'Oldest Vauxhall' auctioned by Bonhams for £94,000

© GM Company

'Oldest Vauxhall' auctioned by Bonhams for £94,000

Here's an interesting article now about the successful sale by Bonhams auction house of an important part of British motoring history - the oldest surviving Vauxhall motor car.

Vauxhall Motors started life in 1857 as Alex Wilson and Company, a marine engine and pump manufacturer started by Scotsman Alexander Wilson in the borough of Vauxhall, London.  In 1897 the company changed its name to Vauxhall Iron Works and six years later built its first motorised carriage (above).  Work on improving the design continued and in 1907 the business relocated to Luton, Bedfordshire, where its headquarters remain to this day.

Vauxhall Motors Limited, as it was from then on known, gained swift success thanks in no small part to its chief designer Laurence Pomeroy, who had only joined the company in 1906 aged 22 but so impressed the management when he covered for the holidaying original design chief that he was given the job himself barely a year later.  Pomeroy would go on to design what are considered the two best pre-war Vauxhalls and the engine that powered them.

The 1908 Vauxhall A-type was a 3-litre, 20hp car that proved to be a great success and leagues ahead of the competition at the time.  In hill-climb trials it completed courses over 30 seconds faster than any other car and was the first vehicle of its class from anywhere in the world to exceed 100mph at the Brooklands race circuit, also posting class-leading fuel economy figures.  It could cruise at 46-55mph, remarkable speeds for the age.

© GM Company

Within 2 years the A-Type (which remained in production until 1915) had been used as the basis for the new C10-Type with an extra 20hp extracted from the engine and a selection of body styles available.  After one was entered in the 1910 1200-mile Motor Trials, which were named in honour of a Prussian Royal, the car became forever known as the Vauxhall Prince Henry.
In the following years further refinements and updates were made on the basic C10-type.  In 1913 the engine was increased to 4½ litres and 98hp, giving rise to the 30/98 model.  A version of this with a lower-powered engine of 4 litres and 60hp became the D-type, much used during the Great War as staff cars.

© GM Company

After the First World War production of the 30/98 was restarted and continued as the E-type, with a more powerful 4.2-litre 115hp variant - the OE-type - joining it in 1923.  Things were looking rosy for Vauxhall until 1925, when a huge corporate behemoth - even then - loomed large on the horizon.  America's General Motors had taken an interest in the company and in 1925 bought Vauxhall Motors Ltd. for $2½million (about $26½million, or £16½million in today's money).

On that day in 1925 the Vauxhall company changed irrevocably.  What is rarely known these days is that prior to 1925 Vauxhall was considered the contemporary of high-end marques such as Bentley, Napier and Daimler.  All that changed following its acquisition by GM, who relaunched Vauxhall so that its products competed with the mass-market, everyman cars.  Models started to appear based on Chevrolets and when GM bought German marque Opel in 1929 the designs of that company too.  In the ensuing 87 years Vauxhall, Opel, Chevrolet (and Australia's Holden, absorbed by GM in 1931) have grown ever more intertwined to the point where almost all of their models today are based on the same single design and often differ only in the badge on the grille.  The last truly 100% Vauxhall-designed car, the Viva, ceased production in 1979.

© GM Company

The sale of this rare early Vauxhall is noteworthy, then, for not only being the earliest known extant example, sold publicly for the first time since it was new, but also coming from a time when Vauxhall was a very different company to what we know now.  It has had a very interesting life by the sounds of it and it is good to see it still appreciated enough to command such a high purchase price.  Vauxhall Motors has been through some turbulent times in its 109-year history but this car (or one very much like it) was there at the beginning.

Oldest working television set expected to sell for £5,000

Image courtesy of The Daily Telegraph

Oldest working television set expected to sell for £5,000

On the same day that my TV aerial is upgraded ready for the digital switchover next year I stumble across this story about the sale of the antecedent of all modern televisions.

After 10 or so years of development the very first commercially-available television sets went on sale in the mid-1930s and now Bonhams auction house has one of the very first - the seventh production model, if the article is to be believed - in full working order and ready to be sold to some lucky collector.

It joins the (still rare) ranks of functioning, almost antique television sets alongside the example featured in this B.B.C. report some months ago (below)



Despite the intervening 75 years these Marconiphone 702s are still recognisably televisions and you could watch programmes on them today, if you wanted to (I know I do!) - which in fact the chap in the second article has actually done!  It's appearance is (to these eyes) a welcome antidote to today's flat-screen black boxes (why isn't wood and Bakelite used in TVs these days, I ask you?!) but at the same time it is also a reminder about how far household technology has progressed, not to mention highlighting how commonplace the television has become over the last few decades (and not always for the best, it has to be said!).

Sadly I can't stretch to the £5,000 this particular example is expected to fetch, so I'll just have to add it to my dream 1930s home and trust that whoever it ends up with will appreciate it and preserve it for future generations.  Now I'm off to see what other delights are included in Bonhams' enticingly-named Mechanical Music and Scientific Instruments sale...

Family's fridge is still going after 63 years

Family's fridge is still going after 63 years

There seems to have been a spate of "oldest appliance" stories in the news lately but this one should certainly take some beating! It's become something of a cliche to say that "they don't make 'em like they used to" but in this instance it's well worth saying. I'd like to see what modern electrical appliances would last long enough to be able to still be used on a daily basis in 2073; these days you're lucky if the thing lasts beyond 5 years. Today's throwaway culture has a lot to answer for!

Although I can't imagine that the manufacturers of the fridge had envisioned their product lasting for more than six decades it says something for the quality and build of electrical devices from the mid-20th Century, not to mention the pride and assurance that the makers had in the designs.

I'm sure that the materials used back then had something to do with it; solid woods, metals (and Bakelite, of course!) always lend objects a more sturdy, durable feel than flimsy plastics and MDF. The bonus is they look more stylish and impressive too.

The Ashley family's fridge is a refreshing reminder of long-lost engineering skill and here's hoping it lasts for another 63 years, and more.

Pensioner is Britain's oldest stunt pilot at 87

Pensioner is Britain's oldest stunt pilot at 87

A truly heart-warming article here about a man still enthusiastically enjoying his wonderful hobby even in his advancing years. Proof, if proof were needed, that age is no barrier to doing anything, particularly if you take as much pleasure in it as this fellow seems to in his flying. It really is wonderful to see someone delight in their pastime after so many years, let alone still be able to do it at all at 87 years of age. I guess if you love doing something that much it keeps you feeling young. That he has such a gentlemanly outlook on his flying and performing for crowds is simply an added bonus. I take my hat off to him (and wave it)!

Dorset man claims to be world's oldest paperboy

Dorset man claims to be world's oldest paperboy

On now to a delightful article about one chap's life-long enjoyment of a simple profession. Indeed it could be said to have long ago ceased to be a profession and instead taken on all the hallmarks of a beloved hobby. Here is a man who has been delivering newspapers to probably generations of people in his village. He is an institution in the very best sense of the word. It is always nice see someone take so much pleasure in something that they continue to do it for almost their entire life. One wonders how much such relishing of a past-time goes in keeping the person healthy and active well into their old age. Good luck to the gentleman, say I, and I hope he fulfils his wish of delivering 'papers for years to come.