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IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 1960s Vauxhall Victor

Hard of hearing like me? This is the walk around chat... Ask somebody today what they think of when you say Vauxhall and no doubt it’ll be something like the Corsa, but this beautiful Victor represents not only a different era of motoring but in my opinion, an era when a Vauxhall had style The Victor name ran under Vauxhall from 1957 until 1976 and had been added to the range to fill the family sized car gap left by the Wyvern which was discontinued. Although it’s quite interesting that whilst still appealing to the family car market, the Victor was 4 inches shorter, which goes against everything we see nowadays with cars getting bigger and bigger. The designer of this car, David Jones, had been with Vauxhall for circa 20 years at the point of designing the Victor and was essentially given the brief to bring GM’s styling to the UK market - which is why this car looks like nothing else you’d see on the UK market at the time. With several cars sitting under the Victor name, each one is given a series naming, so this is an F Series Victor, the first of the Victors and was made from February 1957 until 1961 although the FB Series Victor was launched in September 1960, so there is a bit of a crossover on the models. The Victor was a massive success and sold an incredible 390,000 cars in less than four years and outsold the Wyvern it had replaced by more than 3 to 1 and was briefly Britain’s most popular export car - which may’ve been in part due to the fact it looks so deliciously American, taking styling cues from the 55 Chevvy Bel Air But more on that later Interestingly despite decent sales, it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea and many conservative Brits felt it was a bit too American looking and flashy and the American buyers felt it was a bit small compared to the massive cars being driven state side. Sadly despite selling a fair few units, there are very few left and this is actually the first early Victor I’ve ever seen in the flesh, although viewers at home have been requesting one of these since early IDRIVEACLASSIC days, so perhaps out of sight out of mind isn’t always true. Coming back to the car, the 4 door we see here is the only body style - Vauxhall felt a 2 door or convertible wasn’t necessary and when the estate Victor arrived in 1958, a year into production, it welcomed the first estate/station wagon to the Vauxhall line up. Coming back to that American styling cue again, the transmission unit on this is a 3 speed fully synchro on forward gear column change - although as you’ll see when we go for a drive it’s not the easiest I’ve navigated! This was a massive step up from previous Vauxhall gear boxes that hadn’t all come with synchro on first - making this a real step up from the Wyvern experience. Although this is badged Vauxhall England, the suspension is borrowed from American General Motors and sports coil springs and double wishbones to front and hypoid axle on semi-elliptic leaf springs on rear. Unsurprisingly it’s on drum brakes all round and the car we test today hasn’t been changed from this - so we get the true driving experience. For engine buffs out there, this is a 1.5 overhead valve and at the time of F series production, was the only engine on offer and gives us an impressive top speed of around 75mph and a somewhere in the region of 30-35 miles per gallon. Not bad for a car of this age and fuel consumption wise for the era, would probably be a little thirstier than something like a Morris Minor or Ford Anglia, but only by a touch. Now with this being a popular export car and a favourite in overseas markets, it makes sense they were made abroad too so as well as production in the UK, they were also made in Australia and Antwerp, Belgium and if you’re watching this from abroad you may know this an Envoy or Vauxhall Voyager. Now enough from me for now, I’ll hand over to owner Tom to tell us more about this incredible car. #vauxhallvictor #vauxhallenvoy #vauxhallvoyager #classiccarreview #1960s #60svauxhall #classicvauxhall