The mystery of the 100 mile FE Victor

[RichardK]

Ah, lovely FE's.

House I'm moving to has Milner in the history. Wonder if there's a connection. I have FE envy regardless!

[Datsuncog]

I reckon the later FE models - with bigger lamps, smaller indicators and without the headlamp surround trim - look a bit less visually unbalanced at the front:

Still would, though. I do love FE (and FD) Victors/ VXs/ Ventoras.

[quicksilver]

A curious story but not unique - sometimes people just do bizarre illogical things with their cars. Reminds me of that unregistered Horizon that was at FOTU a few years ago, and the Bicester Heritage Peugeot 505 that was put away at two years old.

[Volksy]

16 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

I'll have mentioned this before no doubt but these always look crossed eyed to me. I find the styling at the front a bit unsettling for some reason. 

I'm not sure why? Is it the light and indicator being in a surround together or the size of the indicator? 

Yup. They look like they have been kicked in the plumbs. 

[warren t claim]

It reminds me of this thread.

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

My fathers first company car was a VX1800 with slush box. I remeber it being a vast improvement on the Avenger that he got in 1972.

Checked the history and it's still on the DVLA, but not tax since 1990. Is it waiting in a lock up waiting to be discovered, more likely scrapped but not declared.

The VX1800 had the simplest styling that looked more modern than the FE Victors, but when the Carlton came out it looked 10 years old.

 

By the way, the scallops on the bonnet hark back to pre-war Vauxhalls that had scallops in their bonnets.

[Bren]

My dad really rated his. It had a few foibles - like a lot of vauxhalls of the time it really liked a " hot" spark plug otherwise it would not run as well as you would expect. On a hot engine at tickover the oil light would flicker - back then it was not unknown - no doubt modern oils and filters would cure this.

It only had 67k on the clock when it was smacked up the arse and written off. Replaced with an SD1 with same sized engine. The SD1 used less fuel but the engine shat itself around 70k - the 2279 in the victor was more reliable.

[Datsuncog]

I saw this one advertised in the local rag for £100 back in 1995, GOI 5015, and went along to view it:

It was not worth the asking price.

The pics rather flatter it; a car so rotten the bodywork had actually gone soft in places. It seemed like only the paint was holding it all together.

I can't imagine it could possibly have been returned to the road - which was a pity as it came with a huge stack of paperwork indicating that its first owner had been the Guinness brewing family, something the seller made much of.

Seems that Mr. Milner had the right idea with his green example...

[Split_Pin]

My late Uncle had a Victor Estate GES772N until 1987. It seemed ancient to me even then, with its rusty white paintwork and blue vinyl seats. I recall the cross eyed look it had too. I presume this was so that cheaper off-the-shelf sealed beam lamps could be used. Indeed they look like they are one size up from Allegro and MK1 Capri items. 

[Lankytim]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:09 PM, HillmanImp said:

I'll have mentioned this before no doubt but these always look crossed eyed to me. I find the styling at the front a bit unsettling for some reason. 

I'm not sure why? Is it the light and indicator being in a surround together or the size of the indicator? 

I’ve always thought that too! When I was 5-10 years old and noticed the last on these on the road in every day use I thought from the front they had a bit of a “parrots face” with the large grille as a beak and the eyes looking inwards like it was about to bite into a nut or something. 
 

Probably just me tbh. 

[quicksilver]

It's made it onto the Top Gear website now, complete with tall tales about the owner possibly being a spy. Cold War espionage in an FE Victor? It's not exactly James Bond is it?

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/mystery-1974-Vauxhall-Victor-car-museum-search

[Dobloseven]

All this reminds me of a gentleman farmer in the village I grew up in. He'd always have an example of Vauxhalls biggest, bought new and changed regularly. After the demise of the PC models, he bought a FE Ventora. Back in the seventies, 4x4s and posh pickups weren't a thing and farmers would cheerfully cross fields in whatever they'd got. He spotted a pheasant on his land and set off in pursuit of it, shotgun loaded at the ready,on the back seat. WCPGW?Hole blown in roof, just above rear window. Local garage did a splendid repair, and car went through it's life with a patch on the factory black vinyl roof. 

[Popsicle]

I picked up a very early 1972 one cheaply about 10 years ago, one owner from new, non runner and a bit crispy around the edges at first glance, but on closer inspection needed a lot of welding action underneath. Tank and fuel lines were rotten, but got it running with a fuel supply into the carb, was always on the back burner to bring back to former glories, but it never happened, have some shit old camera phone pics to revel in the misery.

[Eyersey1234]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:36 AM, Pieman said:

I will now never un-see that.

Nor will I

[Three Speed]

I had a 1/3rd share of a bright yellow FE for about 2 hours in around 1981 when the car would have been less than 10 years old. Nevertheless it was acquired for nothing and sold for a fiver which was then converted into 3 pints and 20 B+H. 

It was owned by a labourer at the place i worked. I'll call him Stuart. He need to get rid of the car - lost his licence or some story like that. Another colleague (let's call him Gary) needed a place to see his girlfriend about whom his wife was unaware. The plan was to relocate the FE from Stuart's place to somewhere near - but not too close to Gary's. Gary could not drive - and nor could Stuart. So another workmate - let's call him Phil was called on to drive this thing, and it fell to me to drive Gary and Phil there to pick up said FE.  Stuart was unavailable. 

All started well, the car car was located and it started. Actually it was very smart but one wheel was a bit bent. The car needed to be driven down a hill through a housing estate and up the other side. Well it didn't get up the other side. The clutch was fubar. No matter how fast we went don onside of the hill, in whichever direction, we could not get the thing to get to the top of the other side. As it happened, at the bottom of the hill, watching us go past again and again, was someone proudly polishing his own FE. So we sold the car to him for a fiver and went to the pub in my Herald. That FE was a very nice car and the only one that has ever made me a profit.