10 Euros For A Vauxhall Victor.

Looking through my summer photos the other day, I rediscovered this lovely Vauxhall Victor. I stumbled across it wandering the streets of Lisbon, in Portugal. It was parked (abandonded?) in one of the endless alleys that wind their way through the city. The softie in me can't pass a sad, lonely old car without taking a peek and a few pictures.

As I was snapping my photos a young woman and her son walked by. She stopped and asked if I liked the car. She said that she often saw people taking pictures of it. Apparently the steel grey Victor caught many eyes! I asked if she knew who owned it, and she said that in fact she did. It belonged to the owner of one of the buildings in the alley. It had been there for years, and while several people had inquired to buy it, the owner didn't want to get rid of it.

This particular model was the Victor FB, produced from 1961 to 1964. Just under 330,000 examples were produced during that time. A roomy family car, it came in 4-door sedan and 5-door 'estate' (wagon) versions. The previous generation Victor, which was clearly inspired by the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, had been sold in the US through Pontiac / Buick dealers. The FB version I saw, however, was never available in the US, though interestingly it did apparently appear in Canada as the 'Envoy'.

As I was leaving, the little boy with the woman walked up to me. I asked him what he wanted, and he said "1000 euros". He wanted to sell me the Victor for 1000 euros! I told him that was a little high, and asked if he would take 10. He thought for a second and said sure, with a big toothy smile. I told him to go and see if it was okay with the owner, and to give me a call if we could make a deal. He walked off laughing, as did I.

Four months later I'm still waiting for that call...