boot setup was weird with the external hinges and looking like it should be a hatchback.

The saloon appears to have been an afterthought. I have a little book which was sent to the dealers before the Kadett was presented to the general public, meant to be a guide on how to present and sell the new model. The hatchback is, roughly translated, "most in line with our new fwd Kadett concept for the 1980s" and should be the preferred suggestion to most prospective buyers, while the saloon "is to be offered to our loyal and more traditional customers", which is an eufemism for elderly buyers I think. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

44 minutes ago, D.E said:

The saloon appears to have been an afterthought. I have a little book which was sent to the dealers before the Kadett was presented to the general public, meant to be a guide on how to present and sell the new model. The hatchback is, roughly translated, "most in line with our new fwd Kadett concept for the 1980s" and should be the preferred suggestion to most prospective buyers, while the saloon "is to be offered to our loyal and more traditional customers", which is an eufemism for elderly buyers I think. 

Intriguing... I guess the whole round headlight and non-hatch would figure with that target market. What an interesting thought though- to make a few models more old-fashioned from the outset just to keep the oldies from having a coronary when replacing their Chevettes with a posh new model. 

[captain_70s]

wen u gonna put redtop in it m8

[hairnet]

13 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Redtop = barrying, so.....

No 😛 

obvs a joke relating to the fact its got the old ohv in it

never driven one with that in it only the later ohc cars wonder what theyre like

sound like a chevette?

im not looking at the nice one in serbia that someone posted in the ebay thread

[D.E]

28 minutes ago, hairnet said:

obvs a joke relating to the fact its got the old ohv in it

never driven one with that in it only the later ohc cars wonder what theyre like

sound like a chevette?

im not looking at the nice one in serbia that someone posted in the ebay thread

The 1200 was more or less the same engine as the ones in earlier Opel models dating back to the 1960s. My '84 is a 1200, the '83 a 1300. The 1200 is louder, yes it does sound a bit more old fashioned. 

[RoverFolkUs]

20 minutes ago, hairnet said:

obvs a joke relating to the fact its got the old ohv in it

never driven one with that in it only the later ohc cars wonder what theyre like

sound like a chevette?

im not looking at the nice one in serbia that someone posted in the ebay thread

I know hence the '😛' .... 😉👍

[Missy Charm]

Lovely looking thing!