ONE OF MY FAVOURITE VAUXHALLS – THE CRESTA PB
14 November 2024
It is always a pleasure to be re-acquainted with Ed’s 1963 PB-series Vauxhall Cresta, which is currently seeking a new home. This writer is sorely tempted by the car once promoted as possessing “all the qualities of a fine car”.
To quote Autocar published on the 5th of October 1962, the PB was “surely the most elegant Vauxhall for many years”. Three weeks later, they wrote: “Last year Vauxhall frankly astonished everyone with the good taste of the new Victor, and the Velox and Cresta range have even better proportions”. The Observer was blunter about the outgoing PA range: “Gone is the wrap-around windscreen, a pointless American styling idea that increased weight and cost, obstructed the entrance and reduced vision”.
Vauxhall introduced the PB range to the public at the 1962 London Motor Show, the Velox costing £822 4s 7d and the Cresta £918 17s 11d. They inherited their predecessor’s 2.6-litre engine and three-speed steering column gear lever, but front disc brakes were now standard. Above all, the PBs looked extremely handsome in a low-key mid-Atlantic fashion. The in-house publication Vauxhall Motorist highlighted the clean, simple and restrained lines.
The Cresta may have cost £94 13s 4d more than the Velox, but it boasted fog and reversing lamps, leather trim, a clock mounted above the driving mirror, a heater, a cigarette lighter and windscreen washers. You could also make your neighbours envy the headlamp flasher and duotone paintwork. It was also more prestigious than its stablemate, a car for a sophisticate who addressed the maître d'hôtel of the Lyons Silver Star Grill by his first name. Alternatively, you can imagine a Cresta PB dashing up the M1 for a lunch engagement at the Grill and Griddle restaurant.
Vauxhall publicity of the early 1960s is invariably entertaining, and they described the Cresta as “Simply great!”. Moreover, “In twenty years it will be remembered, not for any one refinement, but for its masterful design”. The PB also had “lots of head room – and hat room too”. After all, no self-respecting Cresta owner wished to suffer the indignity of a crushed trilby.
Luton further publicised the Cresta with appearances in various B-features from Witchcraft to The Earth Dies Screaming, where the PB out-acted several cast members. Its shining moment on screen has to be in Night Train to Paris, starring Leslie Nielson in an apparent dry run for Police Squad. Away from the silver screen, The Motor concluded the Cresta was extremely good value for money.
The PB received a facelift and 3.3-litre engines in 1964, with production ending the following year. They deserve to be remembered as examples of Vauxhall’s mastery of producing American-style vehicles for the mean streets of downtown Kingston-upon-Thames. As I wrote in Classic & Sports Car about the Cresta, it was cleverly detailed from “the under-dashboard fresh air vents, to the front bench seat that is adjustable for height via a spanner”.
Plus, it is very hard to resist a car with a strip speedometer marker that progressively changes colour from green to amber to red as you accelerate.