The Vauxhall 30/98 is a 4-seater Open tourer / Closed coupé / 2-seater Sports tourer / chassis available for special bodies from Vauxhall, built from 1913 to 1922, as the assembly line was turning motoring into an industry. Under the bonnet: I4. Laurence Pomeroy drew it.
The background
The Vauxhall 30–98 is a car manufactured by Vauxhall at Luton, Bedfordshire from 1913 to 1927. In its day, its best-known configuration was the Vauxhall Velox (velox, veloc- being Latin for "swift"/"fleet" and the source of English velocity) standard 4-seater with open tourer body.
Vauxhall's own description was "the 30–98 hp Vauxhall-Velox sporting car". The 30–98 is also known to enthusiasts by Vauxhall's chassis code E. In 1995 it was authoritatively described as one of Britain's best-known sports cars and in the mid-20th century reported by Automobile Quarterly to be affectionately known as the last of the Edwardians and decreed as the first and perhaps the best British sports car.
The engineering
Power comes from I4. It weighs 2912 lb. It shifts through a E — multi-disc clutch, Hardy disc joint between clutch and gearbox, 4-speeds and reverse right-hand change gearbox, open propeller shaft, final drive by straight-cut bevel / OE — a. 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 E — 114 in / OE — 118 in / Track 54 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Vauxhall Prince Henry; its successor was the Vauxhall 20-60; assembly was at Luton. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Alfa Romeo A.L.F.A 40/60 HP, the Packard Six, the Lancia Theta-35HP — show what else the money bought that year. Its Vauxhall stablemates include the Vauxhall 10-4 and the Vauxhall A-Type.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Vauxhall 30/98 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.