Although Vauxhall was founded 5 years before Adam Opel set up shop, the British automaker was acquired in 1925 by General Motors in the mid-1920s. Fast forward to the late 1970s and that’s when General Motors Europe bigwigs decided to produce both Opel and Vauxhall cars on the same production lines.
Vauxhall Ellesmere Port from Cheshire, England is one of the assembly plants to do so, starting with the Vauxhall Astra Mk I, a rebadged Opel Kadett D. Operational since 1964, Ellesmere Port became the sole producer of the Astra in 2007, which is big for a factory that started with producing the HA-gen Viva.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ellesmere Port as one of the United Kingdom’s most enduring automotive plants. Furthermore, 2014 saw Vauxhall celebrate the 5 millionth vehicle produced here, a feat which couldn’t go without a wacky get-together. Before going any further, we must highlight what GM told us about the upcoming 2015 Opel Astra K.
As it happens, the new-gen Astra will be produced at Ellesmere “later in 2015”, thus employing some 300 new workers in January, 2015 as part of a £140 million investment by General Motors. With this bit of news out of the way, let’s talk some more about the production milestone celebrated at Ellesmere.
No alcohol, no cake, no 1970s disco music. This party was all about cars. In order to lighten up the mood, Vauxhall brought a curious lad known as Ellesmere Pete (stunt driver Paul Swift). If you’re curious to view Ellesmere Pete at work, from 1964 to 2014, scroll down and press play. You won’t be disappointed.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News