The Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am Is A Tiny Muscle Car With A Z28 Heart

This brilliantly mad, Vauxhall-based homologation special had enough pace to worry Ferraris of its day
The Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am Is A Tiny Muscle Car With A Z28 Heart

There’s a long and rich history of American V8s getting stuffed into British cars. There was the Ford small-block-powered Sunbeam Tiger, the Jensen Interceptor and its big block Chevrolet, and the AC Cobra - perhaps the most famous US/UK automotive collaboration ever.

There is coming together of British chassis design and American muscle you might not have heard of, though: the Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am. Given the choice of branding it certainly sounds like an American car, but don’t be fooled - it’s actually a British chassis powered by an American V8 that was born in South Africa.

The Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am Is A Tiny Muscle Car With A Z28 Heart

The regular Chevrolet Firenza was, in fact, a Vauxhall Firenza. Owned by General Motors at the time (GM’s ownership of the British company ran from 1925 right the way up until 2017’s purchase by PSA), some of Vauxhall’s products were built and sold in South Africa and rebadged as Chevrolets.

The Cavalier became the Vauxhall Chevette, although the Firenza kept its model name and merely switched out the branding. Like the UK-sold version, it was powered by four-cylinder engines: a 1.2-litre Vauxhall unit, and a 2.5-litre Chevrolet lump, both built in South Africa. But there was an exception.

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We have South African touring car legend Basil Van Rooyen to thank for this absurd little creation. Keen to create a car to take on the seemingly unbeatable Capri Perana in the South African Argus Production Car championship, Van Rooyen built a couple of Holden V8-powered Firenzas and brought them along to GM’s South African HQ in Port Elizabeth. It seems execs liked what they saw, and an officially-produced V8 Firenza was given the go-ahead.

The Holden units were just too big for the regulations, which stipulated a maximum engine size of 5.0 litres. The solution came in the form of some Camaro Z28 V8s which had become available after Chevrolet pulled out of the North American-held Trans-Am Series.

The Capri Perana was the Can-Am's target (Image via FotoSleuth/Wikimedia Commons)
The Capri Perana was the Can-Am's target (Image via FotoSleuth/Wikimedia…

The engine developed around 290bhp, which in a car weighing not much over a tonne, made for some serious performance. Top speed was over 140mph, and it’d do 0-60mph in 5.4 seconds. In 1972. The Ferrari 365 GT4 that came out the following year was only just quicker in the benchmark sprint. Imagine Toyota bringing out a GT86 with an LC500 engine and the kind of acceleration that’d concern an 812 Superfast driver. At the time, this hot-rodded Firenza must have seemed completely bonkers. Hell, it still does.

The suspension and brakes were - thankfully - comprehensively upgraded to cope with the car’s newfound poke, and additional chassis bracing was added. Power was sent to the - no doubt overwhelmed - rear wheels via a four-speed manual gearbox and a limited-slip differential.

The car went by several names, with GM’s marketing people insisting on calling it the ‘Little Chev’ Firenza V8, which didn’t really do it justice. Van Rooyen said in an interview that he wished it to be called ‘Mamba’.

The Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am Is A Tiny Muscle Car With A Z28 Heart

Just 100 were built to satisfy homologation rules. We can’t be sure how many have survived, but you’re extremely unlikely to ever see an example on the road. At least one has made its way to the UK.

As for the racing version, its time competing was short lived - as a consequence of the 1973 oil crisis, motor racing was temporarily banned in South Africa at the end of the ‘73 season. No matter: ‘Mamba’ is still a legend in our eyes.

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Comments

Jeremy S.

Huh, didn’t know this existed

09/27/2018 - 14:55 |
4 | 0
CannedRex24

Damn. Why on earth do we never get such cool names anymore?

Like seriously

Back then it was names like
Berlinetta
Firenza
Isetta
Charger
Cortina
Falcon

Now it’s just numbers copied of computer code or something

All new 2018 BMW M4626284ide

09/27/2018 - 14:58 |
116 | 2

Exactly! And whenever I tried to tell ither people about this, they just brushed it off

09/27/2018 - 15:14 |
4 | 0

As a game dev I approve of xdfsr2829297382929

Most of my day looks like that

09/27/2018 - 15:19 |
34 | 0
Jesse Mast (back to Scirocco)

In reply to by CannedRex24

Or the uncreative ‘Superfast’, come on Ferrari you can do better…

09/27/2018 - 15:45 |
16 | 2

What ‘bout Ferrari the Ferrari?

09/27/2018 - 16:15 |
4 | 0

Do you comment all CT posts ? Hahaha

09/27/2018 - 20:28 |
4 | 0
London

Nice 👍 It looks like the #Vauxhall #Magnum from 1973 to 1978

09/27/2018 - 15:28 |
12 | 4
Anonymous

In reply to by London

Magnum was a trim level, you’re looking at a firenza

09/28/2018 - 17:23 |
4 | 0
Olivier (CT's grammar commie)

Funny, it just sounds in concept like a Baldwin-Motion Vega, and seems like it’s as rare as a Motion Vega

09/27/2018 - 16:06 |
18 | 4
Anonymous

Brits can’t make cars.
BL is no more.
Rover made the K-engine - head gasket problems in the 90s, even though they were partnered with Honda at the time. Like, how do you fk that up?
McLaren bought engines from Renault
Lotus is chinese.
Jaguar and Land Rover are indian.
RR and Bentley are german.

09/27/2018 - 20:56 |
4 | 2
stefano 3

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

TVR? David Brown?

09/28/2018 - 03:35 |
6 | 0
Wogmidget

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Sorry, can’t hear you over the 5.9L AM28 V12

09/28/2018 - 05:11 |
0 | 0
adam thompson

Jensen used Chrysler engines, not Chevy

09/27/2018 - 23:55 |
10 | 0
Anonymous

Great article, never knew the car existed. Thanks.

09/28/2018 - 01:27 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

The interceptors came with mopar engines, not chev.

09/28/2018 - 17:22 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

I think you’ll find the Jensen Interceptor used a range of Chryser V8s not Chevrolet ones.

09/30/2018 - 12:13 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

Capri Perana is still my favourite

10/07/2018 - 20:27 |
0 | 0