(first posted 7/26/2014) There are two cars from Vauxhall in the after war period that truly remain in the popular memory: the compact Viva series and the larger Vauxhall Victor. The Victor came first, and was built for all its life in Luton, a town that is still proud of its links to Vauxhall, even if car production ceased several years ago. And where better than Luton, at the town’s recent Festival of Transport, to recall the car’s entire five generation career?
The Victor is another of those British cars with a history of contrasts. In its first years, it was a genuine success, with strong export sales to North America; in its final days it was almost forgotten, and even had its name changed out of shame. It was a typically conservative (small c) British product, but yet had its styling influenced by the most contemporary trends from North America. It was not a performance car, but the VX4/90 variant was one of the first popular-priced cars to bridge the gap between the hum-drum and the more adventurous in a way every competitor had to follow. It was repeatedly refreshed (five generations in less than 20 years), yet never changed from a four door saloon and estate. It was never a great car, but was frequently and unfairly overlooked, and even underrated on occasions.
The first Victor, known as the F series, was conceived in 1954 as a key part of GM’s expansion plan for Vauxhall, and to fit below the existing Vauxhall Wyvern and Cresta E series, which together constituted the Vauxhall range of the mid 1950s.
Vauxhall’s UK styling team created two distinctly different clay models for approval by Harlow Curtice, then head of GM – one version cautious and conservative, and one very clearly following contemporary American trends. There are many stories about senior management being presented with a range of design concepts to choose from, with one being a deliberate non-starter to make the choice of the designer’s preferred car easier, but in which the senior guys select what the designers consider the non-starter. This may have been one of those occasions, with Curtice being quoted as saying “Vauxhall has a wonderful opportunity to lead Europe in producing a car with the panoramic windshield and our competitors would be forced to follow suit”. Then it gets worse.
Curtice had made another significant intervention to the Victor programme – he ordained that development be completed in Detroit to meet the ambitious timescale set for the car and the styling was further “improved” whilst the project was in Detroit. Distinctive it may have been, but not in the same way as the contemporary Peugeot 403 or 404, or Volvo 121 Amazon.
Technically, this was a very typical car of the period – a four cylinder 1.5 OHV engine, driving the rear wheels through a three speed gearbox, with column change, coil springs at the front and leaf springs at the rear, recirculating ball steering and drum brakes. The wheelbase was 98 inches, 5 inches shorter than the Wyvern it replaced, and the length was 167in – almost exactly the same size as the later Hillman Hunter/Sunbeam Arrow.
What cannot be challenged is that the Victor F series was a commercial success – sales commenced in the spring of 1957 and by the end of 1959 250,000 had been sold. North America was a successful market for the F series Victor, where the car sold over 20,000 in 1957 and 1958.
The Victor was sold in the US by Pontiac dealers, during the great import boom of the mid-late fifties. But that ended with GM’s plans to introduce its own domestic compacts in 1960.
The revised series II version was sold only in Canada, and also rebadged as an Envoy, starting in 1960. David Saunders has a great write up here on the Victor F series and the Envoy.
In February 1959, Vauxhall launched the series II version, with the styling considerably toned down, and quite possibly a lot closer to what Vauxhall had expected before the design process was moved to Detroit. The bumpers were more modest, the grille calmer, the body creasing much reduced, the exhaust no longer exited through the rear bumper, and the rear window was larger. The panoramic screen, almost unique in its class in Europe, a feature that dictated much of the styling and the impression of the car remained. The featured car is a 1961 series II, and probably as good an example of the F series as there is.
Unfortunately, what also remained was the Victor’s truly appalling ability to rust. The exhausts through the bumper, the complex window shapes that had proved difficult to seal, and poor sealing of box sections and a build quality that was poor all allowed the car to rust from outside and inside, This was also widely attributed to the speed of the design and introduction. Nevertheless, Vauxhall sold almost 400,000, which was a pretty strong achievement
The Victor F series was replaced in October 1961 by the Victor FB. This time, Luton had been able to control the project much more closely and the styling showed this. Whilst it still had some north American influences, it was more to European tastes and achieved the unusual feat of being modern but ageing well. Mechanically, it was very similar to the F series, but with a higher compression ratio engine and an optional four speed gearbox, with a floor mounted gearchange. In 1963, the engine went to 1.6 litre and front discs brakes were fitted.
Size wise, it grew two inches in wheelbase and five inches in length – this was the start of the Victor’s growth away from what perhaps should have been its target competitors – the Ford Cortina, Hillman Minx and even the Morris Oxford. Better news was the increased torsional rigidity and the significant weight reduction.
Vauxhall had an unexpected extra offering in 1961 also – the Vauxhall VX4/90 (VX for Vauxhall, 4 cylinder and 90 mph), probably the first attempt in Britain at making a relatively affordable sporting saloon purely as a derivative of the mainstream car, rather than as a separate product, such as the Rootes Sunbeam-Talbot 90. Prior to this, buyers had two choices – a Ford, Vauxhall, Hillman or Morris saloon, a more expensive MG or Sunbeam, or a luxury rather than sport Wolseley 15/60, or spring for a much more expensive imported car, such as a Lancia. There was no compact Triumph 2000 or Rover 2000 until 1963; the Sunbeam Rapier was 2-door only, the Cortina GT was still a few years away. and the Triumph Dolomite 10 years away. A true pioneer, not wholly unlike the 1964 Pontiac GTO.
Vauxhall succeeded with the VX4/90 in establishing a sub-brand that lasted for four generations and 15 years, and which always had something more than stripes and a rev-counter to distinguish it from the base car. The first VX4/90 had a revised version of the 1.5 litre OHV engine, with twin Zenith carburettors, a revised camshaft, disc brakes at the front and front bucket seats. Full instrumentation and side stripes completed the package.
The FB did more good business for Vauxhall – 328,000 cars in 3 years.
In 1964, Vauxhall replaced the FB with the FC, also known as the Victor 101. The name was said to stand for 101 improvements over the FB. It shared a lot with the FB – in fact it was essentially a new body on top of the FB floor pan, with carry over engines and gearboxes. Styling wise, it had more in common with the 1963 Viva HA and larger Cresta PC, launched in 1965, than the Victor FB. The offer remained essentially the same under the new skin – dimensionally it was practically unchanged, the engine grew to a full 1.6 litres and there was a fourth gear, but you could still have a bench seat and a column change 3 speed box if you wanted.
Vauxhall made a big play with the curved door glass, which was a first in the UK, and a double curvature rear window was claimed to add rear headroom and to be better at resisting dirt and rain. The interior took a significant step forward as well. There was a VX4-90 version, of course, still with twin Zenith carburettors and side stripe.
There had always been a Victor estate; indeed it was the first estate to be factory built by Vauxhall and the FC was no exception, which made probably the most attractive Victor estate yet. Vauxhall also built two van versions of the estate for evaluation and used by the company for a period – and tried a Perkins diesel engine in the car as well.
The biggest challenge for the Victor came from Dagenham – the Ford Cortina was now well on its way to market domination, and whilst the 1966 Cortina Mk2 was not aimed directly at the Victor, it offered most of what the Victor did for a little less money. Typically, the Cortina cost 5-8% less than a comparable Victor, and delivered almost the same. Vauxhall had sold 235,000 FC Victors, but needed to do something to meet the Cortina head on. Instead, they chose to avoid Ford.
In 1967, Vauxhall showed an all-new Victor the FD. Not only was the styling a definite departure from the FC, the engineering was too. Wishbone front suspension and a live rear axle with trailing arms and a Panhard rod were significant upgrades from the earlier cars. But the big news was a brand new engine, known as the slant-4. This was the last engine Vauxhall would develop by itself, and was planned as part of wide range of engines, including a V8 – hence the slant nature of the four cylinder – in a similar way to the Triumph Dolomite and Stag engines. It was also one of the first to use a belt drive for the overhead camshaft, and was offered in the Victor in 1.6 litre and 2.0 litre sizes.
Vauxhall was clearly moving the Victor upmarket away from the Cortina, trying to find a space between the Cortina and the larger Zephyr and Zodiac range. The car grew to a wheelbase of 102 inches and length of 177 inches; the Mk 2 Cortina was 98 inches and 168 inches, the Zephyr was 107 inches and 183 inches. The Victor sat almost exactly half way, and offered a 2.0 litre engine that the Mk 2 Cortina did not.
With the new platform utilising suspension design that would not show on its British competitors until the next decade, the new OHC engine and the sharp, contemporary styling, one didn’t have to a complete Vauxhall addict to describe it as not the last British midsize car of the 1960s, but the first of the 1970s. It was not as conceptually advanced as cars such as the Issigonis designed products BMC were offering, or the Renault 16, but for a high volume saloon it was right up there on most counts.
And unlike the F series, there was absolutely no need to call the Style Police either. None at all; in my view, this is one of the best looking British cars of the 1960s, not that that is a valid excuse for advertising like this.
Vauxhall’s Ford problem continued though; the 1970 Ford Cortina was sized within a half a inch of the Victor’s wheelbase, and offered a 2.0 litre engine and the 1972 Consul and Granada were significantly more accomplished than their predecessors, the Zephyr and Zodiac.
Vauxhall tried to match the Zodiac and then the Granada with the Ventora – this was a Victor with a 3.3 litre 6 cylinder engine, used in the larger Cresta and some Bedford trucks vans, with 123 bhp (up from 88bhp for the 2.0 litre Victor) and a full luxury trim pack, with additional instrumentation and a vinyl roof. This was about torque, not power, and many came with a GM Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission. Most people saw the engine for what it was – essentially a 1950s engine more usually found in a van.
In reality, the Ventora was lost between 3.0 litre Granada, the 2.0 litre Cortina GXL and cars like the Triumph 2000, Rover 2000 and imports like the new Audi 100.
There was also a VX4/90 version of the FD, this time using the 2.0 litre engine, twin carburettors and 112bhp.
The FD series notched up almost 200,000 sales in four years – the Victor’s great sales years were now behind it.
Although we were not told so explicitly, the 1972 FE series marked a turning point for Vauxhall and General Motors in Europe. The car was built on the same floorpan as the Opel Rekord D, though with a different engine, suspension and steering system (rack and pinion as compared to the Rekord’s recirculating ball unit. But various parts like wiper mechanisms, door locks, etc. were common with the Rekord.
The engine, suspension and steering were all carried over from the FD, although the engines were enlarged to 1.8 litre and 2.3 litre. The 2.3, was an unusual size for the UK market, and also large for a 4 cylinder engine, and this summed up the FE’s main issue. Was its mission to compete with the Cortina, offering a bit more space, or was it to be a more compact Granada competitor? No one seemed to know, frankly.
The larger Vauxhall Cresta was discontinued in 1972, so the Ventora became the top of the range Vauxhall, with the 6 cylinder 3.3 litre engine in the UK and a 2.8 litre version for some export markets,where the 3.3 litre was subject to higher taxation.
The VX4/90 was there again as well, with a twin carburettor version of the 2.3 litre engine. However, with the improved torque of the 2.3 litre engine over the earlier 2.0 litre, there was little need for a Ventora over a VX4/90, and arguably little need for a VX4/90 over Victor 2300SL.
Except that the VX4/90 had Rostyle wheels, which make any car (almost) more desirable!
The styling again followed American GM trends. Part of that may have been that Vauxhall historically had a pretty strong presence in Canada, however after the issues the Viva and Firenza had there in 1971/2, Vauxhall left North America, never to return. This left the car with an engine size that didn’t suit its main market, styling that may be described as “not at ease” in that market and with a reduced market to achieve the necessary volumes.
Vauxhall initially marketed the FE as the “Victor Transcontinental”, presumably to emphasise an ability to cover long distances. Fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t make up for a lack of equipment – early cars were so sparsely trimmed and equipped that extensive specification improvements were made as early as 1973. The bench front seat was finally discontinued, trim materials improved and colour ranges extended, and revised cylinder heads and viscous fans improved engine refinement.
None of these factors were enough to help the Victor as new competitors emerged from Japan – compared with the fully equipped nature of the Japanese imports with all their home comforts, the Victor was equipped like the dormitory of a British public school. Just check the comprehensive package of six extras featured in the advertisement above!
The early to mid 1970s were a tough time for Vauxhall. The retreat from Canada cost volume, the cars were now the wrong size for the main UK market, and the competition was just getting tougher and tougher. In four years, to early 1976, the Victor FE sold just 55,000 copies.
In 1975, Vauxhall had launched the first Cavalier, and the smaller Cavalier 1600GL saloon actually sold at a higher price than a basic Victor 1800. Vauxhall had one last shot with the Victor, to try to move it upmarket out of the Cavalier’s reach: the VX.
The interior was extensively revised, the Ventora dropped, the equipment levels ramped up and the engines revised once more. The car was renamed the VX1800 or VX2300, and a fully specified VX2300GLS replaced the Ventora as Vauxhall’s flagship. In 1977, a new VX4/90 followed, with a 5 speed Getrag gearbox and a 116 bhp 2.3litre engine
But the Cavalier, the Chevette, and the under body origins of Victor FE had all put the writing on the wall. In 1978, the VX was retired, replaced by the Vauxhall Carlton, a badge engineered Opel Rekord E, and few noticed; fewer cared, and even fewer mourned that this was the end of the Victor line. Which is a shame – the Victor nameplate had had a long and honourable service, cars such as the FB and FC provided solid good value with a touch of American flair as an alternative to a stodgy Morris Oxford or poorly executed Austin 1800; the FD showed us what the 1970s might have been like and the F series showed us why Britain never publicly endorsed 1950s’ American style.
Just got whacked with the nostalgia stick. When I was about four or five, I remember my parents had an FC which they had purchased from my aunt and British born uncle. It shared the backyard with a Fiat 125, and I remember thinking how much it looked to me like an American car. So much so, I remember trying to put an empty blue plastic ice cream tub on the roof to mimic a copshow police car. Haven’t thought about that in years. Thanks Roger.
Hi Don,
its only a nostalgia stick, so the bruises should fade quickly…..
Hehehe. Those bruises were from the naughty stick, aka ‘the wooden spoon’ as a result of talking back to my mum.
Owned a 1970 FD 2000SL, a 1975 FE 2300SL and a 1979 reg VX2300SL estate! Loved them all!
Great write up Vauxhall Victors were a popular car in New Zealand up till 71 when big Vauxhalls were stopped in favour of cheaper Holdens, NZ got very few Ventoras but had its own model the 3.3 Victor nearly all eqipped with 4 speed boxes they were a successful standard production race car in their day as virtually nothing produced here could out run one Fiat even homologated a special model to compete the 125T it could hold a Victor on wet tracks but in the dry the screaming twin cam was outclassed by sheer torque.
The FB VX4/90 was a big seller in OZ I have seen many there over the years and it was nearly the last model Vauxhall produced in any numbers by GMH who didnt like the competition for their Australias own Holden but NZ got both varieties and it took Holdens to install a 327 V8 in their HK model for something GM to outpace the quick Vauxhalls. and after 71 we were stuck with Holdens mores the pity..Heres a 101 Victor and a supercharged Commodore
It was only the JO Bedford that used the Cresta 3.3 engine the larger J1 up had the 214 cube British Chev 6. The CA and later CF Bedford vans always used the Wyvern motor at first the from 57 onwards used Victor engines culminating in the 2.3 OHC in about 71 or you could get diesel or on the larger CF LWB truck a 283 Chev V8,
Australian CFs got lumbered with low compression Holden 173 6s and were a slow noisy under geared POS I drove one many thousands of KMs a cresta diff head could have solved its awfull highway cruising abilities but those are few and far between in OZ.
Terrific article, Roger. The FD is speaking to me and the wheels on your example certainly amplify its voice.
Thanks Jason.
The green FD is actually a Ventora 3.3 litre 6 cylinder (the FD Brougham), and the wheels are aftermarket.
But the styling of this car is just so right, appealling and getting better with age. I think it’s a great example of what you might you call “confidence” styling. Even Ford were hard pressed to match it in Europe in the 60s and 70s.
My first car was very rusty 71 Victor FD.Thanks for another great read Roger.My brother briefly had a VX 2300 til a drunk driver crashed into it which was a pity as it was a nice car
Way before the internet, I remember seeing one of these in the yard of a guy that had a small horde of foreign GM cars, and one of these in a 57 puzzled the hell out of me, it’s Baby 57 Buick styling gave you that “I know what this is, but it isn’t that” vibe.
I love European cars with “mini-USA” styling. The post 1961 cars though look like USA up front and Europe in the rear.
I always thought a Vauxhall would be cool to have hot rodded and bring to shows here in the states just to have people do the double takes of WTF is that? As Carmine said, styling that is mildly familiar but on a smaller scale that we’re not used to.
Sometimes it’s the other way around. To me this DAF model, introduced in 1957, looks like some sort of supersized US pickup-truck from that era.
I wonder how the Victor would have looked as a 2 door convertible, but I don’t think they made any.
That DAF does look like a re-purposed domestic truck cab, with the wraparound windshield.
Thanx for this good writeup ! .
-Nate
Fantastic and extensive write up. A friend of mine was big into Vauxhalls and had several Victors over the days. He actually had a rust free F-series for several years as well as a very rusty parts car. I think he generally preferred the more stylish (and equally rust prone) early Crestas however.
Hi David,
“more stylish early Crestas” is possibly subjective;however, equally rust prone should stand up easily though 😉
The link to David Saunders article is broken.
Hi,
Thanks for the heads up on this.
It’s now fixed, and the technical support operative shot.
Hi,
Great great write up Roger, thanks.
Through 10 year old eyes in Britain, the 68 victor really did seem like a fresh item.
My first car was a 62 envoy. Blue and white, and boy did I thrash that poor thing. In 75 it took me and three others plus gear from victoria to tofino. Road from alberni to the coast was at that time quite rough, and the trip was made in November rains. It is amazing that we made it.
I miss that car, not that it was anything special, but it had some charm, smelled great inside ( the good British car smell, not the oily electrical combo), and the dash layout was nice.
Alistair
We traveled that road from Port Alberni to Tofino in 1979 or 1980 in our 76 Chevrolet Cheyenne pickup. Really twisty road, but not particularly rough, that went through a lot of desolate forest land.
Thanks Roger for the introduction to yet another British car that I had heretofore seen only as a baddies’ car or driven by the latest damsel in distress rescued by Simon Templar and his P1800 in reruns of The Saint.
Ever notice that seemingly EVERY contemporary American car in Britain at the time was on that show? They all looked so out of place!
Very interesting write-up, thank you.
I know very little about the Vauxhalls of the 1950’s to the mid-1970’s, back when Vauxhall was GM UK. I’m only familiar with the Vauxhall/Opel GM Europe cars.
My father was a Vauxhall man all through the 1980’s with three mk2 Cavaliers and a very late facelift mk1 Carlton. There was also a Ford Sierra estate in Hearing-Aid Beige, which he despised.
My first car was inherited from my mother, a 1989 Vauxhall Astra, 1.3 75bhp with a 4-speed box. Only weighed 750kg so it shifted.
At those times stylishly Vauxhall had more in common with Holden. Today’s Vauxhall is Opel. Quite simple and very reliable. Only the VXR8 and the Monaro is/was exception.
Terrific write up on GM’s British cars. Learned a lot. With all the rust proofing talked about in the advertisements, were they really more rust resistant then other cars of the period? Interesting looking cars. Well written article.
Yeah nar Vauxhalls rusted just as fast if not faster than other British cars one of the main reasons even in NZ where they were very popular there are few left, the other reason is the ease with which a SBC bolts into a FD Victor, thousands were rodded in the 70s/80s and drag raced into oblivion likewise the 6 cylinder Cresta engine will fit into the lighter FC for speedway racing which is a full contact motor sport here similarly there are very few left rust devoured the earlier models.
Fifties Vauxhalls were terrible rusters – later ones drastically needed to be more rust-resistant! The average potential customer would read that as “we’ve tried to address the issue”, and would check back in 3-5 years to find out if they’d been successful.
Vauxhall played very heavily on rust resistance in advertising for the HC Viva. Not sure anyone believed it though at the time.
I think you’re right. Vauxhall advertised heavily (like the advert for the FD above) for precisely the reason you suggest. I’m not sure enough people bought it though. I know my Dad didn’t.
All cars rusted,metal was thicker but that meant so was the rust.Vauxhalls rusted a bit quicker than other cars.My first car was a 71 FD Victor with severe rust at 8 years old.By contrast my 70 PC Cresta was given extra riustproofing from new and was still going strong at 42
Thanks for all the replies, I suspected it was more advertising hype then fact.
Great article! The parallel-universe effect is strong with these, the FB is like a slightly smaller early Nova, the FD a ’65-67 Impala redrawn to C-segment proportions, and, most fascinating to me, the FE is a hint of what a 4-door Vega would’ve looked like.
To me, the FB looks like a 63 Plymouth Valiant with the corners shaved off. It looks much less “GM” than do the other Vauxhall versions.
Interesting view JP. Some suggest its Ford influenced as well
The FE went on to have an after life in India as the Hindustan Contessa with isuzu diesel power how long for I have no idea maybe someone in the readership from India could enlighten us.
Wonder why GM just didn’t use the 2.3L OHC Vauxhall engine in the Vega.
One of the universes great mysteries it was a great motor outfits like Lotus and Jensen thought so but of course Chevrolet knew better.
I think this was brought up before and Detroit had a “not designed here we don’t want it” policy.
Among all my Vauxhalls, I had an FD Victor which ended up with a somewhat modified 2.3 in it which ran pretty strong. These engines were very robust, but they had a couple of downsides. One was that, a bit like the slant-6 Chrysler of the day, they were heavy as lead – the 1600cc version was about 40% heavier than the comparable Ford Kent engine which was ridiculous. The other problem was their silly screw-wedge valve lash adjusters which only allowed 3-thou steps, and so the valve-gear was usually noisy. Not only that, but the screw and the heavy boss inside the lifter made it so heavy that there was no real point in having an OHC setup in the first place. Trying to appear “cutting edge” isn’t always the best idea. Compare that to GM’s marvelous LS, where they simply took a conventional design, and refined it.
The FD was a great looking car, best ever from the UK IMHO. As a kid I lusted after the Firenza/Magnum coupe also. Sadly we were ferried round in the vomit-friendly back of a Maxi 1500.
My little sister was the expert in blowing chunks in cars up to age 12.Vinyl was much easier to wipe off than other material.I dreaded my parents buying a Maxi,Dad got an unhealthy interest in BL’s FWD cars.(Cured when he bought an Allegro)I was a tall overweight girl with red hair at school,a parent driving a Maxi would have been the icing on the cake!
.
RE : auto puking ;
I’m glad someone mentioned this , growing up in the late 50’s early 60’s I suffered my parents driving us all over the East Coast in the back seat of various non AC equipped cars always with all the windows tightly closed ~ this of course meant lots and lots of puking with us being blamed for the gawdawful smell and getting beat like a red haired step child when all they had to do was let us open THE FUCKING WINDOW .
-Nate
(the professional upchucker of the 6 kiddies crammed into a ’59 Peugeot Sedan)
My sides hurt from your posts
GM South Africa sold HC Vivas as Chevrolets and crammed a 305 cube V8 into the Firenza coupe dubbed Can Am saw one on the Targa Tassie repowered with a 350 one very fast little car they made exactly 100 and they were hard to obtain, new how mant survive gawd knows.
There’s one in the UK,he also has a Perana Granada Coupe.
The South African V8 Vivas actually used the genuine Z28 302.
Thanks Roger for another comprehensive study of a the most American of British cars. Always particularly instructive through the eyes of someone from the UK.
I find it fascinating (and characteristic) of GM’s hubris that a design conceived and engineered in the US would be perfect for 1950s England. “Let’s not let the locals do this, they don’t know what a modern car really is.”
What they got was a car that rusted as badly as anything in the US, but in a market where people presumably did not trade cars every two or three years.
The most American of British cars would probably be the Vauxhall Crestas and the Ford Zodiacs.6 cylinder cars,big by UK standards roughly the size of a US compact and with Detroit inspired style.I’d have another right now
There was probably a certain level of hunger for all things American in Britain in the 1950’s, and I guess Vauxhalls sold reasonably well.
When our family went to England on vacation in 1959 we rented a shiny new two-tone Vauxhall Velox. It was quite a contrast with my uncle & aunt’s Vauxhall – a 1937 ‘drophead’ model, that I think had at least some wood in its structure. My cousins were keen to ride in the new car, so I had a memorable top-down, pre-motorway drive from London to north Devon in the leather-upholstered back seat.
What I find interesting for the 1950’s however is the level of American involvement in a new car that apparently had major rust problems when imported to North America. Was it possibly intentional? 🙂
An excellent overview. I was very happy to have a 1970 FD 2000SL in dark blue as my third car, which sadly succumbed to the rust worm. I later purchased a 1975 FE 2300SL in yellow gold, and a very late (reg 1/1/79) VX 2300 estate in silver metallic with black vinyl roof. Sadly that was the end of the Victor line. My father owned a 1973 FE 1800 in deep red metallic with beige vinyl roof.
I’ve always found the FD Victor/Ventora to be a great-looking car. It does have a lot of Chevy influence but in a package closer to the size of the Vega. Oh, the possiibilities if we had gotten that instead!
Great post Roger, thanks.
I knew about Vauxhalls from an early age as Dad gave me his Lesney Victor estate car when I was five or six. I still have it, as well as a whole fleet of Matchbox Victor estates!
It’s too bad the Victor didn’t have a companion model called the Vincent. Then you could have walked into your local Vauxhall dealer and ask about the Vincent Price.
*crickets*
Well, you guys just don’t know what’s funny!
Someone has built themselves a Victor FD convertible:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/322801/25053071
I am SO jealous!
A coupe version was planned but never got beyond a full-size styling model: http://files.uk2sitebuilder.com/uk2group53061/image/fdcoupe10.jpg
Interesting how they went from Chevy like styling of the 50s to Ford Falcon like in 1961, then back to mid 60s Chevys
U.S. Pontiac dealers briefly sold these in the late ’50s. If I hadn’t already known Vauxhall was a GM subsidiary, I would have suspected it from the car’s styling.
My first car was a 1962 Victor, the FB model, bought for $300 in the summer of 1969. It was rather uncool, but I grew to respect the engine and general handling. It was a tougher car than it looked.
About a month after I bought it however, one of the front seat rails suddenly dropped through the rusted floor pan. To put it in perspective though the 1965 Volvo 544 I replaced it with (the Victor’s floor was repaired but I totalled the car about a month later – thankfully without injury) had holes in the floor (and rear fenders) by 1972. So Vauxhall seems to have got itself up to industry standards, at least for the Victor.
It seems there was serious thought given to a convertible version of the FB Victor. Found this in a search:
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1090227
The panel breakdown is interesting.
This was an interesting article about a car that was really rare in the United States. My only experience with them was by one of my uncles. He lived in Mound City, Mo. and worked in Falls City, Ne-a round trip of about fifty miles a day. -sometime in the sixties his old ride gave out and he needed a new ride. Somewhere he found a ’58 Vauxhall that needed a new engine; he managed to locate a replacement engine, performed an engine swap and he was in business. The Vauxhall served him well, he drove it several years-I think he put about 100,000 miles on it until it finally gave out. I don’t recall rust being a problem with this particular car.
When it is remembered that “spoils” can mean waste material, it seems quite apt to apply to the 1957-60 Vauxhall the phrase “To The Victor, The Spoils”. Indeed, and apparently, it got all of ’em.
Apart from anything else – and there is so much else! – it should always have been clear, at minimum, that pre-shrunk and ill-proportioned Americana doesn’t work on bedstead castor wheel sizes, even for a victor.
Still, to be fair, I suppose one can imagine some unselfconscious Elvis-ites farting about in their slightly-off Vauxhall Victors, singing slightly smaller and slightly out-of-tune versions of His songs, if in a slightly smaller-than-Elvis voice, as they imagined their (possibly) slightly smaller-than-usual selves being elsewhere and in-tune and bigger.
Thers a model of the FD that the UK didnt get the 3300SL which was the plain Victor with a 3.3 engine and either four spped or powerglide only available in sedan and only assembled in New Zealand they were quite the rocketship winning the standard production Benson and Hedges 500 mile race, many FDs gained V8 engines here it was a popular swap GM UK built a prototype with a 327 Chevy engine that still actually exists after the FD big Vauxhalls disappeared replaced by Australian Holdens and their Torana model was basically a FE Victor using the same Opel centre section with Aussie designed end stampings and Holden running gear
The last Victors wore Hindustan Contessa badges and were produced in India where the tooling ended up and were powered by Isuzu diesel engines, the same engine used in their Ambassador model which began life as a Morris Oxford.
My early driving as a teenager was in my parents 1959 Series 2 Victor. It seemed a very reliable and modern car at a time when many families were trading up to new from black pre-war cars. The fact that the car was later resprayed (not uncommon and also quite cheap to do in those days) around 1965 might indicate some premature corrosion. What surprises today is the relatively short life span of new body shapes. Style and taste changed very rapidly. First new car I bought in 1964 was a Viva SL so must have felt pretty confident about Vauxhall as a brand.