Author: Jeff Peek
Images: Vauxhall Motors Limited
In the 1960s, Britain’s oldest car maker was pushing to also become its greatest designer. That plan, carried out in Vauxhall’s Design & Engineering Centre, resulted in the XVR Concept, which was similar in many ways to Opel’s GT. After seeing the Opel GT fail commercially, however, Vauxhall got cold feet.
Vauxhall, a name that entered the UK industrial lexicon in 1897, produced its first automobile in 1903 as a division of the Vauxhall Iron Works Company. Two years later, the company moved to Luton, and 1907 brought the formation of Vauxhall Motors Limited – devoted solely to building cars. Known for producing luxury and sports cars, Vauxhall was purchased by General Motors in 1925, and GM took the company into a new era of mass production, turning it into one of the top five automobile companies in the UK.
Following the Second World War, Vauxhall became more well known, producing models like the Viva, Astra, Cresta, Victor, Nova, and Cavalier. Nothing, however, was quite like the XVR Concept.
According to Vauxhall, the XVR project was meant to showcase the company’s design innovation and autonomy in the mid-1960s. The concept was managed by Wayne Cherry at the Design & Engineering Centre, which later became Vauxhall’s Griffin House headquarters. As Vauxhall explains, the XVR two-seat sports coupe was “inspired by parent company GM’s work with concepts in the US – including the ’65 Mako Shark II – the XVR (Xperimental Vauxhall Research) had a simple purity of line, gullwing doors forming a unique split windscreen, a clam-shell bonnet, and pop-up headlights.”
Three cars were built, including a 100mph driveable vehicle with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine producing 74bhp. It was mated to a rear-wheel, four-speed, all-synchromesh gearbox with limited-slip differential.
Although the car never reached production, design cues like the ultra-slim rear lights could later be seen in Vauxhall’s Viva HC and Firenza models.
David Jones, Vauxhall’s director of design, revealed the company’s radical concept at the Geneva motor show in 1966, and his words were prolific: “The design of this car offered us a chance to get away from the stringent demands of convention … [It] is uncompromising in its styling treatment and shows the future trend in world automotive design.”
Six decades later, we’re still admiring it.
