Vauxhall Heritage Collection Moves To Temporary Home
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The Vauxhall Heritage Collection and Archive are moving to a temporary new home prior to a later move to more permanent premises whose location will be announced in early 2021. And though Vauxhall is no longer part of GM, this development is particularly relevant since it (mostly) involves Vauxhall models built during the GM era.
1904 Vauxhall 6hp Light Car
The former GM Europe brand – which, along with Germany’s Opel, was sold by General Motors to Groupe PSA in 2017 – owns one of the largest classic car collections of any manufacturer in the U.K., with 60 vehicles. These date back to 1904, Vauxhall’s second year of car production and also the year it moved from its original base in the Vauxhall district of London to the town of Luton, around 40 miles north of the capital city.
Vauxhall’s Archive is even older. Its documents go as far back as the late 19th century, when the company was known as the Vauxhall Iron Works. It was founded as a manufacturer of marine engines and pumps in 1857 by a Scottish engineer called Alexander Wilson, of whom very little is now known.
1911 Vauxhall Prince Henry
Most of the cars in the Vauxhall Heritage Collection were built during the years of ownership by General Motors, which acquired the company in 1925. However, several of them are older than that, including the single-cylinder 1904 6hp Light Car which has taken part in almost every London to Brighton Veteran Car Run since 1927.
Another very special model, pictured at the top of this page, is the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton (known in left-hand drive markets as the Opel Lotus Omega) which was produced from 1990 to 1992. Carlton/Omega GSi models with 3.2L six-cylinder engines were taken off the Opel production and taken to the Lotus factory in Hethel, Norfolk, where they were completely stripped and rebuilt. This process included enlarging their engines to 3.6L and fitting them with two Garrett T25 turbochargers, raising the power output to 377 horsepower.
1926 Vauxhall 30-98
Most of the Vauxhall Heritage Collection will for the time being be stored 180 miles north-west of Luton in Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port factory, where the Astra is manufactured. The reason for the move is that the premises which have housed the Collection until now will shortly be sold, but 13 of the vehicles will remain close to home. They form the basis of the Vauxhall – Made In Luton exhibition which runs at Luton’s Stockwood Discovery Centre until the end of March 2021.
The exhibition is a joint venture between Vauxhall and the town’s Culture Trust. Cars included in it are the world’s oldest example of the Prince Henry model, which featured in the 2011 movie War Horse, and the astonishing 1966 VXR concept car.
1964 Vauxhall Victor De Luxe Estate
Six more cars from the Vauxhall Heritage Collection will also be on public display at the headquarters of Manor Park Classic in Runcorn, not far from Ellesmere Port. These include the 6hp Light Car, the Lotus Carlton and a 1926 example of the Vauxhall 30-98, which started production in 1913 and is sometimes referred to as the world’s first sports car.
The remaining vehicles will be stored in a 8,000 square meter building at Ellesmere Port, and will remain out of public sight until the Collection’s new home is established.
1966 Vauxhall XVR concept car
“Vauxhall is fully committed to preserving its Heritage Collection and Archive,” says Simon Hucknall, curator of the Vauxhall Heritage Collection and Head of the company’s PR department. “While the move to Ellesmere will mean a temporary halt to the Collection’s working status, our partners at The Culture Trust Luton and Manor Park Classics have generously supported future exposure of a third of our vehicles.
“We are currently developing plans for a new, purpose-built base for the Collection, which will allow it to be public-facing, while also bringing back its working status. This is by no means the work of a minute, but we hope to be able to share more details about a new Vauxhall Heritage Centre early next year.”
1975 Vauxhall Firenza Droop Snoot
“Our upcoming move has given me the opportunity to re-organise the Archive and prioritise the elements which add depth, colour and interest to our extensive history,” adds Vauxhall’s long-time archivist Andrew Duerden. “Digitisation of our image library is ongoing, and provides a valuable asset to media in search of historical context to Vauxhall stories.
“We also have many unseen design studies from the Sixties and Seventies that, quite frankly, take your breath away. I will also be taking on responsibility for Vauxhall’s popular Dating Certificate service, providing build verification for owners of classic Vauxhalls.”
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Would be interesting to visit and see Vauxhall collection when it opens. Looking forward to it
Always good to have a history of a marque for all to enjoy. My family had a 1962 Vauxhall PA Cresta estate Wagon, very rare!
A little correction: Ellesmere Port is located NOT north-EAST of Luton, but north-WEST. Ellesmere Port is located near Liverpool, on the left bank of the Mersey river estuary, further upstream from Liverpool, which means also further south. Liverpool lies on the west coast of the island Great Britain.
Then the Vauxhall press release, which is the basis of this article, is worded in a way to lead to the misunderstanding that all operations in Luton are being closed and the venues sold, but it is only the old office buildings near the city centre, the Griffin House, which was evacuated in May 2020.
The production of the utilities in the Luton factory, which is north of the city, is continuing. End of June 2020, Vauxhall even announced to add a third shift to meet the demand for Vauxhall Vivaro, Opel Vivaro, Peugeot Expert and Citroën Dispatch built in the plant.
From this Vauxhall press release:
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Further to the meeting earlier this month where representatives of Vauxhall Motors met with trade union representatives of the Vauxhall National Joint Negotiating Committee, around 200 employees will be redeployed from Ellesmere Port Plant and the Parts Distribution Centre in Luton, to Luton Plant on a voluntary basis for a temporary period. Vauxhall Motors will cover transportation and expenses for all staff involved..
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You are of course quite right about Ellesmere Port’s location. That part of the article has been corrected. We have also clarified that the move is due to the forthcoming sale of the Collection’s former home rather than any other building.
Lotus Omega/Carlton
“taken to the Lotus factory in Hethel, Norfolk, where they were completely stripped and rebuilt. This process included enlarging their engines to 3.6L”
The increase in volume to 3.6 was made by Opel before the engines were sent off to Lotus.
We have seen this claim before, but Vauxhall has confirmed that the cars left the Opel factory in Russelsheim as completely stock GSi 3000 24v models with 3.0 engines, and the increase in capacity to 3.6L was performed by Lotus.
Hardy the old Vauxhall’s had a cavalier gsi totally awesome car would love a lotus carlton the newer Vauxhall’s ain’t a patch on these
The green car at the top of this page looks like a 4 door Foxbody Mustang.
It is important that car collections like this are kept together & not sold off, I am very happy to read that this is being done. I definitely will be visiting it when its new home is built & they’re open again. I used to own a 1984 Cavalier SRi saloon & I have a friend who is a Opel dealer in Germany, he obviously is very fond of Vauxhalls too.
Agreed. Vauxhall is particularly good at preserving its history.
GM made a terrible error selling Vauxhall and Opel. It was nearly breaking even at time sale and GM could have easily implemented PSA reforms like higher factory utilization by cutting Korea and the payment of proper licensing fees for Opel’s sold as Buick.
Given European emissions regulations Buick Blue would have been a great team mate for electrifying the line up & in the process exporting many of these vehicles the the US.
Mary Barra sold Opel to boost stock. It failed. Buick lost a valuable partner that will likely feed Chrysler going forward.
This takeover allowed to save office space in Luton, by moving a part of the office workers to the PSA UK headquarter in Coventry (on Humber Road, where this road crosses the West Coast Main Line).
And now the next merger is coming… On January 4, the boards of both PSA and FCA will meet to vote their merger (which will happen as PSA being merged into “Fiat Chrysler N.V.” (short FCA N.V., also called DutchCo, because having its juridical seat in the Netherlands) which is being renamed immediately into Stellantis N.V. This could happen in March.
More consolidation…
As to the reasons why GM sold Opel with its twin brand Vauxhall… Those reading this site for longer years will remember that in 2012 GM made a deal with PSA for co-developing two compact cars and a small utility, and in 2017 found that this collaboration was going well, and that they could get rid of this money losing subsidiary by selling it lock, stock and barrel to PSA. And so they did.
In 2012, GM took a 7% share of the PSA stock, but got rid of it after PSA took its Chinese partner Dongfeng and the French state as shareholders to overcome the financial crisis.
Terminate Mary Barra, the woman does not know anything about cars, she’s only concerned for her bonus.