Astra Meets A Race Track

What happens when you take a regular hatchback and make it really, really quite fast?  You get the Vauxhall Astra VXR.  What happens when you then decide to mod the car in honour of one of the most famous race tracks in the world?  You get exactly what is shown above – an Alpine white racer with matching alloys, chequered flag graphics and much more.  This is the Vauxhall Astra VXR Nurburgring Edition.

The Vauxhall Astra VXR has 240PS and 320Nm of torque, which is a lot of power.  This is all channelled through to the front wheels – so you may find it a little happy with the understeer.  Not only that, but if you recall Clarkson‘s test drive on Top Gear, you might remember how it was quite happy to decide where it wanted to go through the use of torque steer.

For those who don’t know, this where the sheer force of torque running through the car will pull the steering wheel – in the case of the test car on Top Gear it went to the left.  Great if you’re… um… turning left.  Not so useful if you’re doing anything else really.

In spite of the faults listed above, the Astra VXR is a very useful car, having enough shove to pull you to 60 in only 6.2 seconds – making it one of the fastest hot hatches money can buy.  The 2.0 litre Turbocharged engine is nicely smooth, with continuous power all through the range until you hit about 5,500rpm.  The same really applies to the torque so you can push to almost the top rev range and know you’ll be working the car nicely.

The dynamics of the car are very well balanced – you get a low, flat ride for your money with absolutely brilliant Recaro seats that feature leather side bolsters.  They’ll hug you nicely and provide comfort for a long or short journey.  The overall experience of driving the VXR is that it is a bit of a bruiser.  All the power from the front wheels can make it tough to handle at times, but that power is a wonderful, wonderful thing.  The setup makes it quite characterful to drive too.

Whatever version of the Vauxhall Astra VXR you choose, you’ll get your piano black centre console, your head restraints, the unique gearknob and instrument panel, the multi-CD player, trip computer and keyless entry and start.  All in all, a wonderful package.

So what about the other part of the name then – what’s this Nurburgring all about then?  The Nurburgring is a racing track that was built in the 1920’s and originally had four configurations.  The modern setup is over 20km long (well the Nordschleife is anyway) and is still to this day considered one of the most dangerous and tough circuits anywhere in the world.  So this is where the inspiration for this edition came from then.

The differences, it has to be said, between the standard VXR and the Nurburgring Limited Edition are mainly cosmetic.  The interior leather is slightly different and features ‘Nurburgring’ design on the backrests.  The doors have a carbon-fibre effect and facia inserts and the door sills are custom-spec.

Of course there are a few minor differences though – notably the alloys wheels are race-track in style and are ultra-low profile and high performance.  The exhaust is a Remus and could provide up to 15PS extra power – something that’s an easy way to differentiate this car from the standard, as the sound is different between the two.

Whether it is worth the extra outlay remains to be seen, but as this is one of the hottest hatchbacks on the planet it certainly has me begging for a test drive.  Whilst it might be a big OTT for some, I’d certainly love one.