This sober limousine may seem to have little to do with the superb and famous 30-98 Vauxhall, but it had many of its virtues.
The 23-60 H.P. Vauxhall replaced its predecessor, the D-Type 25 H.P., in 1922. That earlier model, built from 1912 to 1922, made Vauxhall’s reputation for reliability, with more than 1,500 being supplied to the British Army in World War I for use as staff cars. Each Vauxhall chassis was sold with a three-year guarantee including regular inspections.
The 23-60’s standard tourer Kington body was described as “preserving that greyhound look so characteristic of the Vauxhall car”. It shared many parts with Vauxhall’s much more powerful 30-98. The 23-60 remained in production until the introduction of the ultra-smooth six-cylinder Burt-McCollum type single-sleeve-valve Vauxhall 25-70 was announced in October 1925. General Motors took control of Vauxhall on 16 November 1925. The car in our Snapshot therefore dates from the very end of production.
The engine is essentially the four-cylinder engine of the preceding 25 H.P., modified by chief engineer C. E. King by adding an overhead-valve head. Engines of its relatively large displacement of 3,969cc usually had six-cylinder engines for smoothness, so King added, at the centre of the crankshaft, the harmonic balancer invented by Dr F. W. Lanchester. This had two weighted drums driven at twice crankshaft speed, one by a helical gearwheel attached to the crankshaft and the other by the primary drum. In a four-cylinder engine, unbalanced secondary forces occur twice in each crankshaft revolution. The harmonic balancer counteracted any tendency to undesirable vibration. It must have suffered problems in the Vauxhall, because it is reported that few surviving cars retain the balancer.
The transmission comprised a multi-plate clutch running with graphite, coupled by a fabric joint to the separate 4-speed gearbox. The spiral-bevel driven rear axle was located by torque girders. The gearbox had a right-hand gear change; the 23-60, however, did have a driver’s door, which the 25 H.P. and the 30-98 did not.
The brakes initially only operated on the rear wheels, operated by the right-hand brake lever, whereas the foot pedal operated the transmission brake. But in 1923 front-wheel brakes were available as an option at £55. In July 1924 they were standardised on the 23-60 along with a redesigned front axle, springs and saddle-plate. Operated by the foot pedal, the front brakes and the transmission brake were linked, the latter being given a slight lead. The brakes on the rear wheels were still independently controlled by the handbrake lever.
The 23-60 was in no way a poor relation of its 30-98 sister car. Donald Gill, writing in Motor Sport in December 1949, was full of praise:
“For someone who yearns after a real Vauxhall, but for one reason or another is denied a ’30/98,’ the ’23/60′ commends itself as a not at all unworthy substitute for non-competitive motoring, and the preservation of a few more examples of the type would be definite gain to the vintage world.”
Image courtesy of The Richard Roberts Archive: www.richardrobertsarchive.org.uk
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