Vauxhall Viva hearse.
In May of 1972 Henry and his wife called by at the Martin Walter (Dormobile) works, to collect a couple of vehicles. Fortunately, Henry had his camera with him. Had he not, then perhaps this oddball conversion, based on a standard Vauxhall Viva HC saloon car, might never have been recorded on film for posterity. Daimlers, Jaguars, Rovers and Humbers were all fair game for conversion into a hearse, and many coachbuilders undertook just such builds, but I'd never heard of a hearse being built from a modestly-powered and otherwise fairly un-remarkable Viva saloon. Yet that's what Henry caught on film, a Viva saloon that went under the knife to be converted into a vehicle for use in an overseas funeral business. Henry adds:
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"[The photo was] taken on the 15th May 1972, as my late wife & I got ready to leave Folkestone bound for Aberdeen with two new caravanettes to add to a self-drive fleet. The HC Vauxhall Viva in the photo, according to an employee, came to Dormobile as a saloon & was converted there to serve as a hearse in some exotic place like Bermuda or the Bahamas. Maybe someone will recognise it & provide better information?
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Can anyone shed more light on this unusual vehicle? A second snapshot, taken of the caravanettes, captures something of the car's rear-end styling, so has been included in the photograph below.
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The rear section of roof, bootlid area and rear pillars were all disposed of during the build, and were replaced by a
long roof section and tailgate, complete with roof rack and to top-off the transformation, an oh-so-1970s vinyl roof - perhaps
to disguise some of the work that went into re-working the back end. At the time Vauxhall themselves were producing a two-door estate version
of the HC, a line that was introduced in 1970, but clearly the client for this car required four doors. I'm not sure what use the rear doors
would have been once a coffin was loaded in, but there must have been a reason. Possibly the car was also used for other duties, perhaps as
part of a cortege other than as a hearse when family members of the deceased had to be transported?
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If anyone can provide more information on the Viva shown here, please drop me a line and I'll update this page accordingly. Despite its rarity, on
balance I think I'd prefer to own the Triumph TR5 also in view, rather than the HC. Does the TR5, reg. MCD 650F, survive anywhere?
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The name "Dormobile" is better known for its association with campervans, or "motorhomes", and indeed it was two Ford-based campervans that Henry was collecting from Folkestone on the day that this shot was taken. Thanks for sending it over!
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Visit page 17 in the vintage gallery, or return to the gallery's main index page. A number of leaflets issued in 1970/1971 for the Viva HC range, including the Firenza coupe, may be found on this page of the site. Photos of a standard Viva 1300GLS, c1980, can be seen on this page.
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On the subject of Dormobile conversions, I've now added in two photos from the 1950s of a Dormobile conversion undertaken on a Vauxhall Velox saloon. They can be found here.
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