Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 08:10
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Falkirk Bairn

Found after the owner died

metro.co.uk/2023/02/07/vauxhall-victor-from-1974-f.../

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 09:21
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - badbusdriver

Wow!.

I like the shape of these, handsome cars. It has obviously worked here, but I would normally think putting polythene over the seats (or anywhere else) a good idea due to the likelihood of condensation!.

Trouble with this is that you couldn't, in good conscience, use a car with so few miles. It can only really be put in a museum. But I'd have thought Vauxhall might have been interested in it for their own museum.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 09:47
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - badbusdriver

It has obviously worked here, but I would normally think putting polythene over the seats (or anywhere else) a good idea due to the likelihood of condensation!.

Should say, wouldn't

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 09:29
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - craig-pd130

Nice. The article mentioned the car had been Ziebarted, which must have helped to stop it rotting from the inside.

As I recall, the Ziebart treatment was quite effective. Back in the early 2000s I saw a very nice Alfasud Cloverleaf which was obviously unrestored but still in good condition. It had a faded Ziebart sticker in the rear window, which explained why it hadn't dissolved into a pile of orange flakes.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 09:59
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - badbusdriver

Whoever wrote the article has clearly decided that the top speed of the car is what the speedometer reads to, 110mph in this case.

With 77bhp?(!)

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 10:13
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - skidpan

Whoever wrote the article has clearly decided that the top speed of the car is what the speedometer reads to, 110mph in this case.

With 77bhp?(!)

I had a 1973 Viva with the same 1800cc engine. In the 3 years I owned the car I saw 100mph on the speedo once, on a long down hill on the A1 on a deserted Sunday afternoon. Took ages to get there, would never have done it on a level road.

The car was replaced by an Avenger with the single carb 1600 engine and (from memory) under 70 bhp. That car got up to its terminal velocity much quicker (and on a level road) but with gearing of 16 mph/1000rpm in top @ the 6000 red line it was still indicating less than 100 mph.

Those were the days.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 10:28
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - RT

Whoever wrote the article has clearly decided that the top speed of the car is what the speedometer reads to, 110mph in this case.

With 77bhp?(!)

Wikipedia gives the top speed as 89 mph - it was the later model which had 88 bhp which would do 100 mph.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 11:17
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Rerepo

I'm old enough to remember when these were introduced. This range known as 'Transcontinental'.

My grandfather was a Vauxhall fan and owned several Crestas, a VX 4/90 and Ventora (with the 3.3L engine). I was a boarder at Uppingham and I remember him once coming to collect me at the end of term in a brand new bronze-coloured Ventora. Lovely car for the time.

Vauxhalls of that era were designed and built in Britain. Of course the UK got hoodwinked into joining the EEC (EU) at this time. Brussels summoned the bosses of GM and told them that Germany (Russelsheim) should be the centre from GM in Europe. This lead to Vauxhalls becoming re-badged Opels - and of course the rest we know. Just one example of how the EU robbed us of our industries.

Edited by Rerepo on 08/02/2023 at 11:18

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 11:50
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - RT

I'm old enough to remember when these were introduced. This range known as 'Transcontinental'.

My grandfather was a Vauxhall fan and owned several Crestas, a VX 4/90 and Ventora (with the 3.3L engine). I was a boarder at Uppingham and I remember him once coming to collect me at the end of term in a brand new bronze-coloured Ventora. Lovely car for the time.

Vauxhalls of that era were designed and built in Britain. Of course the UK got hoodwinked into joining the EEC (EU) at this time. Brussels summoned the bosses of GM and told them that Germany (Russelsheim) should be the centre from GM in Europe. This lead to Vauxhalls becoming re-badged Opels - and of course the rest we know. Just one example of how the EU robbed us of our industries.

Most of that is urban myth - it was GM managers in Detroit who decided in the early '60s that GM Europe would centre on Germany - the '72 Victor FE shared it's platform with the Opel Rekord, before we joined the EEC. The '63 Viva HA shared it's platform with the Opel Kadett so the process had been going on for many years.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 12:00
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Crickleymal

Vauxhalls of that era were designed and built in Britain. Of course the UK got hoodwinked into joining the EEC (EU) at this time. Brussels summoned the bosses of GM and told them that Germany (Russelsheim) should be the centre from GM in Europe. This lead to Vauxhalls becoming re-badged Opels - and of course the rest we know. Just one example of how the EU robbed us of our industries.

Oh for god's sake.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 13:32
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bromptonaut

Vauxhalls of that era were designed and built in Britain. Of course the UK got hoodwinked into joining the EEC (EU) at this time. Brussels summoned the bosses of GM and told them that Germany (Russelsheim) should be the centre from GM in Europe. This lead to Vauxhalls becoming re-badged Opels - and of course the rest we know. Just one example of how the EU robbed us of our industries.

There's a technical term for that but I cannot type it without triggering a swear filter.

However, it rhymes with rollocks...

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Thu 9 Feb 2023 08:11
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Falkirk Bairn

Another example of how the EU robbed us of our industries.

Brussels gave £400m to Ford Europe to construct a Transit Factory in Turkey despite Turkey not being an EU country!!

The home of the Transit was Southampton which then closed.

France/Germany & the EU in general - any policy which they push through is deemed better if it is +ve for the EU and a -ve for the UK!

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Fri 10 Feb 2023 14:01
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bromptonaut

Another example of how the EU robbed us of our industries.

Brussels gave £400m to Ford Europe to construct a Transit Factory in Turkey despite Turkey not being an EU country!!

Turkey had an association and customs agreement while De Gaulle was still saying Non to the UK.

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Thu 9 Feb 2023 08:00
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Metropolis.
Absolutely right Rerepo.
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Thu 9 Feb 2023 09:28
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Andrew-T
Absolutely right Rerepo.

This - and the exchanges leading up to it - is a microcosm of how entire nations take violent sides about essentially simple historical facts, fairly easily verified one way or another (I am not going to join in).

So it follows that some of you are talking B0L0X, as suggested.

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Thu 9 Feb 2023 13:10
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Metropolis.
Our simultaneous joining the EEC and cutting off our kith and kin in the commonwealth (effective termination of existing trade agreements) was devastating for our car industry. New Zealand as one example suffered terribly until they re-geared their economy, and many there were shocked that we would effect such a betrayal. Perfidious Albion..
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Wed 8 Feb 2023 12:05
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - craig-pd130

Full Autocar road test of a '76 Victor 1800 is here: www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/4951058823/.../

A top speed of 101mph, and 0 to 60 in a tyre-shredding 13.7 seconds!

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 12:55
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bromptonaut

My Dad had various Victor Estate cars from 1960 onwards, so from the original FA series via FB, FC(101) and FD series. The last of them, AUG 504G if I remember correctly, was a 2 litre. Not that rapid but OK.

Father of a friend from primary school with whom I kept in touch until we were young adults had the previous type (FD series) in estate form with the 6 cylinder engine from the Ventora. It was, I think, the first time I'd been at 100mph in a car.

Edited by Bromptonaut on 08/02/2023 at 12:55

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 13:12
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - badbusdriver

Possibly the most impressive FE bodied car was Gerry Marshall's (Holden V8 engined) "Big Bertha". Here is a YT video of a testing session and first race highlights,

watch

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 15:50
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - skidpan

This lead to Vauxhalls becoming re-badged Opels - and of course the rest we know.

Yup, for a time it was all good.

We got the Chevette which was a rebadged RWD Kadett and was every bit as good as the Escort.

Then along came the Cavalier (a rebadged Ascona and Manta) replaced the pretty rubbish Victor.

After that the Astra (a rebadged FWD Kadett) replaced the pretty rubbish Viva).

Then the FWD Cavalier which was also a rebadged Ascona.

The FWD Nova was next, a rebadged Opel yet again.

Vauxhall had some pretty good large cars as well such as the Carlton, Senator, etc plus the Monza Coupe, all rebadged Opels.

That little lot kept Vauxhall going for years. Some may have been manufactured in Germany but without them I suspect all the GM plants in the UK would have closed in the 80's.

Shame that Detroit did not have a clue what to do with Europe from the mid 90's but one thing is for certain, we cannot blame the EU for Vauxhalls tat.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 21:51
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bromptonaut

Shame that Detroit did not have a clue what to do with Europe from the mid 90's but one thing is for certain, we cannot blame the EU for Vauxhalls tat.

That. Exactly.

The move to cross Europe, and later worldwide, models or floorpans and engines was the way of the world.

The idea that, in western Europe, it was directed by the EU so as to favour Germany or France over the UK, Spain and Italy is, to pinch Bojo's words, nonsense on stilts.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 21:18
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bilboman

I'll see your Big Bertha and I'll raise you a Red Victor One!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CtHpt05gLc

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 16:32
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Big John

My dad had a later model VX 4/90 2300cc with twin Stromberg carbs and that was rather lively for its day - I'm sure that had an official top speed of around 110mph.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 16:35
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Crickleymal

The first company I worked for had one as a pool vehicle. Quite good to drive bearing in mind I was only 18.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 18:35
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bolt

My dad had a later model VX 4/90 2300cc with twin Stromberg carbs and that was rather lively for its day - I'm sure that had an official top speed of around 110mph.

Not sure about 110mph, but the 1.8 could do 95 according to speedo, but both engines were better in the Viva though they knocked out gearboxes a lot, and the odd diff

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 19:46
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Xileno

Here's one for sale, not immaculate but looks decent enough. Lots of space under the bonnet - a mechanic's dream.

www.carandclassic.com/car/C1516163

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 22:14
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Crickleymal

Here's one for sale, not immaculate but looks decent enough. Lots of space under the bonnet - a mechanic's dream.

www.carandclassic.com/car/C1516163

That is a spacious engine compartment. That's one thing I hate about modern vehicles (and the original Mini), the lack of space to do anything.

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Thu 9 Feb 2023 09:34
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Andrew-T

<< That's one thing I hate about modern vehicles (and the original Mini), the lack of space to do anything. >>

That space might have been still there, except it has been gradually taken up by ABS, air-con, and all the other necessities most of today's owners expect.

Mind you, there wasn't much room to work on the engine in a 1992 Pug 205 diesel turbo ....

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Thu 9 Feb 2023 11:47
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Crickleymal

<< That's one thing I hate about modern vehicles (and the original Mini), the lack of space to do anything. >>

That space might have been still there, except it has been gradually taken up by ABS, air-con, and all the other necessities most of today's owners expect.

Mind you, there wasn't much room to work on the engine in a 1992 Pug 205 diesel turbo ....

A1992 Peugeot 205 counts as a relatively modern vehicle to me :-)

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 22:36
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Metropolis.
Come on BBD we all know the speedo sets the maximum :-)
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Wed 8 Feb 2023 20:08
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - John F

Nice. The article mentioned the car had been Ziebarted, which must have helped to stop it rotting from the inside.

As I recall, the Ziebart treatment was quite effective.

For 'quite' read 'very' ! My 43yr old TR7 must be one of the few 'unrestored' TR7s on the road thanks to its Ziebart goo. I'm surprised more people didn't have their cars Ziebarted.

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Wed 8 Feb 2023 20:47
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Will deBeast

I had three of these in the late 80s. They were very cheap then, and as I lived in Bedford there were plenty around (ex Vauxhall workers from Luton).

I preferred the Granda 2.8 Ghia estate I bought afterwards.

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Thu 9 Feb 2023 07:13
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Will deBeast

The police came looking for me after my last victor 2300cc was sold at auction. Apparently the buyers had used it in a bank raid - I guess the very wide opening doors appealed?

Fortunately I was house sharing with a solicitor. I was out, but they believed him implicitly when he said I'd sold the car on.

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Fri 10 Feb 2023 11:42
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - 72 dudes

Cream leather seats?? My *rse

That looks like Luton's finest beige vinyl to me. I don't think leather was an option on Victor's.

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Fri 10 Feb 2023 13:29
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bolt

Cream leather seats?? My *rse

That looks like Luton's finest beige vinyl to me. I don't think leather was an option on Victor's.

Vx490 may have had leather seats, but dont remember the Victor having them and they split easily as i remember like the door covering used to.

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Fri 10 Feb 2023 14:05
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Bromptonaut

Vx490 may have had leather seats, but dont remember the Victor having them and they split easily as i remember like the door covering used to.

The various Victors my father had when I was a child came with plastic seats.

I think though the Simca 1500 GLS estate he had from 66 to 69 had leather.

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Fri 10 Feb 2023 19:19
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Big John

Vx490 may have had leather seats, but dont remember the Victor having them and they split easily as i remember like the door covering used to.

My Dad;s late model vx490 had vinyl seats - Ouch on a sunny day!

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Sun 12 Feb 2023 19:02
Vauxhall Victor - Pristine 1974 Vx Victor with 86 miles on the clock - Will deBeast

Three of my victors had vinyl seats (1xFD, 2xFE)

The fourth one (my final FE) had been re-upholstered - the chap I bought it from worked in the trim shop at Vauxhall in Luton. Unfortunately, he managed to hide the fact that the engine was overheating, and the car popped a crank rod through the side of the engine on my first long journey.

I bought an FE from a university chum which had a decent engine but riddled with rust, and swapped the engine into mine.

Edited by Will deBeast on 12/02/2023 at 19:03

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