Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am 302

“But Michael, you’ve said several times how silly it is to build cars for enthusiasts…and now this!”

Well, pal: this has an adjustable polished aluminum rear spoiler from the factory, ish.

Those of you who are familiar with the Vauxhall Firenza-based Chevrolet Firenza Can-Am 302 sold only in South Africa are no doubt confused at my flip-flopping, but there's a crucial difference between this car and many others: this is a homologation special intended to prove its mettle on-track; many other special editions are mere packages for looking fantastic…parked at Burger King.

This very special Chevrolet, the “Little Chevy” in marketing materials, was built solely to satisfy the Argus Production Car series rule book. 

As the Ford vs Chevrolet war has been waged before many of us were born (and will probably continue long past a time when we're all stuffed in a capsule, Soylent IV inserted, and orbiting the dark side of Jupiter), South Africa was the site of a regional skirmish between the two American automakers.

Ford was racing the Capri Perana, a V8 powered version of its small Capri coupe, which was assembled by a local specialist in order to satisfy homologation requirements. A small, powerful car, it cleaned up in 1970s touring car racing in South Africa. 

With a wide range of powertrains and body styles available, it wasn't very difficult for the local Chevrolet contingent to respond with an equally capable machine, cobbled together from the parts catalogue; they made a kit car but shopped the GM closet for anything they needed. 

Superformance founder, engineer, and racer Basil van Rooyen saw the potential for beating Ford with a compact muscle car of his own, and built a pair of Firenza coupes with Holden V8 engines under the hood. 

Chevrolet gave its blessing, and as Hooniverse said (in an article I can sadly no longer find online), set up a fund where the racing team earned about $1 US for every Chevrolet sold in South Africa, guaranteeing a steady stream of cash for the race team.  

When working to squeeze the car into the rule book, the Holden engine's displacement was found to be slightly too large, so mechanics installed a 302 cu. in. V8 from the American Chevrolet Camaro. 

The built-for-Can Am motors sourced from the U.S. had at least 300 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque, good enough to send this flyweight (1100 kg / 2,425 lbs) to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.4 seconds; performance in 1972 to leave just about everything from that decade, not to mention ours, in the dust. 

Rear drive, Muncie 4-peed manual, adjustable aluminum rear spoiler, and a run of just 100 examples means that this was just about the most potent car you could get your hands on in South Africa. 

Far fewer are known by enthusiasts to exist — between 17 and 25 of them.

At a price of more than double that of a four-cylinder Firenza, owners were also happy to get special Personal 13-inch alloy wheels, a fibreglass hood, Personal leather steering wheel, and suspension upgrades.  Its seats? Reportedly from the Opel GT.

One hundred (100) were assembled from modification kits supplied to General Motors by Superformance —and as you can see, the marketing department heavily pushed its exclusivity. 

Today, surviving examples are highly sought-after, and competition cars are still campaigned in both circuit racing and in rally (look below for two of the best).

To sum things up: homologation specials are, usually, amazing. Let's hope the Little Chevy eventually gets the love it deserves from enthusiasts outside of South Africa; it’s unassuming, but that’s what makes it special. 

(A final tidbit: once into fourth gear, the stock Firenza speedometer would be past its maximum speed, and continue to rotate toward “0”! )

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