DO YOU REMEMBER – THE VAUXHALL VENTORA FE?

Forty-five years ago, I regarded the FE-Series Ventora as one of the most handsome cars you were likely to encounter in the not very mean streets of Fareham. The vaguely Pontiac-style lines, the quad headlamps, the vinyl roof and the sound of that 3.3-litre straight-six engine denoted a car of modest but genuine distinction. To quote the advertisements, it was ‘the Vauxhall for people of perception’.

The FE-Series range succeeded the “Coke Bottle” shaped FD in early 1972, with the flagship Ventora costing £1,763.13. The press reaction is best described as somewhat mixed, and the review in the May 1972 edition of Motor Sport contained the not very positive observation:

the new cars have been grandiosely nick-named “the Transcontinentals” by General Motors marketing people, which might suggest that the previous Victors were hardly suitable for travelling across the Continent—for that matter they may well be right.

Worse still, Andrew Marriott went on write that:

the VX4/90 or 2300 would probably appeal to Motor Sport readers rather than the other models but, basically, our opinion is that the cars do not break any new ground and are very much Vauxhalls.

The word ‘snobbery’ does rather come to mind. Meanwhile, the February 1973 issue of Car featured a comparison between the Vauxhall, the Opel Commodore B and the Ford Granada GXL. Their conclusion was ‘the standard of ride and handling of the Ventora is not really good enough for this class of car”. Nor, in the writer’s view, was the FE “really worth over £250 more than the VX 4/90”.

However, Motor of March 18^th 1974 found the Estate version “remarkably smooth, refined and comfortable” and thought it offered “remarkably good value for money”. And at that time the Ventora Estate was indeed virtually unique in the market – a very good-looking five-door fastback described by Luton as the car ‘For The Director Who Can’t Decide’. The quite jaw-droppingly awful sales copy also informed the reader that the Estate would ‘carry a beautiful wife, four attractive children and a family’s worth of luggage’.

Naturally, Vauxhall arranged some television product placement for the FE, including a dance routine, staged at Luton for the BBC’s Engelbert with the Young Generation. One can only hope a tape survives. Unfortunately, the Ventora also had a recurring role on The Adventurer. For those readers fortunate enough never to have seen this 1972-vintage ITC masterpiece, the premise was international film star “Gene Bradley” was also a spy and all-round international man of mystery. The main problems were the show was that the leading actor Gene Barry a) looked about 357 years old b) wore what appeared to be hearth rug atop his head and c) possessed the worst dress sense in the history of television.

The few saving graces of The Adventurer were due to the PR fleet Ventoras and the John Barry theme tune -