Vauxhall’s 60-car Heritage Collection is to move north as the manufacturer’s Griffin House headquarters in Luton edges closer to sale. There are plans de-velop to create a new public-facing permanent Heritage Centre in future, but in the meantime the collection will be temporarily rehomed at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire.
A converted 8000-square-metre building has been set aside at the plant for the collection, which represents every decade of Vauxhall’s 117-year history. Once relocation has taken place, the vehicles will be maintained on site by local specialist Manor Park Classics.
However, around a third of the collection will still have visibility outside of Ellesmere Port. Currently, 13 Vauxhalls are on display at Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton as part of the ‘Vauxhall – Made in Luton’ exhibition, which runs until the end of March, while Manor Park Classics will provide exposure for six cars at its Runcorn headquarters. These will include a 1904 6hp Light Car entered on almost every London to Brighton Veteran Car Run since 1927, a Lotus Carlton press car and fittingly, given the firm’s proximity to Ellesmere Port factory of its birth a 1989 Astra GTE.
Meanwhile, Vauxhall’s extensive archive will be relocated to its Toddington Warehouse on the outskirts of Luton, which will give Andrew Duerden, the firm’s longtime archivist, a chance to reorganise the artefacts and digitise the image library. Andrew will also be taking on responsibility for Vauxhall’s Dating Certificate service for owners of classic Griffins.
“Vauxhall is fully committed to preserving its Vauxhall Heritage Collection and Archive,’ said Simon Hucknall, Vauxhall’s Head of PR and curator of the collection. “‘We are currently developing plans for a new, purpose-built base for the collection, which will allow it to be public facing, while also bringing back its working status. This is by no means the work of a minute, but we hope to be able to share more details early next year.”
