The highest luxury offering from Vauxhall and with hints of transatlantic styling, the Viscount was the last traditional ‘barge-like’ saloons that the company produced. 

With its elongated body, luxury extras and vast cabin space, the Viscount was Vauxhall’s flagship model when it launched in 1966 and was designed to impress.

Based on the cheaper Cresta, the Viscount gained lots of added extras, such as a walnut veneer dashboard, leather trim, electric windows, fully carpeted luggage compartment, picnic tables and four headlights. This made the car quite heavy which did nothing for its performance and with its thin steering wheel, rolling suspension and long nose it could feel quite daunting to drive. It is often affectionately nicknamed the ‘British Barge’.

The American influences of the car’s design include the vinyl roof, white-wall tyres, front grille and the ‘coke-bottle’ exterior styling which featured on many cars of the 1960s and 1970s. This design was characterised by a narrower and curved centre section that then flared out over the rear wheels, reminiscent of the famous contour of the glass Coca-Cola bottle.