Talk:Vauxhall Velox

Velox PA S/PA SY (1957 - 1960)

Isn't this the vehicle designed by two visiting Americans who had not previously designed a monocoque structure. The production examples were said to have begun to come apart at the seams days after delivery in Africa and the outcome was the shut down most of Vauxhall's export market. Shouldn't this be mentioned? Eddaido (talk) 06:24, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

It all sounds horribly possible and please add a para about it if you're sure enough. Though you really would need a(t least one) source to stand it up. Here in England I am aware of a more general problem that these late 50s Vauxhalls (Velox/Cresta and Victor) were horribly prone to corrode. My other thought is that the Victor F (ie contemporary to this Velox/Cresta but a bit smaller) was sold in large numbers in Canada, but after a couple of years that rather collapsed. I'd always understood that this was the result of poor rust protection meets Canadian levels of salt to address Canadian levels of winter snow 'n ice, though I don't have a source immediately to hand. There's a general issue that the most accessible sources - then as now - tend to be based on what the manufacturers told the journalists. Not necessarily untrue, but almost certainly only half the story. There's almost certainly scope with several cars for trying to add balance IF SOURCED. Some cars - the Rover SD1 comes to mind - suffered so appallingly from the manufacturer's inability to screw and weld the thing together as intended by the designer that there's plenty of pretty authoritative writing on the issues from the motoring press of the time. But the Rover SD1 was a car of the 1970s. Back in the late 1950s car buyers felt lucky to be able to afford ANY car, and motoring journalists were grateful to be given ANY car to drive. So getting reports of the downside may be harder. Shouldn't be impossible, though. There was plenty of knocking copy that appeared in North America against the Renault Dauphine in the early 1960s. Part of the problem was that they corroded fast (rust again...) but one can't help pondering if one or two journalistic strings might have been pulled from Detroit. Anyhow, on the Vauxhalls of the early '60s, once you've got the sources, please share a summary in the article on this intriguing aspect (possibly leaving out the disparaging nuance implicit in the thought of "two visiting Americans....": Americans have feelings too.....my grand mother was born in New York, visited Europe and ... stayed, which is how I was born in England). Good weekend Charles01 (talk) 08:33, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

And there were the Cortinas with front and back screens designed as stressed components that helped to keep the whole thing rigid. The screens popped out of the bodies as they left the showroom - well, maybe that's an exaggeration but not a big one. Busy searching as I read the Vauxhall story in the last few months. Eddaido (talk) 08:54, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

See if this works and then "Concurrently with the rusting problems, the body shells of the F and PA broke up beyond economical repair after 500 miles in East Africa and similar rough but dry territories" see here

But this is not where I read it because I think it named the US designers. Will keep looking on the web. Eddaido (talk) 09:18, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

The first one is a nicely written authoritative source for all sorts of stuff and interesting. I was especially caught (in the Ford section) by his take and info on the comparisons between how things developped pre-(and post-) launch on Projects Cardinal and Archbishop. There's certainly stuff in there which could usefully be used to improve various wiki-entries. Including this (Vauxhall Velox) one. But if - as seems likely - you will wish to find more sources before you distill the results into a wiki-para or two, here then no doubt that's so much the better. (The second source-link you provided refused to work for me, but I think that may just be a result of some obscure google policy on access rationing.) Thanks. Best Regards Charles01 (talk) 11:00, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Maybe this version will work for you, its a surprising place to find it. I think I must have read what I remember in a book book and not on the web. I did have a heap of Vauxhall books a while ago and the overdue charges were dollars a day so I took them back where they belong. It might also have been part of a book that Google decided was no longer accessible, who knows. Will not forget. Nice to hear your enthusiastic voice. Have a nice Sunday afternoon. Regards, Eddaido (talk) 12:04, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

LIP Vauxhall

The cars sold by Harcombes in 1949 were just the same structural (and other) design as prewar cars with new mudguards, a bulging bootlid, built-in headlights and some horizontal bars up front, probably a face-lift designed at the end o the 1930s. Eddaido (talk) 11:01, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Vauxhall Velox Tourer 30-98 (1913-1927)

I don't know enough about cars to do a direct edit to this article, but there is a serious error in the first sentence. 1948 is given as the date for the introduction of the Vauxhall Velox. However, there was an earlier Vauxhall Velox. In fact, Wikipedia has an entry for it. See "Vauxhall 30-98".

I discovered this while reading Aldous Huxley's "Those Barren Leaves", a 1925 novel, set in Italy. One of the characters drives a Vauxhall Velox. Here is the first sentence among many in which Huxley mentions the Velox by name: "Lord Hovenden detached from his motor car was an entirely different being from the Lord Hovenden who lounged with such a deceptive air of languor behind the steering-wheel of a Vauxhall Velox."

1) The article should be emended to include the earlier version of the Velox.

2) The Huxley novel should be added to the section, "Vauxhall Velox in popular culture." Rev. H. Carlton Earwiggherd (talk) 18:10, 7 May 2020 (UTC) Rev. H. Carlton Earwiggherd