The Vauxhall Victor is a large family car produced by Vauxhall from 1957 until 1976. The Victor was introduced to replace the outgoing Wyvern model. It was renamed Vauxhall VX Series in 1976 and continued in production until 1978, by which time it had grown significantly and was viewed, at least in its home market, as a larger-than-average family car.
The last Victor, the Victor FE, was also manufactured under licence by Hindustan Motors in India as the Hindustan Contessa, during the 1980s and early 2000s, with an Isuzu engine.
The Victor was replaced in 1978 by the Vauxhall Carlton - essentially a badge engineered version of the Opel Rekord E.
The Victor briefly became Britain's most exported car, with sales in markets as far flung as the United States (sold by Pontiac dealers, since Vauxhall had been part of GM from 1925), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Asian right-hand drive markets, such as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.
In Canada, it was marketed as both the Vauxhall Victor (sold through Pontiac/Buick dealerships) and the Envoy (through Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealers). The Victor was also instrumental in giving Vauxhall its first in-house-designed estate, which complemented the four-door saloon.
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F Series Victor
The original Victor, launched on 28 February 1957, was coded the F series and saw a production run of more than 390,000 units. The car was of unitary construction and featured a large glass area with heavily curved windscreen and rear window. Following American styling trends then current, the windscreen pillars (A-pillars) sloped forwards. In fact, the body style was derived directly from the classic ′55 Chevrolet Bel Air. Bench seats were fitted front and rear trimmed in Rayon and "Elastofab", and two-colour interior trim was standard. The Super model had extra chrome trim, notably around the windows; remnants of the signature Vauxhall bonnet flutes ran along the front flanks and the exhaust pipe exited through the rear bumper. The car was equipped with arm rests on the doors, door-operated courtesy lights, a two-spoke steering wheel, and twin sun visors. It was designed to compete with the Ford Consul Mk2, Austin A55 Cambridge, and the Morris Oxford Series III.
An estate variant was launched in 1958. When restyled, as the Series 2, the car lost all its '57 Buick styled bumper pods and the teardrop shaped Vauxhall flutes were replaced by a single chrome side-stripe running nose to tail. The sculpted "porthole" rear bumper tips, which rusted badly due to exhaust residue, were replaced by plain, straight ones. The old bumper ends continued to be used for many years on a variety of motor coaches and ice-cream vans.
Although the engine was of similar size to that of the outgoing Wyvern it was in critical respects new. Fitted with a single Zenith carburettor it had an output of at 4200 rpm and gained a reputation of giving a long trouble free life. This was also the year when Vauxhall standardized on "premium" grade petrol/gasoline, permitting an increase in the compression ratio from the Wyvern's 6.8:1 to 7.8:1. Premium grade petrol had become available in the UK at the end of 1953, following an end to post-war fuel rationing, and at that time offered average octane level of 93, but in the ensuing four years this had crept up to 95 (RON).
The Victor's three-speed gearbox had synchromesh on all forward ratios and was operated by a column-mounted lever. In early 1958 Newtondrive two-pedal control was available as an option.
Suspension was independent at the front by coil springs and an anti-roll bar was fitted on a rubber-mounted cross member. The rear suspension used a live axle and semi elliptic leaf springs. Steering was of the recirculating ball type. Lockheed hydraulic drum brakes were used.
A "Super" version tested by The Motor magazine in 1957 had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 28.1 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £758 including taxes. The estate costs £931.
A Series II model was announced in 1959 with simplified styling. The new car was available in three versions with a Deluxe as the top model featuring leather trim and separate front seats.
F Series Victor sedans were assembled at General Motors New Zealand plant in Petone. Most were Supers with column shift and three-speed manual transmission, though some base models were made for government fleet contracts. Wagons were imported.
F type Victors were available in the United States and Canada through the Pontiac dealer network. They are the only Vauxhall-brand car ever offered in the US, however Vauxhalls continued to be available from Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealers in Canada (along with their unique Envoy-branded variants sold at Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealers) until 1971.
FB Series Victor and VX4/90
The more cleanly styled FB announced 14 September 1960New Vauxhall Victor. The Times, Thursday, 14 September 1960; pg. 8; Issue 55186 ran until 1964 with a substantial improvement regarding rust protection. It was widely exported, although sales in the US ended after 1961 when Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick came up with home-grown compact models of their own, with the all-new GM "Y" platform (North America). Consequently, the FB only achieved sales of 328,000 vehicles by the time it was replaced in 1964. The body styling owed nothing to any US GM influence, the flat front and turtle-deck rear resembling some older US Fords. Mechanically, the main change was the option of a 4-speed all-synchromesh transmission with floor change but the previously used 3-speed all-synchro column change unit was still fitted as standard. The base (FBY) engine was also revised with higher compression ratio and revised manifolding increasing the power output to . In September 1963 the engine was enlarged from 1508 to 1594 cc, identified as the FB30. The increased capacity coincided with a further increase in the compression ratio of the standard engine from 8.1:1 to 8.5:1, reflecting the continuing increase of the average octane level of "premium grade" fuel (on which the Victor unit had by now standardised) offered in the UK, now to 97 (RON). 1963 was also the year when front disc brakes with larger wheels became an option. Models with the larger engine had a revised frontal treatment with a block style grille element and revised parking lights at either lower extreme of the grille.
A Vynide-covered bench front seat was standard on the base model and Super Victor but individual seats were standard on the De Luxe and optional on the lower-priced cars. Other options included a heater, fog lamps, radio, screen washers, reversing light and seat belts.
A 1508 cc "Super" version was tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1961 and was found to have a top speed of and could accelerate from in 22.6 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £798 including taxes of £251.
A sporty derivative, the VX4/90, announced separately in mid-October 1961Research Brings New Era In Car Design. The Times, Tuesday, 17 October 1961; pg. 18; Issue 55214 was also available. It was fitted with a twin-carburettor, a taller alloy head, high-compression expansion controlled pistons, and a nitrided EN19B steel crankshaft engine giving and servo-assisted disc brakes (same as Cresta brakes) on the front wheels. Externally the car was distinguished from the standard car by a coloured stripe down the side, revised grille and larger tail-light clusters. These cosmetic features were essentially similar to the Canadian-market-only Envoy models.
The VX4/90 was available only in saloon form with 4-speed (GM Opel) all-synchro gearbox, Lockheed front disc brakes, 14 inch wheels, front individual / bucket seats, full instrumentation including mechanically driven (from the distributor) tachometer and heater. The VX4/90 FBX engine also was upgraded to the 31FB, the larger bore size giving 1595 cc (97 cubic inches). With a change in rear axle ratio from 4.125 to 3.9, the VX 4/90 could now easily exceed 90 mph.
General Motors New Zealand assembled the Victor FB sedan line in New Zealand, in Standard and Super form with three speed, column shift manual and bench front seat. Four speed floor shift, a factory option in England, was not available nor were disc brakes. Wagons, Deluxe sedans and the VX4/90 were rare imports, many under the no-remittance, no overseas exchange, deposit scheme available to consumers at the time. The Kiwi models were facelifted for 1964 but did not get the revised rear licence plate surround introduced in the UK market.
FC Series Victor and VX4/90
The FC was the first Vauxhall to use curved side-window glass, allowing greater internal width: the Estate derivative was noted as being especially capacious for its class. Nevertheless, the public at the time regarded it as a qualitative downgrade after the pleasantly styled, conservative FB. As a countermeasure the FC Victor was marketed as the Victor 101, the name arising from the claim that there were '101 improvements' over the FB. Bench or separate front seating was offered, with three-speed column-change gearbox or the optional four-speed floor change. A 'Powerglide' two-speed automatic transmission was also available. Another US feature was that the optional radio was incorporated into the bright-metal dashboard trim. An innovative styling cue, which was adopted four years later by the Audi 100, was the incorporation of the side and indicator lamps in the front bumper, as had been common practice in the US for many years. The sculpted bumpers were, for the first time in the UK, contiguous with the body styling. The overall look of the car was unique in GM, with its slab sides outlined with brightwork seam covers incorporating the door handles. This, with the full width grille incorporating the headlights, was more reminiscent of the Lincoln Continental.
The FC (101) was the last Victor to have an engine with push rods and rockers operating the overhead valves. Victor FC models had racked up 238,000 sales by late 1967 when the 'Coke bottle styling' FD replaced it.
As with the rest of the running gear, the sporting VX 4/90 was developed from the FB series and offered an alloy head, higher compression ratio, twin-Zenith 34IV carburettors, stiffer suspension and additional instruments. Vauxhall took the VX4/90 seriously enough to offer an optional limited-slip differential, but few cars were ordered with it: the VX4/90 was, by this time, largely overshadowed by the less expensive Ford Cortina GT, which also had a higher profile in race and rally competitions.
Overall, FC survival numbers appear to be less than the F, FB and even FD series, due to bad rust problems, so examples are rare, unfairly forgotten, and undervalued.