Archive Images

Simon Goldsworthy works his way carefully through the minefield that is the end of the alphabet, finding plenty of marques to represent V and W, but finding fewer candidates to choose from through X, Y and Z.

This issue our archive images run from V for Vauxhall to Z for Zagato.

VOLKSWAGEN

This is not something you see every day – a Volkswagen splitscreen bus that corners like it is on rails! With just 30bhp from an 1192cc flat four engine, this one is never going to be an express train, but thankfully hauling wagons was never its purpose. We believe it must be one of 30 rail- going draisines that were built for Deutsche Bundesbahn (the West German railways) in 1955. And don't worry, we had to look it up too – according to Wikipedia, a draisine is ' a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure.' I can remember as a kid riding on a draisine at the Railway Museum in York, though to move that you had to pump a handle up and down. Apparently (and again according to Wikipedia), such draisines are nowadays are used for recreation on several unused railway lines in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Poland, some other European countries and South Korea. Who knew!

VOLVO

This very individually styled automotive holdall is the Volvo PV 445 Duett, based on the contemporary PV 444 saloon but with a separate chassis instead of unibody construction. As well as a panel van and a bare chassis, it was also offered as the estate car pictured here, the Duett name signifying that it could be a working vehicle from Monday to Friday and a family car at weekends. It was built from 19531969, but was called the P210 from 1960.

VAUXHALL

Grey is all the rage today, and in 2020 there was barely a new garage door or repainted window in the country that was not given the John Major treatment. Proving there is nothing new under the sun, the HA Viva in this period press photo looks rather fetching in grey, set off nicely by what we think is Virginia creeper climbing the red brick cottage. The irony is that most press images at this time would have been in black and white, so you could argue the marketing team didn't make full use of the opportunities offered by colour photography when opting for a grey car. Still, the nattily- dressed couple look pleased with the Viva, and who can blame them?

WALLYSCAR

We are going a little off- piste with this one, but we'd never heard of it before and thought you might like to see it for the novelty value alone. It is called the WallysCar Izis, and was built in Tunisia from 20082014. It was shown at the Paris Motor Show in 2008 with a Euro 4- compliant 1360cc Peugeot petrol engine and a Euro NCAP rating – just two stars at the time, but with a promise of four by the time it went on sale according to WallysCar sales manager Rene Boesch. RHD versions were also promised for the UK market, but did they ever arrive?

WANDERER

It may look as though staff have gone overboard with the potted plants in an effort to brighten up the factory, but this foliage is actually part of the celebrations at the Wanderer factory in ChemnitzSiegmar to mark production of the 50,000th Wanderer – a Wanderer W50 convertible with a six- cylinder inline engine of 2.3-litres delivering 50bhp. The picture was taken in 1936, but nine years later in 1945, the factory had been destroyed in the war. Wanderer never recovered, and although the four- ringed Auto Union brand is still with us, only Audi from the original quartet of Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer survived.

VANDEN PLAS

There are two for the price of one in this Maestro shot from 1986. In the background is an MG version, which by this time would have had the fuel-injected 2-litre O- series engine fitted. However, it is the Vanden Plas in the foreground that is our main focus. This one would not have had the talking dash (programmed in 15 languages!), as that was discontinued in January 1986. Leather trim was standard though, with velour a no- cost option. We are probably being dense, but can any readers tell us why the musical maestro is standing in front of a sign that says: D96 NTH?

WOLSELEY

This shot shows the new Wolseley 18/ 85 in 1967, the most luxurious of the ADO17 range that had already seen Austin (from 1964) and Morris (from 1966) variants. Power came from the 1.8 B- series engine, though from 1972 the 2227cc six- cylinder E- series was fitted to create the Wolseley Six. We reckon that has to be a London location in the image, but can anybody identify exactly where from the limited detail in the frame?

YUGO

We've had more Yugos in the magazine since starting this series than at any other time previously, largely because there are so few options under the Y banner! This time it is the turn of the Yugo 55A GLS. The 45/ 55/65 series were imported into the UK from 1983. The 55 had a 1.1-litre SOHC engine which, like most of the running gear, was Fiat- derived. Unlike the smaller 903cc engine in the 45, this one had a timing belt and an interference engine design – not a happy combination when sold to budgetconscious buyers who might skimp on servicing.

ZAGATO

We've slipped this press photo in under Z for Zagato, though technically it is a 1962 Lancia Flavia Sport Zagato. I reckon it has something of the Thunderbirds look about it, probably because the unusual glass arrangement reminds me of Lady Penelope's Rolls- Royce. The regular Lancia Flavia was produced from 1961-1971, then continued until 1975 as the Lancia 2000. Over 100,000 were sold in all, but this lightweight two- door Zagato version was simply too weird looking for sales to ever get close to troubling four figures – only 629 were built after its 1962 introduction.

XM

OK, we are cheating here a little because XM is obviously the model name and by rights this should fall under C for Citroën, but did you really want another picture of the XPower MG SV...? The XM was Citroën's follow- on to the CX and the DS before that, and was produced from 1989-2000. My dad had one for a while, but the main thing I remember was that it had a manual gearbox and a foot- operated parking brake, so hill starts were impossible. But surely that can't be right – is my memory at fault, or was the design really flawed?

ZF

Not a marque as such, but this simple little cartoon was issued by ZF to show the benefit of having their Nivomat self-levelling rear suspension fitted. If the Nivomat name sounds familiar, then maybe you are thinking of the Rover SD1, which had them fitted on the back of 2600 and 3500 models. Back then they were Boge Nivomats, but Boge was taken over by Mannesmann-Sachs and became part of the ZF Sachs empire. An ingenious system that combined both suspension and damping tasks in one unit, the Nivomat would work out the best ride height and adjust this as the car drove along and axle movements pumped oil from one section to another.