As a bit of a warm-up to tomorrow’s CC, here’s a quick look at the last of the Vauxhall Crestas, the model PC, built from 1965 to 1972. For reference here are our posts on its predecessors, the PA and the PB. The Cresta looks rather similar to the Holden HR, but looks can be deceiving. I’ll leave it to Bryce and the our other down-under commentators to elucidate us on the details of that. But the Cresta was built in New Zealand, which explains how Bryce came to shoot it there. And with a 3.3 L six that made 124 DIN (net) hp, the Cresta was ably-powered for the times; the UK version of a Pontiac with a mild 389.
Styling was not quite up to the strength of its motor, though, being a rather milquetoast melange of GM design cues of the times. Too bad they didn’t do an Opel Diplomat version, with the Chevy 327 under the hood. Now that would have been memorable.
I used to walk past one of these every day on the way to school, in the late 1990s.
Unlike this example, it was painted flat black, with flames on the bonnet and front wings.
This one’s on the rodsnsods website:
Vauxhall is a division of GM; so how is it that this car, at least from the front and side, looks like a Ford Falcon?
I see a 72 Chevy pickup. This car is a little like gazing at a cloud – you can see so many things in it if you look long enough.
Keep in mind that the Falcon didn’t get its hips until 1966, a year after this appeared. And that grille is very Chevy II-esque. I’d say that Ford did most of the cribbing with the ’66 Falcon.
Its interesting that in 3 models Vauxhall did 3 distinct styles with no follow thru
It may look a bit like a HR Holden being the same era but the big Vauxhall was UK designed and released in late 65 and the HR is a 66 facelift done in Australia of the US designed 64/65 HD which was awful and didnt sell.
The PC Cresta wasnt built in Aussie so the Holden had no competition from within GM but as usual New Zealand had both the Vauxhall being upscale from the agricultural Holden My dad bought a new HR Holden to replace a 2 year old Vauxhall Velox mainly because he wanted a wagon I well remember his complaints and comparisms of the 2 and since he worked at a GM dealership he had plenty of opportunity to drive the new Crestas he and my mother always preferred the Vauxhalls they were faster smother more comfortable the cresta had proper flow thru ventilation something Holden didnt get till the HQ in 71 The Vauxhall had syncro on first the Holden didnt till the HT of 69/70.But the Holdens were wagons which Vauxhall didnt build with a 6.
The Vauxhall Cresta was weapon of choice for Ministry of Transport for highway patrol cars during the late 60s Colin Giltrap drove a Cresta to victory in the Benson and Hedges series yes they wallow about and lean badly on corners but nothing else we could buy at the time could catch one EXCEPT the Vauxhall Victor 3.3.
Vauxhall England built 4 cylinder Victors and an upscale 6 cylinder Ventora in the smaller Victor body,
Vauxhall NZ installed the Cresta powertrain with 4speed into ordinary Victors, fast? damn straight they were Im hoping for some photos at the upcoming wheels on Windsor this weekend.
The contemporary Victor was far better looking than the Cresta. A guy I knew bought a brand new Ventora ( 6-cyl Victor) to replace a Lotus Cortina. He had a lot of reliability issues , and regretted the decision.
I don’t remember these PC Crestas being as popular as the preceding models, you were never going to sell a lot of cars in England with engines that big.
It looks like a mixture of 1962 Chevy II, ’66 Falcon, and a ’67 Valiant. As if the Big 3 decided to make a ‘Uni-compact’ back then…
Or perhaps the big 3 copied it as the Cresta beat them all to market.GM led styling back then everyone else followed or sank from sight
Haha, these Crestas gained some notoriety back in 2007 when then-Prime Minister Helen Clark’s father’s car was auctioned off. Despite being a non-runner it made $5100 first time but the bidder welched out, and around $2600 second time.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=109520714
Looks like a ’64-’65 Chevelle that shrunk in the wash.
One of my school teachers in the late 80s had the up-spec Viscount version. It was quite an imposing car, twin headlights, dark green, vinyl roof, loads of chrome. It had the optional electric windows, and I remember being amazed that such an old British car had this feature. One of the few Vauxhalls I actually quite like!
Not the crest of design? How ’bout that stylish ‘Coke-bottle’ beltline!
I saw this car again today at another show met the owner and told him where its now famous with a bit of luck he will visit I gave his wife the website adress and he can supply us details of his car.
How much hp does the 6 cylinder 3.3l engine has ???
When you look at the PC in the flesh, the wheelbase is too short compared to the overall body length. it would be better-looking with 6 inches chopped off the back end. Quite an imposing old tank, but a bit big and unsophisticated compared to the Rover and Triumph 2000s that were providing the upcoming competition at the time …
Love these cars,I had a 70 a basic vanilla car,the first time I had driven a column shift manual but I soon picked it up.The car was very reliable for a 16 year old car,the only reason I part exchanged it for a Mk 4 Cortina was the lack of parking space in my new flat.My cousin bought one as he couldn’t get on with LHD but liked the style of American cars.
Pete here, I am the owner, second owner in fact, not a lot wrong with this car when I got it, travelled only 64,000 miles since 1970, interior mint, back seats looked like they have never been sat in, car got a respray matched the original colour, motor came out, new rings and bearings, bore honed, still on standard pistons.
3 on the tree, goes sweet as a nut.
My parents had one when I was 17 in 1972, the only way I could get to drive it was to offer to wash it, when the old man was away at work, then I would tell my mother ‘just going down the road to blow the water off’ I’m probably exaggerating but I recon I had it up to 115mph in top, I know I had it up 80mph in second.
And no I don’t drive my one anything at all like that, funny that.
b.t.w a New Zealand assembled car.
I have just bought x2 101 Victor vx490 three weeks ago, along with a 101Victor DeLuxe Estate that I have owned for two years now.
Oddly, not the last. NZ Crestas were built until 1971 but they never got past the 1969 model year. For 1970 Vauxhall UK gave all versions the twin headlight nose, 4-spd manual gearbox with floor shift and optional GM 3-speed auto but the Kiwi ones stayed with the twin headlight nose, 3-speed column shift and two speed Powerglide option till the end. Cresta was way outsold by Holden by 1970 so GMNZ had lots of pre-1970 assembly kits to use up so just ran those out which took till ’71.