The worst cars ever made – The Vauxhall Victor F type

The prototype Vauxhall Victor F type

The Vauxhall Victor F type was a notorious rustbucket. Often rotting within months. For example the widescreen pillars and the holes in the bumper for the exhaust, being particular water traps. Consequently, the Mk II did away with the bumper exhaust. It also had toned down styling, loosing the “nipples ” from the end of the bumper and some of the chrome. Compare the image below with the car in the video which is a Mk II.

(The F type was) a Luton rustbucket that, we were told, was a big export winner but, in fact, couldn’t cope with life in boiling hot or freezing cold climates. And, of course, mildly damp places – like the UK – weren’t much good for it either, as moisture forced its way in and got to work on the car.

the Worse cars ever sold, giles chapman, pub 2008

The Victor was first released in 1957, amazingly it survived until 1976. However it had undergone some radical restyling by then. The F type Victor replaced the Morris Minor lookalike, and by then prehistoric, Wyvern.

The F type was a big export winner ,100.000 being made in only 15 months. In the U.S, Pontiac dealers sold hundreds of F types to the unsuspecting American public. The F type’s distant relationship with build quality and feeble engine made Vauxhall’s name mud, with General Motors. As a result later Vauxhall models were based on Opel designs!

The Vauxhall Victor FB, note the bumper nipples, not always painted black! Public domain image

The triangle of doom from those undersized wipers was bigger than Belgium.

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Squeezing an extra one in is no problem at all.

Dealer training film 1957

Models of the Vauxhall victor.

There have been quite a few models of the Victor. Dinky made models of the later Victor estate and even an Ambulance!

Matchbox made a Victor F and an estate version. The most prolific victor models are in the Vanguard range by Corgi. Many colours were produced.

Lansdowne models, Hornby minix, Model Road Replicas, Pathfinder models, Oxford and Silas models also made models of the Vauxhall Victor.