I always thought that Victa were just trying to push the envelope with the fad of Space type Movies that were around in the late 1970's onwards, sadly the lawnmower buying public were just not sold on the looks of it I always thought and a mower had to have an exposed engine to see what we were buying. The idea of putting an engine inside a plastic box was always a recipe for disaster.
The one I had was choked full of grass when I removed the plastic cowl. I used it after cleaning and then the next time I removed the cowl again only to find quite an amount of cuttings inside again. Honestly, not acceptable.
I've always felt air cooled engines need to be out in the air and not hidden inside a designer box to look pretty.
Going forward many years to now, they'd probably sell like hot cakes as everyone wants something different don't they ?
Cheers,
BB.