Vauxhall OE-type: 100 years at 100mph

By Simon Hucknall

| 10 Jul 2023

Classic & Sports Car – The OE-type Vauxhall 30-98 at 100: Luton’s legacy

“See if you can hit 3600 in third.”

If that gauntlet had been laid in the car park earlier, I wouldn’t have flinched, but this Vauxhall 30-98’s tachometer is only showing ‘28’ and it already feels as if we should be triggering DEFCON 1.

The exhaust noise is savage, only just drowning out that of the gears, and, gripping the gently flexing wheel rim for all I’m worth, our speed is building unabated.

The Griffin still marks out Vauxhall Motors’ 1907 Kimpton Road headquarters in Luton

There’s a bend fast approaching, and I just manage to clip ‘36’ on the Jaeger dial – which must be 70mph – before lifting.

But it’s a close thing and, of all 30-98s, this is not the one I’d want to bend.

As a prelude to driving the other four, visually contrasting ‘Thirsties’ with us today at Luton Hoo hotel, it takes some beating.

We have gathered them because all are OE-type models, which started production barely a mile from here a century ago in 1923.

John Worth’s beautifully restored Velox-bodied tourer Vauxhall 30-98 feels quick, but civilised

There’s another reason why we’re at this particular venue, too: in the late 1940s the Vintage Sports-Car Club ran a series of speed trials on the Hoo’s access roads (see below), and, because the 30-98 was linked closely with the VSCC’s founding, it seems only fitting that we should reunite model with location today.

The OE-type 30-98 was Britain’s first catalogued 100mph production car, which, given Vauxhall’s pre-war track record as a maker of ‘superexcellent’ sporting machinery, was no great surprise.

The original E-type 30-98 had been conceived in 1913, after one Joseph Higginson (coincidentally, creator of the Autovac fuel system found in all OE-types) tasked Vauxhall with producing a fast, lightweight road car that could double as a hillclimb winner.

This 1925 30-98’s outside handbrake demands plenty of effort

Luton’s chief engineer, Laurence Pomeroy, modified the company’s existing A10 sidevalve engine, installing it in a simple chassis derived from Vauxhall’s A-type model.

The finished car, named the ‘30-98’ (the tag may have been to signify its 30bhp output at 1000rpm and 98bhp maximum power, though opinions vary), was delivered to Higginson just in time for a late entry at Shelsley Walsh on 8 June the same year, where he set a new 55.2 secs hill record that would stand until 1921.

The mould for an omnipotent new vintage-era sports car had been cast.

Due to the outbreak of war, however, deliveries of series-production cars – by then known as ‘E-type’ 30-98s – didn’t start until December 1919.

But Pomeroy was ahead of the curve, and had already been experimenting with overhead-valve engine designs for at least five years.

He built two prototypes, known as ‘Super Es’, with ohv technology, but they were never developed.

Distracted by an alcoholic wife, the talented engineer left for America, with a plan to manufacture 30-98s across the Atlantic.

A comprehensive toolkit is mounted in the running board

Alas, he failed to raise the $1m-plus investment needed for the venture, and didn’t return to Luton until many years later.

Fortunately, Vauxhall had replaced Pomeroy with an engineering chief who shared his vision.

CE King took on the ohv mantle for the 30-98 and, by July 1922, the last of 288 sidevalve E-types was rolling off the Kimpton Road line, with the first OE-type (‘O’ for overhead-valve) car being delivered to London dealer Shaw & Kilburn on 19 January 1923.

In every respect, the OE was a more advanced and capable machine.

Originally a Clinton Saloon, Tim Jones’ car was rebodied as a Wensum in the ’80s and has been used extensively since

Displacing a slightly smaller capacity of 4224cc versus the E-type’s 4525cc, thanks to a 10mm reduction in piston stroke, the four-cylinder engine retained the E’s crankcase but used a new cylinder block, a separate cylinder head and pushrod-operated overhead valves.

The exhaust was moved to the car’s offside, and the carburettor and inlet to its nearside, with maximum power increasing from 98bhp to 115bhp – enough to turn the 30-98 into a veritable hot rod.

At the same time, the wheelbase was increased by four inches and thicker steel was employed for the OE’s chassis.

The Griffin flies the flag on this 30-98’s badge

The standard factory Velox tourer body was lengthened and widened, with some detail improvements made to the mudguard design and dashboard instruments.

There was also the introduction of front-wheel brakes after the 60th OE had left the factory, with Vauxhall’s ‘kidney box’ design providing moderate retardation (there was still a fear of locked front wheels) via the right-hand brake pedal, which also activated the propshaft drum.

Even so, the hand-operated rear-brake lever was still the default way to stop most 30-98s.

Tim’s car has external brake and gearlevers, but most braking is done via the right-hand brake pedal

For some drivers, though, this still wasn’t enough.

In September 1922, after the OE had been revealed, Sir Leonard Ropner MP wrote to The Autocar, frustrated that he was unable to buy a production car capable of a 100mph flying mile, but saying that he would place an order for a Vauxhall 30-98 OE-type if the factory could prove that it was capable of such a speed.

Challenge set.

Ropner’s car – OE5 – was delivered to Brooklands on 28 March 1923, wearing a two-seater body with a tapered tail and a cowled radiator, but still very much to road specification, including having both spare wheels fitted.

This 30-98 has no doors, so you vault into its cosy cockpit

Known as ‘Silver Arrow’, due to its polished aluminium bodywork, it completed a flying mile at 100.7mph driven by factory test driver Matt Park, certified by Brooklands.

Not only did Vauxhall’s marketing types wax lyrical about this benchmark being hit – ‘The car of grace that sets the pace’ – but Ropner also went on to enjoy multiple race wins at Brooklands, as well as in trials and hillclimbs, and frequent road journeys between his Yorkshire constituency and London.

He wasn’t alone, either. The OE rapidly became a doyen of amateur British motorsport in the 1920s, gracing all major venues and regularly taking speed records.

The Vauxhall’s trademark bonnet flute behind the sidelight

Vauxhall made hay from its reputation, which extended to major export markets such as Australia, where Sydney agent Boyd Edkins set a raft of speed and endurance records in 30-98s, largely on unpaved roads.

Small wonder that today there are still so many Thirsties Down Under.

By 1925, however, the OE-type’s recipe of quality engineering, durability, prodigious performance and fine handling was no longer unique.

The 30-98 quintet gathers outside the old Vauxhall Motors building

Relative newcomer Bentley was riding high on its success at Le Mans, and more technically advanced, lighter sports models from the likes of Sunbeam and Alfa Romeo were starting to make the Vauxhall look like what it was: a heavily developed pre-war car.

Design flourishes to the OE, such as a raised bonnet line and headlights from chassis OE230 onwards, and hydraulic brakes from 1927, just prolonged the inevitable.

After Vauxhall was purchased by American giant General Motors in October 1925, the writing was on the wall, spelling out a more mainstream future.

Charlie Prince’s 1923 Mulliner-bodied OE has been uprated with a Delage front axle for superior braking

By 1928, London dealer Jack Barclay had taken on sales responsibility for the final batch of 25, most at heavily discounted prices.

As a new model, the 30-98’s bubble had finally burst.

So it is gratifying that around a third of the 600 30-98s produced (including 312 OEs) survive, and that so many benefited from the wide variety of coachbuilders available in period – or were fitted with bespoke bodies in later years – as illustrated by our quintet.

The elegant boat-tail body incorporates generous boot space

By the early ’30s, plenty had found lives with new enthusiast owners still keen to compete, many of whom adopted the newly formed VSCC as a default 30-98 owners’ club.

You can imagine some of its number campaigning their OEs here at Luton Hoo for the VSCC’s speed trials.

John Worth’s 1925 OE Velox (factory body) tourer is a fine baseline, representing the standard model in all its glory.

A matching-numbers car, in its second ownership from 1935-2000, it was the subject of a meticulous two-year restoration from 2014, with the aim of returning the car to its original specification and appearance.

Yet another different control layout, this 30-98 has a conventional right-foot throttle

Entering the cabin from the passenger side (the external brake lever means no driver’s door), you sit behind a high-set steering wheel, its column sprouting from a five-dial, turned-aluminium dashboard.

The reverse-H, open-gated four-speed gearshift nestles by your right knee, and it takes a minute to adjust to the OE’s centre-throttle operation.

But once under way, this Velox is close to how a new car would have felt when it left the line at Kimpton Road: tall-geared, refined, immensely stable and deceptively rapid.

No original saloon-bodied cars survive, but Charlie Bishop’s 1926 OE Clinton Saloon is a faithful recreation

Once up to speed, the steering is surprisingly light with minimal play, and all the controls function with a well-oiled precision – even if the outside brake lever needs a forceful tug to haul it to a halt.

Unlike the Velox, you can enter Charlie Bishop’s 1926 OE Clinton Saloon replica on the driver’s side.

Of the 40 saloon bodies made, none survive; OE278 was originally built as a saloon, but when discovered in a barn 27 years ago its body had disintegrated to the extent that a new one had to be made from scratch.

It’s now the only 30-98 saloon in the world, and mechanically on the button, its engine replete with a new cylinder block and head.

The Clinton Saloon’s raised headlights betray its post-1925 production

Based on the richness of its cabin architecture alone, and the well-appointed rear space, this would have been a tough act for Bentley to follow.

Perched behind a split front ’screen, the taper of the Clinton body means a smaller footwell, added to which the handbrake joins the gearlever inboard.

Its torquey performance is on a par with the Velox – as is the remarkable pace it carries – and the tautness and near-silence of the body-on-frame structure is impressive.

The lavishly trimmed cabin makes this Clinton Saloon the most luxurious car here

Tim Jones’ 1925 Wensum-bodied OE was originally built as a Clinton Saloon, too.

It fell on hard times after the war, and was found pulling a lawnmower across a cricket pitch by VSCC president Tim Carson in 1952.

Carson rebodied it as a Special, similar to the 30-98 he’d raced in the ’30s, but, as Jones discovered when he acquired the car as a student in 1985, it had been shortened, losing its strengthening crossmembers.

Tim restored the chassis to factory spec and fitted the replica Wensum body it wears today.

‘The OE-type 30-98 was Britain’s first catalogued 100mph production car, which, given Vauxhall’s pre-war track record as a maker of “superexcellent” sporting machinery, was no great surprise’

In the past 40 years it’s been in constant use, taking in circuit racing and hillclimbs as well as annual family holidays (sans hood) to France and Cornwall.

No doors here, so you vault over the body and find yourself ensconced in a beautifully patinated cabin, more akin to a vintage pleasure craft than a sports car.

Yet another variation has both handbrake and gearlever outside the body, though with this car featuring the later hydraulic system, you do most braking via the right-hand brake pedal.

Charlie Bishop’s car is the only 30-98 saloon in the world

You drive with your right arm hanging outside the body, such are the Wensum’s narrow dimensions, but this is easily the second-fastest OE here.

Blatting up Hoo’s hill, its main controls and chassis dynamics are honed to perfection; you really do feel as if you could drive it anywhere.

Once upon a time, that was true of Charlie Prince’s 1923 Mulliner Boat Tail OE.

Starting life as a factory Velox, its first owner took it to Persia (now Iran), where it stayed until his death a few years later.

‘Sporting Dunlop Racing tyres, cycle wings and a four-branch exhaust from the offside, AOA 2 is an OE like no other’

His son, Charles Agar, drove the car back to Manchester in 1930, recording the epic journey in The Autocar.

Its subsequent owner then had HJ Mulliner fit the Boat Tail body in 1933, and kept the car until 1966.

Like many 30-98s, this OE gained a Delage front axle along the way, and, while purists may grumble, it significantly improves the model’s greatest failing: braking performance.

It also means we have yet another different control layout, with a conventional right-foot throttle.

AOA 2’s non-standard twin carbs

Practical, with a relatively spacious two-seater cabin and a capacious boot in its tapered tail, the Mulliner is a refined antidote to Tim’s pared-down Wensum.

If you were new to the quirks of vintage motoring, this is the car you’d bond with immediately, being the easiest to drive yet still retaining the OE’s unique character.

But we end where we started.

AOA 2 is probably the best-known 30-98 competition car, campaigned today by classic specialist Gregor Fisken.

The right-hand throttle and central gears are intuitive

Based on chassis OE152, built in 1924, the car’s racing history starts in ’33, when it was rebuilt to TT regulations as a Special for owner Ronald Hughes.

A string of successes followed its first outing at Brooklands in ’34, including setting the fastest pre-war time at Shelsley Walsh, as well as podium finishes at notable Brooklands races such as the 1936 Whitsun Mountain Handicap and the ’37 Easter Mountain Handicap.

Hughes sold the car in 1943, and its following three owners continued to use the car competitively, with only minor cosmetic changes made along the way.

There are still nods to the past at the old Kimpton Road Vauxhall headquarters

With Luton Hoo’s ‘track’ before us, AOA 2 is in its element.

Sporting Dunlop Racing tyres, cycle wings, and a four-branch exhaust from the offside bonnet panel, this is an OE like no other.

You engage a tall first through a central lever (still a reverse-H pattern) and floor the right-hand throttle.

All hell breaks loose, but the frantic pace is matched by a chassis that feels tied down, secure and alive with response.

‘We have gathered them because all are OE-type models, which started production barely a mile from here a century ago in 1923’

Pomeroy would have been proud; and, had he been looking out from his office window at Vauxhall’s 1907 Luton HQ, where we bid our farewells, I’m sure he would have approved of AOA 2’s tyre-smoking departure…

Images: Luc Lacey

Thanks to: David Kirke; Andrew Duerden at the Vauxhall Archive; Luton Hoo hotel; Nic Portway; Charles Prince Classic Cars

Competition time at Luton Hoo

Luton Hoo hosted the first Vintage Sports-Car Club meeting in 1948

Speed trials and hillclimbs had initially been held at Luton Hoo, then the private home of the Wernher family, between 1908 and 1923, with the first event hosted by the Bedfordshire Motor Club running along a 1.1-mile road leading to the main residence.

After WW2, and despite petrol rationing threatening motorsport activity, the track was reopened and extended to 1.4 miles in total, thanks to the addition of a return leg.

The VSCC held its first meeting there in March 1948, with notable entries from Tony Crook in an Alfa Romeo 2.9, Arthur Mallock in an Austin Seven Special and John Bolster in his ‘Bloody Mary’ Special.

Leicester’s Bob Gerard took top honours with a BTD of 74.4 secs in his ERA, R4B.

Sadly, when the VSCC held the same event the following year, amateur racer Ken Jarvis struck a tree in his single-seater Austin Seven during practice and was killed.

The track was never used again.

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