Numbers first, because with the Vauxhall 20-60 they are the story: I6, not published. Vauxhall built from 1927 to 1930, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold.
Where it came from
The Vauxhall 20-60 is a four or five-seater saloon, limousine, tourer or coupé-cabriolet manufactured by Vauxhall of Luton. It was announced on 28 September 1927 with a six-cylinder engine and a four-speed gearbox. A cautious move downmarket. "The first time any six-cylinder Vauxhall has been sold under £1000!" "British & Vauxhall". The initial 2.7-litre engine was enlarged to 3-litres after twelve months. Priced to be at the lower end of the luxury market with six cylinders, four speeds and five brakes, the better endowed 20-60 replaced the 4-cylinder Vauxhall 14-40.
Though the new engine's capacity or swept volume was enlarged by just 465 cc, the vagaries of the RAC or tax formula moved its tax rating from 14HP to 20HP. This tax increase was a significant impost for owners. Its design was completed before General Motors took control in late 1925, making the car "in construction and plan British". The 20-60 – it was given a 3.3-litre engine in October 1930 and renamed 80, later Silent Eighty – remained in production until the introduction of Vauxhall's first true General Motors large-car design, the Vauxhall Big Six, announced and displayed in October 1933 but not delivered until August 1934 long after the GM-designed medium-sized Cadet released in October 1930. This gap in Vauxhall's programme may reflect the sales-failure of their very expensive 25-70 sleeve-valve car. General Motors had taken control of Vauxhall 16 November 1925.
Under the skin
The engine is I6; the output is not published; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to no weight advised for a complete car. Drive goes through a by single-plate dry clutch to the 4-speed gearbox coupled by a fabric joint and 2¼ in. diameter tubular propeller shaft to the spiral-bevel driven semi-floating rear axle with a ba. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 10'3" 123 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Vauxhall line-up the Vauxhall 20-60 has a clear place: it replaced the Vauxhall 14-40; it handed the line to the Vauxhall Eighty – see this page; the factory was Luton, United Kingdom. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the British Motor Corporation Austin 16, the Tatra 15. Nearby in the Vauxhall catalogue sit the Vauxhall 10-4 and the Vauxhall 30/98.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Vauxhall 20-60 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.