WHY I CRAVED A VAUXHALL VICTOR 2300S

02 January 2025

It is early 1975, and the two highlights of the week are The Goodies on BBC2 and the parental copy of Motor. And, if my memory is correct, it was in the latter I saw an advertisement for a car that epitomised style and glamour and would not be prone to breaking down on the A27. Vauxhall launched the FE-Series 2300S in October of the previous year, and on seeing the advertisements featuring James Hunt, I instantly knew it was far too exotic for my family. But this did not stop me from dreaming of one gracing the driveway for these five reasons:

Victor 2300S

  1. The 2300S (Vauxhall did not use the Victor badge) looked smarter than every other vehicle in our family fleet. To 2024 eyes, they are all highly collectable. To my eyes, in 1975, our eleven-year-old Wolseley Hornet was on the verge of retirement, and my father was known to wield the starting handle on his 1966 Triumph TR4A. As for our other cars, in my opinion they stood as much chance of moving as Mike and Bernie Winters actually being funny. Compare and contrast with the FE – it even had a vinyl roof as standard!
  2. Other luxuries of the 2300S included a radio cassette player, a passenger door mirror, nylon upholstery, and your choice of ‘light blue’ or ‘bright green metallic starfire’ paint finishes. It may have been Vauxhall’s way of loading a fairly low-specification Victor with extra equipment before the 1976 launch of the VX1800/2300, but it certainly did look good.
  3. Perhaps the 2300S needs to be seen in the context of other vehicles encountered in 1975 to appreciate its impact on my younger self. Our weekly trip to Southampton was an opportunity to witness Morris Oxford ‘Farina’ taxis, Bedford CAs apparently held together with Sellotape and Ford Consul Classics with one fin on the verge of falling off. Around my village, you might encounter early Minis with a push button floor starter - now worth a small fortune, but then £50 bargains in the local newspaper, or a corroding Hillman Minx ‘Audax’.
  4. James Hunt fronted the 2300S advertisements. Vauxhall engaged the great F1 driver to promote its wares, and the 2300S was apparently “for running my business colleagues around in”. Nearly five decades ago, the media promoted James as ‘an Errol Flynn of the 1970s’. This image does not even begin to do justice to the fascinating, complicated and multi-faceted reality.
  5. Any FE with its quasi-1970 Pontiac lines (Vauxhall designed it with their vital Canadian export market in mind) is a handsome vehicle, and the decorations of the 2300S only enhanced its appearance.

Somewhat inevitably, we did not acquire a 2300S, although the Citroën Dyane 6 that subsequently joined our household was a fine car in its own right. Vauxhall built only 500 examples of the 2300S, and the cravings immediately return whenever I see one at a show. Perhaps it is their coachlines or those black wheels with chrome hubcaps. Who could possibly ask for more from an FE?

With thanks to Vauxhall Heritage for the image.