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    Vauxhall Cars
    Vauxhall Cars
    Vauxhall Cars
    Ebook84 pages32 minutesShire Library

    Vauxhall Cars

    By James Taylor

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    About this ebook

    Vauxhall cars have been central to motoring in Britain for over a century. The company built a formidable reputation in its early years with notable machines like the Prince Henry, the 30/98 and the 1914 Grand Prix cars, and then moved into a more mainstream area of the market, remaining in the forefront of innovation during the 1930s.

    The post-1945 years saw the company as one of the foremost in Britain, catering for family needs with cars like the Velox, the Cresta, and the Victor, and then building the highly successful Viva range of smaller models. Closely aligned with its German cousin, Opel, Vauxhall relied increasingly on Opel's designs after the mid-1970s. Astra, Cavalier, Nova and Carlton were among the best-loved cars of their era, and no-one can forget the giant-killing 176mph Lotus Carlton.

    This illustrated introduction explores the history of Vauxhall cars from its beginning in 1903 to the city cars and SUVs that have led the Vauxhall product lines, as the company continues to excel in the twenty-first century.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMay 27, 2021
    ISBN9781784424527
    Vauxhall Cars
    Author

    James Taylor

    James Taylor has been writing about cars since the 1970s and has now had around 150 books published, a number of which have been for Shire. He lives in the UK.

    Read more from James Taylor

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      Book preview

      Vauxhall Cars - James Taylor

      cover.jpgTitle PageSLI884_033

      CONTENTS

      EARLY DAYS

      A CHANGE OF APPROACH

      BRAVE NEW WORLD

      TRANSATLANTIC DESIGNS

      GERMANY TRIUMPHANT

      GLOBALISATION

      WINDS OF CHANGE

      FURTHER READING

      PLACES TO VISIT

      EARLY DAYS

      V

      auxhall is Britain’s

      oldest car manufacturer. Although it did not produce its first car until 1903, the company had been founded in 1857 as a maker of pumps and marine engines in the London district of Vauxhall. Then known as Alexander Wilson & Co., it later changed ownership, and a new company name of Vauxhall Iron Works was adopted in 1897.

      SLI884_001

      The first production Vauxhall car was a 5hp type, with tiller steering. The company bought back this 1903 four-seater example many years ago and keeps it in working order in its museum.

      As manufacturers of engines, it was not surprising that senior Vauxhall people saw the possibility of developing products for the new interest in motor cars. Managing director Percy Kidner, works manager Alfred Ash and designer Frederick Hodges led the exploratory moves, dismantling a German-made Benz in 1901 to learn how it worked. Experiments with marine engines proved fruitless, as did other early designs, but by September 1902 a viable single-cylinder design had been built into a prototype runabout. This broke no new ground in visual design, but it was interesting in that it drew on boat practice with a hull-like construction instead of a separate chassis as used by most other car makers at the time.

      SLI884_002

      ‘Fast, reliable, simple, silent’ – all characteristics that potential customers sought in a motor car in 1903!

      By April 1903, Vauxhall had a production design ready, and announced it as the Vauxhall Light Car, well priced at 130 guineas (£136 10s). Its single-cylinder engine of 978cc was rated as a 5hp type under the then-current RAC taxation system, the valves were operated atmospherically, and the drive was taken by chain to the rear wheels. Steering was by a tiller, following boat practice. In 1903, 46 5hp cars were built, followed by 38 more in 1904 before an improved 6hp model took over. This was larger, with wooden wheels instead of wires and a long-stroke (1029cc) version of the engine, and in August 1904 changed to wheel steering.

      SLI884_003

      The Vauxhall company museum also owns a 1904 6hp model, pictured here on the annual London to Brighton run in 2018. The shape of the bonnet would later evolve into the trademark Vauxhall ‘flutes’.

      Vauxhall were encouraged enough by sales to develop more designs, but realised they needed a new engine to compete in the 10–15hp growth sector of the market. So Hodges developed a new design, now on a conventional separate chassis, with a three-cylinder engine featuring twin camshafts. Entering production as a four-seat tourer in October 1904, the Vauxhall 12–14hp was accompanied soon afterwards by a new, smaller 7–9hp model, drawn up when early soundings about the price of the new big car attracted a negative response from existing Vauxhall owners. This had a smaller 1293cc version of the three-cylinder engine and was a smaller car altogether, but it was built for only one year. This time, criticism was aimed at its lack of power, and so a revised 9hp model with 1669cc three-cylinder engine was ready by November 1905, and this one remained in production until 1907. All these models had a V-shaped radiator grille with fluting on the bonnet sides, and that latter feature would become a Vauxhall characteristic.

      SLI884_004
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