Picked up a one owner Victa Concorde last week, just gave it a clean and look over and thought i would post some pics. Starts and runs great, I like the fuel cap with the stepped perspex centre so you can tell the fuel level in the tank without removing the cap. The other thing is the blade carrier, It's got more curves than a Bikini modelling contest. It has hardly got a flat section on it and has on opposing sides a tapered piece of flat steel with a hole in the end on the top side of the carrier. Must be some sort of engineering genius behind the design or maybe it was some marketing B/S of the time ?
Nice mower, hardly any wear on rear tyres. Should last you 15+ years if treated nicely......... I'd just tie a piece of wire on the flat to lift it a few inches to recycle the grass........ speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Victa went through all sorts of blade carrier designs, and I guess they paid somebody a lot of money to design them. At the end of the day I think it was all smoke and mirrors because Rover just stuck with just a dished and now many of them are just fitted with a single blade bar. Guess where most of the cuttings end up, in the catcher regardless of the blade carrier type
Hello wce, speedy and Norm I believe the Victa Concorde was a store brand, rather than part of the Victa range.
wce, would it be possible to get an image of the front decal - on the dress cowl. I suspect this was a Betta Electrical job.
The issue of the 'curvy bladeholder' is worth consideration. As Norm said, Rover (and others) stuck with a classic design, but with four fluted blades.
Since the 1970s, Victa seem to have been on a mission to reduce the number of component parts. We see this in chassis design, engine design, carby design and ignition design.... everything! Fewer parts - lower production costs - quicker assembly - higher profits.
If you could get a curvy, pressed bladeholder to do the job of a set of blades, then there would be an advantage. The other interest Victa had was in reducing noise.
It is recognised that most mower noise is aerodynamic - from the cutting action and the engine flywheel - not the exhaust.
Here, we understand Victa's collaboration with CSIRO on a new blade holder that would be licensed for use on the Victa Vortex.
Interesting mustard colour to the top. I notice a series 80 engine indicating it dates from 1979/80 as the stop gap engine before the side pull series full crank arrived during 1980. Amazing what knowledge I've picked up by reading the past ODK forums. Does it have a catcher? They can be harder to find in good condition. Thumb latch catchers from many model years will fit though.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Sadly the catcher suffered terminal damage during one of the shifts from QLD before the family finally settled in WA. There is a Concorde model listed in the Victa model info chart 87/88 to 90/91. Picture of front of engine cowling attached Jack.
G'day wce and all Many thanks for that important image. This does add to the history record for the Victa Concorde.
There is no store branding. - but I do not believe it was part of the factory Victa range of the time. That it is listed in the Victa Code system in the late 1980s is telling. That requires a separate explanation.
My best guess is that this is a Victa 'Stencil' offered to various mass-merchandisers, but with an additional trick ...
The store was not identified, but the model name was unique to the store. Hence, Celectial to Waltons, Concorde to Betta Electrical, Pace to Norman Ross, etc.
Of course, this arrangement was only offered to the 'big' accounts, and I guess, for a limited number of years.
We have certainly learnt more about the Victa Concorde thanks to your posts. Thanks to Mowerfreak for the accurate dating.
