Craving a Captive Import? Try a 1958 Vauxhall Victor Estate

victor 1
God Save the (Wagon) Queen.

If you stop and think about it, GM has never really been able to hit all the right buttons with regard to selling cars from its foreign subsidiaries over here. Many, like the Cadillac Catera and the Daewoo-built Pontiac Le Mans, sold okay but didn’t have much PAH! coursing through their veins, to put it diplomatically. Conversely, a few, like the Holden-based Pontiacs of this century – the Monaro-cum-GTO and Commodore-cum-G8 – were brilliant cars that sold like Hamthrax-coated baby bottles. Which brings us to the little longroof seen here…
In the late 1950s, GM wanted to get in on the compact car scene, but the radical Corvair and its front-engine cousins wouldn’t be ready for another couple of years. Solution? The General would bring some products from its European brands over, with Buick getting partnered with Opel and Pontiac paired with Vauxhall. (It should be noted that it wasn’t until the 1970s that Vauxhalls started becoming rebadged, right-hand-drive Opel clones. In fact, Opel sold cars in the U.K. alongside Vauxhall through 1988.) Both brands would be sending over their smallest car lines; in Opel’s case, it was the Rekord, and for Vauxhall, it was the Victor.
The Victor F Series I, as the first generation model was known, was available as a 4-door sedan or a five-door wagon, with a 1500cc pushrod four driving the rear wheels. For 1959, the Series I became the Series II, with styling that was less reminiscent of a peewee ’57 Chevy. Two years later, Series II production ended, and Vauxhall exports to this former colony ceased. All that makes the Colorado Springs-based Series I ’58 wagon offered here for $1,295 or best offer quite rare. In fact, the seller claims that in the year 2000, there was but one Series I wagon still on the road in Ol’ Blighty. This one has some tinworm infestation, but to hear the seller tell it, this puppy is by no means a parts car. He also has a much cleaner Series II sedan available for just a shade under three grand, should you not be into running your long distance bill into the four-figure range chasing down parts and cursing Rosetta Stone for not offering a CD-ROM that teaches Cockney getting your hands dirty.
Okay, so you know you want to be the one to give this little marriage-ender project a new home (I mean, why else would you have read this far?), but what do you do with it? Restore it to stock? Drop in a blown 421 and a straight axle and get your gasser on? Cut out what’s left of the floor and slide a complete Solstice GXP skeleton underneath? Decisions, decisions…
Tally ho to eBay Motors!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

  1. LTDScott Avatar

    Neat, my dad said a late 50s Victor was his first car in Australia. The styling looks to be more like a '56 Chevy than '57 to me.

  2. […] more here:  Craving a Captive Import? Try a 1958 Vauxhall Victor Estate Filed under long-distance Tags: distance-yet, individual, marlborough, put-one, series, […]

  3. Tanshanomi Avatar

    I need to go look at some flooring web sites. You guys are very bad for my priorities.

  4. engineerd Avatar

    Buick had the fender ports, it appears Vauxhall had the hood port.
    This would be a pretty cool project vehicle. Unique, to be sure, but also not necessarily gaudy. I would probably restore it back to stock, but the gasser angle does have some appeal. Maybe get crazy and throw a 289 into it and run side-dump exhausts.

    1. CptSevere Avatar

      Yeah, I like the gasser idea, too. You'd have to take a section out of an Econoline straight front axle and weld it back together, unless you could find one from like a '40 Ford that was the right width to start with. You're a Ford guy and like the 289, I'd go with a high-revving 283 SBC. Yeah, fenderwell headers. Steelies in the rear, Cragars up front. And the like. This would make a mean little gasser.

      1. discontinuuity Avatar
        discontinuuity

        I'd use a repro Model A axle before trusting in a weld like that.

        1. CptSevere Avatar

          Apparently there are ways to make that a good weld, but your idea is better. Or, just fabricate a gnarly tube axle.

      2. engineerd Avatar

        I'm a Ford guy, which is why I picked the 289. A 283 would work, too, as would any variety of small V8. I just like the idea of putting a Ford engine in a GM since so many Ford-based hot rods wind up with a Chevy 350. I need to balance out this injustice.

        1. CptSevere Avatar

          Sometimes the front mounted distributor gets in the way, but since we're gonna get rid of the hood for the tunnel ram anyhow, in this case it wouldn't matter.
          Or, we could just compromise and put an early Hemi in it.

        2. Tomsk Avatar

          If it was mine, and I had settled on the gasser theme, I'd drop in an injected Pontiac 389 or 421 with a set of M/T hemi heads and eight velocity stacks that just barely reach the same height as the roof, and back it up with a four-cog Lenco.

    2. Novaload Avatar

      That was so the possum can breathe.

  5. Christal Essinger Avatar

    Hi. I actually liked reading your current post!. Good quality material. I would undoubtedly recommend you to submit articles a bit more frequently. By doing this, having such type of a useful site I think that you will rank higher in the search engines 🙂 . I also subscribed for your RSS feed. Continue this great work!

  6. Etelvina Avatar

    was sailing by net and found your blog. Reciprocate the visit http://sensuaisegatas.blogspot.com

  7. kikus Avatar

    Excellent post
    http://putana.auto-mirs.ru/staraya-shlyha-porno.html – индивидуалки новосибирска
    http://perametey.t35.com/new-301316.html – салоны путаны
    http://shluhi.auto-mirs.ru/new-925368.html – проститутки геленджика