CC has looked at the Vauxhall Victor before, more than once as befits such a storied name and one with a key cameo role in the British motor industry’s history. CC follower L Seddon found this example, a 1967 FC series Super Estate, in on street in Scarborough, in Yorkshire, on the North Sea coast, and is apparently a daily driver. Who says Vauxhalls of that period rust away?
The FC was the third series of the Victor, and was marketed as the Victor 101 as it allegedly had 101 improvements over the preceding FB series. My Uncle, a Vauxhall-Bedford draughtsman/design engineer had a white one with red interior and a column shift. Not sure how easy it will be to get a new tailgate glass though.
Not so clear on the estate is the link of the styling to the GM Solaris concepts, but it most definitely was there.
But you don’t need me to brief you, when Vauxhall will do it for us.
Unqualified success did not follow – FC sales totalled 230,000 against 328,000 for the FC. But the FC was up against a wider and more capable range of Ford Cortinas and Corsairs, which carried a much wider range of options and engine choices, against the single engine option on the Victor, and the new Rootes Arrow range.
That’s quite the well taken care of “daily driver”, looks more like show condition. Decently attractive in white with the red roof (is that just paint or vinyl?, hard to see with the angles.)
I’m not sure if I’ve been to Scarborough, but Hornsea and Withernsea in the area for sure though with my mum hailing from the area, living seaside like that I don’t see how it survived without visible rust.
The registration is a London one and E dates it Jan. to July 1967. Not that cars in London didn’t rust…
The estate version of these worked well visually and the wide tailgate opening to the bumper was practical. The top of the tailgate glass actually slightly curves into the roof. The roof is painted red on two-tone examples, not vinyl. The colour extends down to just below the window – as visible through the plastic sheeting.
For size the Corsair was a closer match than the Cortina, but that too was just past the sweet spot in the market, but had cost Ford very little to develop.
The cars in the film were early pre-production and were fitted with the previous FB model’s tail lights with pointed ends. The production ones were rectangular like the photographed car so fully filled the rectangular recesses.
Poor Vauxhall. They probably thought they were ahead of the game, sizing the Victor slightly upmarket from the Cortina, so they’d be in the right place – only to have Ford come along and lob the Corsair directly at the Victor, meanwhile scoring all those slightly smaller and cheaper Cortina sales as well.
This ‘upsizing’ worked against them in Australia, where the Victor had to be priced dangerously close to the HD Holden range – and that killed Vauxhall’s sales hopes in Australia. Even road testers pointed out how close the price was. Might have been different in NZ.
Very nice condition and a wagon as a bonus. Hopefully that rear hatch glass is flat and can be cut easily as sourcing a replacement would be tough.
They did sell this generation in Canada both as a Vauxhall and Envoy but survivors are very rare.
Nice find! My Mum had this car in the guise of an 1965 Envoy Sherwood. Hers was baby blue or maybe cue-chalk blue. 101 cubes and three in the tree! We were living on BC’s wet coast at the time. First car I ever drove on the street (when my folks weren’t home!)
I still remember these being sold as Matchbox cars, and somehow thinking as a young kid that maybe I just wasn’t being observant enough in not noticing any in the US. Only later did I figure out that Matchbox cars were from England. So, yeah, of course they made these.
The Matchbox Victor estate (#38b) was actually the previous model FB, not this 101. Yeah, I had that one too, and loved being able to open the tailgate and load it up with gravel from the school playground. Being Aussie we were used to seeing British cars, though we never got the Victor as a wagon.
I still have the one I bought new years ago around 1965 or so. This replaced the 1959 Ford County Sedan Wagon in the number 38 slot in the Matchbox series of 60. I really wanted the Ford but by the time I had saved $.49 cents and got to the local toy store it was no longer available. I did manage to get the 1959 Thunderbird, the 1961 Lincoln and the 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix but missed out on the 1959 Chevrolet and the 1958 Cadillac. And so began my gradual disinterest in the Matchbox line of toy cars. Matchbox had always made odd choices of what to model from the point of view of an America kid. I saw they were turning away from American cars just as they were becoming more interesting than ever and retrenching with obscure and mundane English cars and trucks. The Ferrari 250 Berlinetta and the Dodge tow truck were exceptions. I began to look elsewhere. Fortunately Hot Wheels hit the market and the world in 1968. Mattel seemed to be reading my mind. Oh sure I gave Matchbox another look with the Models of Yesteryear when I was a little older but again it was the focus on weird British antiquities that turned me off. The 1932 Packard Victoria was a nice try but too little, too late.
I still have them, MIB, if anyone is interested.
Matchbox was British so the emphasis on British cars was hardly surprising. In the UK, trying to make die-cast as accurate as possible became an obcession. Mattel pulled rug out from this overnight and within a decade all these companies had gone. TBH I hated Mattel. Corgi had run pictures of their Lamborghini Muira which was a to be tasteful repro. By the the time it came out it was Kermit Green with speedwheels.
This was the closest that I could get to a Victor…I can’t recall seeing any on the road in Quebec in the 1960’s, but did get to see a few of the smaller Vauxhall’s still running.
We had FC Victor sedans over here locally assembled and they sold well but estates were rare as they were imported built up not many survive, death by speedway was common as the six cylinder engine will go in for extra power and they were solid old beasts.
a survivor sedan was recently put up for sale UK assembly as it had a 4 speed floor shift not available here.
What transmissions were available in the locally built Victors? Why no NZ 4 speed? I am continually perplexed and amused by the extent of the differences between locally built versions of foreign cars. Aus and NZ and South African versions of Brit cars as well as Canadian and Aus and NZ versions of American cars. I’m only beginning to learn about Brazilian versions of anything.
Gosh, this Vauxhall reminds me of this not-Vauxhall!