1950s Vauxhall elegance ~ so lacking in modern GM tinware

[MGJohn]

Killing time shopping in Bristol earlier this month I spotted this fine blast from the past in Sainsbury's car park :~





What a beauty !

These first appeared in the late 1950s when I was learning to drive. Always liked them. Few years later, a close friend had one in black and our group of twenty something friends, all six of us across the spacious front and rear bench seats, used to blat about London and the south east in it. It's straight six pulled well ...

[zooky]

Lovely ... but it's not parked very tidily.

[E31Shrew]

Dad had a Cresta many moons ago. He 'sold' it to a guy in the pub for a fiver. Reg was 536EKD

Always amazed how holes appeared in the middle of panels,but a lovely wafty barge,all the same

[Pothole]

nor is it in any way elegant:

1.tastefully fine or luxurious in dress, style, design, etc.
2.
gracefully refined and dignified, as in tastes, habits, or literary style:
3.
graceful in form or movement:
4.
appropriate to refined taste:
5.
excellent; fine; superior:
6.
(of scientific, technical, or mathematical theories, solutions, etc.) gracefully concise and simple.

[Wacky Racer]

My Dad had two of these, a two tone geen and black one, and a two tone sky/navy example, then went on to get a pale green later shape Cresta, fitted with a 3.3 litre Bedford straight six, reg EMD 888D.

Lovely cars in their day.

[LayZ]

I dunno, these just strike me as Americana-light. Like a 3/4 scale Cadillac for European roads.

[tossbag]

LayZ said:

I dunno, these just strike me as Americana-light. Like a 3/4 scale Cadillac for European roads.

That's what they were always intended to be to be fair.
Post war prosperity for all, nylons, bananas, Vauxhalls - You've never had it so good!

Edit: The Austin Metropolitan was always my favourite American 'style' Brit car from this period - They got Elvis, we got Cliff, they got Chevy Bel Airs, we got...

Edited by tossbag on Sunday 21st November 23:25

[blugnu]

tossbag said:

LayZ said:

I dunno, these just strike me as Americana-light. Like a 3/4 scale Cadillac for European roads.

That's what they were always intended to be to be fair.
Post war prosperity for all, nylons, bananas, Vauxhalls - You've never had it so good!

Edit: The Austin Metropolitan was always my favourite American 'style' Brit car from this period - They got Elvis, we got Cliff, they got Chevy Bel Airs, we got...

Edited by tossbag on Sunday 21st November 23:25

It was designed by Nash, an American company. It was built by BMC for Nash, admittedly, but it was not British in any real sense.

[Ed5995]

a lovely thread. My favourites were FB VX4/90s

[MGJohn]

Ed5995 said:

a lovely thread. My favourites were FB VX4/90s

Ahah ~ the VX4/90 ~ 4 cylinders and ninety BHP IIRC. Had a mustard yellow one as a co-car briefly around 1965-ish. Made a rapid gear change from 2nd to 3rd one time and the gear lever came away from the floor in my hand ! ~ Remarkable ~ even more remarkable, I was able to quickly slot it back into the floor location and it worked perfectly again. Much prefer 4 on the floor particularly with electric overdrive on 3rd and top gears ~ effectively six forward speeds. Hands up those who though six-speed gearboxes were only a modern thing .... The overdrive on my MGBs were superb to operate.

Modern Vauxhalls do not have the same appeal.
..