A pril 1960 saw The Engineer publish a report of a visit to what is now the UK's oldest surviving car brand, namely Vauxhall Motors. The company's first model, produced in 1903, was a five-horsepower single-cylinder vehicle steered using a tiller, with two forward gears and no reverse gear. Seventy of these vehicles were produced before modifications were introduced that provided wheel steering and a reverse gear. The company moved to Luton in 1905 and by February 1959 the two-millionth car to be built at the Bedfordshire plant came off the production line. According to Luton Today, this production milestone was a cause for celebration and local MP Dr Charles Hill joined management and staff in honouring the occasion. The purpose of The Engineer's visit was lower key, concentrating as it did on two new extensions at Vauxhall's engineering department in the form of a dynamometer building and a component test facility.
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