1970 Vauxhall Victor 2000 SL from Sweden - Comments

Valve Cover Gasket seems to disintegrate within 2 years, changed it immediately after I bought the car and have had to change it again recently.

Complete steering box failure (probably a result of previous owner misaligning and over-tightening it to the front cross-member.

Fairy quick and economical.

My Old Man had one of these (SL 2000 FD) in the early seventies (1974 I think) and I remember him saying then that he thought it was flat for a 2 litre car. One miserable weekend we ventured to Bell Vue speedway from south devon and a nut holding the air box down undid and decided to do a bit of damage to the inside of one of the cylinders.

Well that started my old man a task to make this sluggish miserable vauxhall a great deal better.

First he rebuilt the mess the nut left behind, replaced the old carb' with a twin choke webber and steel mesh filter, fabricated the most complicated tuned four into one branch manifold, electronic ignition can't remember what it was may have been illuminition, Vinyl roof, black twin pin stripe (the car was white) he put reverse lights connected to a micro switch, Head restraints were fitted, stereo radio and a stereo cassette player were fitted after he had designed and built the most ellaborate centre console that also included a cassette rack when you lifted up the arm rest, amazing spot lamps at night and an eight foot aerial made of fibre glass I think. He did have on order from the local Vauxhall dealership rostyle wheels which are still on order, he never got to fit those. Oh yes and he put those musical horns on, you had to have them on in those days.

That's as much as I can recollect, but I'm sure he did more.

It was untouchable on the motorway - many a challenge from keen Mini and Cortina drivers and Vx 4/90s and Ventora's, they always lost.

Best Car My Old Man ever had. Well in my eyes.

John Darby.

The FD still looks good as a design today. What a pity they never went as well as they looked in original factory spec.