How a 1972 Vauxhall Victor became the world's fastest street legal carAs auto manufacturers go, Vauxhall probably isn't one of those names you'd normally associate with motorsport. In fact, there's something almost perverse about the thought of racing a car made by Vauxhall, given the firm's history. That's not to say Vauxhall is without racing pedigree - indeed, back in the 1910s and 20s it was a force to be reckoned with on the international circuit. But ever since the GM buyout in 1925, Vauxhall's involvement in motorsport has been hampered by its American parent's reluctance to provide sponsorship. What successes there have been over the years have been largely independent ventures. Take Dealer Team Vauxhall, for instance; an outfit funded entirely by the principals of a few London dealerships. For years, DTV wasn't even recognised (let alone backed) by Vauxhall headquarters, and the first racing Vivas actually had to be smuggled out of the factories where they were made for fear of alerting senior management. However for some people, Vauxhall's lack of motorsport credentials has actually been an incentive to race one of its cars. The fact that most Vauxhalls clearly do not belong on the track is reason enough to put one there, they say. It's down to one such man that at the moment, the fastest street legal car on the planet is a 1972 Vauxhall Victor. The Vauxhall Victor
The Victor was a largish four-door saloon (an estate was also available) produced by Vauxhall from 1957 to 1976.
By 1972, the car had reached its fifth and final revision, the FE model, also called the 'Transcontinental'. Sadly the FE did not sell well, due in part to world energy crises and a failing export market, but equally to an increasingly muddled Vauxhall marketing department. In all, they shifted about 55,000 units (the previous incarnation managed a much healthier 200,000) before the model was abandoned four years later. One of Vauxhall's abortive promotional ideas for the FE Victor was to finally take an interest in Dealer Team Vauxhall, then at the height of its success in production car racing. DTV had until that time been using a couple of heavily modified Vauxhall Firenzas as race vehicles, but the marketing men asked them to swap for a Ventora (basically the luxury version of the Victor) in a bid to raise the profile of the model and thus boost its flagging sales. The car they offered looked like a regular road-going Ventora from the outside, but under the hood lurked an obscenely powerful 5.7 litre V8 engine that earned it the nickname 'Big Bertha'. However, the car's heavy frame and dubious handling meant it was something of a liability on the track, and it completed just three races before suffering a serious braking malfunction. DTV withdrew Big Bertha from service, and used its parts to make a new (and substantially more successful) racing Firenza. The marketing disaster lead to the road-going V8 Ventora being shelved before it ever went into production - and it certainly didn't help the rest of the Victor range. Five years after production ceased in 1981, there were still plenty of Victors on British streets, but hard times and newer models meant they were going for a song in many cases. That was certainly true of the Victor FE bought by Andy Frost, a mechanic from the Black Country who was looking for a family runabout. He paid a neighbour just £60 for it. Red Victor 2
Andy, who now runs transmission specialists Penn Autos in Wolverhampton, is the kind of guy who likes to tinker with his cars. Not long after buying the Victor, he had it re-sprayed and swapped the supplied straight-4 engine for a V6. After that, he upgraded again to a Rover V8, and then again to the current 9.3 litre Chevrolet V8.
"I just set about doing it up," he told the BBC. "I just kept adding various parts over the years, a kind of hobby if you like." After fitting the Chevy engine, Andy installed a nitrous oxide system. He began entering the Victor in the quarter mile contests held at Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, and fell in love with the drag racing scene. 'Red Victor 1', as the car was known, now put out an astonishing 1,500hp. It was at about this time that Andy realised he had a record-breaker on his hands. He said: "A few years ago, I realised how far I'd come. I'd gotten more involved in racing so knew all about the current records. Then I thought - let's go for it! Let's try and be the fastest!" That meant more changes under the hood: in this case fitting two enormous turbochargers, which brought the Victor up to 2,200bhp. Re-christened 'Red Victor 2' after the alterations, the once-humble family saloon had now become the fastest street legal car in the world. It can reach a speed of 183mph in 7.8 seconds. Better yet, it does 0-60 in one second. That's right; Red Victor 2 goes from 0-60mph in a second. There are two more incredible things about this world-beating Vauxhall. The first one is that Andy Frost can quite legally drive it home after a drag race. The car has a valid MOT certificate and car insurance. Better yet, because it was made before 1973, the Victor isn't liable for road tax. And best of all, it runs on exactly the same kind of petrol as the rest of us pump into our Micras and Mondeos (albeit slightly less economically - Red Victor 2 manages about 5 miles to the gallon). The second incredible thing is this: Red Victor 2 is a private project. Andy didn't have corporate sponsorship or the facilities of a racing team; he put the car together in his garage, in his free time, and paid for the parts out of his own wages. In all, he estimates he's spent about £100,000 on the Victor - which is a lot of money to you or me, but next to the budget for a Vauxhall TV ad or similar it's absolute peanuts.
That's why Red Victor 2 is a classic case of Vauxhall's involvement in racing. For some reason, the marque seems to succeed precisely because it's such an unlikely candidate, and because Vauxhall headquarters turns a blind eye when it should be handing out parts and sponsorship. Andy's car could be a phenomenal marketing tool for a firm with few motorsports successes to speak of - but type his name into the Vauxhall website and what do you get? Not a sausage.
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