THE VAUXHALL HURLINGHAM

‘Steering – one finger does it! Go! 40 - 50 - 60 UP! Stop! And it’s done in the span of a moment – smooth as silk – with the famous Vauxhall brakes.’ That was the 1930 copywriter, writing about the Hurlingham Sports Roadster and getting entirely carried away. It reflected the recent and controversial takeover of posh British Vauxhall by brash American General Motors. Vauxhalls may still have been ‘Made from 97% British parts,’ but the company had been 100% American-owned since 1925 and was changing dramatically. By 1930, the GM parts fitted included the Delco distributor and coil, US Lovejoy hydraulic shocks, a belt-drive generator, a Trico wiper motor and additional American bits, but it still retained its British major components including the seven-main-bearing straight six engine.

Before World War I and into the early 1920s, Vauxhall had been up there with Bentley at the top of the tree, supplying large, very expensive sporting cars to the