CarBrandLogos archive · Vauxhall · 1913

Vauxhall30-98

Built to win a hillclimb, and quick enough to embarrass Bentley afterwards.

Photo: Roland Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Vauxhall history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Vauxhall 30-98, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Joseph Higginson, a Lancashire engineer who had made his money from the Autovac fuel-lift system, wanted a car capable of taking the record at Shelsley Walsh. In 1913 he asked Vauxhall to build him one, and Laurence Pomeroy enlarged the engine of the existing Prince Henry to around 4.5 litres to do it. Higginson took the hill record that June, and Vauxhall put the car on sale.

Vauxhall 30-98 Wensum Tourer r · Norbert Schnitzler · CC BY 3.0

Vintage Vauxhall, Broadway, Worcestershire

Design and engineering

Only a handful were built before the war stopped production. It returned properly in 1919 as the side-valve E-type, and Vauxhall made a promise almost no other manufacturer would have risked: with the stripped Velox body fitted, the car would exceed 100 mph. In 1922 the overhead-valve OE arrived, faster still, and the model spent the early 1920s as one of the few British cars capable of embarrassing anything on the road, including the young Bentley company's products.

Vintage Vauxhall, Broadway, Worcestershire · Roland Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0

In production

Around 600 were built in total across both engine types, all with the chassis available separately for coachbuilders. Its end came from the boardroom rather than the road: General Motors bought Vauxhall in 1925 and repositioned the company as a maker of sensible middle-class saloons. The 30-98 was discontinued in 1927, and Vauxhall did not build anything like it again.

Vauxhall 30-98 Saloon crop · Bristols and Bentleys · CC BY-SA 2.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Engine

Designer

Laurence Pomeroy

Body

4-seater Open tourer

Technical specification

The 30-98, in detail.

Production: 1913–15: 13 cars ; 1919–22: 261 cars; 1922–27: 313 cars; E — : 274 cars; OE—: 313 cars
Body style: 4-seater Open tourer; Closed coupé; 2-seater Sports tourer; chassis available for special bodies
Layout: FR layout
Engine: I4
Transmission: E — multi-disc clutch, Hardy disc joint between clutch and gearbox, 4-speeds and reverse right-hand change gearbox, open propeller shaft, final drive by straight-cut bevel; OE — as E but final drive by spiral bevel
Designer: Laurence Pomeroy
Assembly: Luton
Manufacturer: Vauxhall