Thursday 16th August 2012

Vauxhall Insignia gets HiPer

Trick VXR suspension coming across the Insignia range

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In an age of shared platforms and mechanical homogenisation, it's rare to find a brand that's offering a driver-oriented suspension upgrade on a mass market model. But that's exactly what Vauxhall plans to do on, of all things, the fleet-friendly Insignia range.

Hiperstrut a £1,500 option

Until now, 2.8-litre twin-turbo VXR models (and the Astra GTC and VXR) have featured a bespoke front suspension setup, dubbed Hiperstrut. Not entirely dissimilar to the Ford RevoKnuckle and Renaultsport Perfohub designs, Hiperstrut shortens steering spindle length, reduces torque steer and cornering camber change, improves steering feel and basically makes FWD more likeable. The rest have a plain old cheap-to-build MacPherson strut.

Now though, Hiperstrut is being offered as a £1,500 SuperSport Pack on the new 195hp 2.0 BiTurbo diesel - paired with 20-inch wheels and four-pot Brembo brakes grabbing 355mm cross-drilled front discs. M1 tailgating could reach whole new levels of daring.

Less torque steer, more steering feel

What's more, there's now talk of front-wheel drive Insignias also getting it. Again, it'll probably be an option, but it's still an enticing one bringing VXR-style suspension engineering to the company car park. Cumbersome name or not, the idea of a £22,500, 114g/km CO2 2.0 CDTi 160 Tech Line HiPer could well appeal next time the user-chooser list comes round.

Mind you, as Opel engineer Volker Strycek admitted to us, Hiperstrut also opens up the options list to include 20-inch wheels, offering dealers another tempting box with which to tempt you and bump the list price up a tad and suggest it's as much about margins as it is handling. Still, who's to begrudge the option and it's nice to see technical goodies like this filtering down the showroom pecking order.

 

[tim milne]

" four-pot Brembo brakes grabbing 355mm cross-drilled front discs"

A bit OTT for a family diesel saloon, surely?

[gofasterrosssco]

Will people really pay an extra £1500 for a different / improved front suspension design on their diesel Vectra?? Big shiny wheels, overly stiff springs and stick on tat perhaps, but improved suspension...?

Oh, and those single piston brake calipers aren't going to do your 20" wheels any favours

[FoundOnRoadside]

This time next year, they'll be fitting it to the 140hp 1.8VVT SRI.

[farrendahl]

Still not enough to make me actually desire a Insignia though. It's just too big and bloaty for me, and thats coming from somebody who likes big barges

[Vilhelm]

This is just plain old silly.

[Garett]

"M1 tailgating could reach whole new levels of daring."

They do seem to be the fastest things on Britain's highways and byways at the moment.

[FoundOnRoadside]

20hp faster than the normal A4 repmobile for a start.

[David87]

20" wheels on a diesel repmobile? That's crazy!

[scubadude]

tim milne said:

" four-pot Brembo brakes grabbing 355mm cross-drilled front discs"

A bit OTT for a family diesel saloon, surely?

But very useful when its packed to the roof and towing a caravan up your chuff on the M4 late one friday night- I've always thought "family" cars, especially estates should have uprated brakes.... I know how much crpa I cram in mine :-)

[shortar53]

My mother has just picked up her latest... an Astra 2.0 CDTI SRI VXLine. 19" alloys, horriffic ride, and manual rear windows. Actual, WINDY windows on £20k's worth of car.
What are they thinking.

[School boy]

If people want to spec it, fair enough. I like the idea of beefy brakes on a base line model. From reading that, do they have 4wd Insignias then?

[J4CKO]

The normal brakes are "beefy", these seem to be sourced from Boeing.

[JaguarsportXJR]

School boy said:

If people want to spec it, fair enough. I like the idea of beefy brakes on a base line model.

+1

I'd tick the box. My tight as a ducks behind mate wouldn't. Choice is a good thing.

[C.A.R.]

Dads Insignia diesel has the trick suspension with the Tour / Sport buttons, that was an option when he bought it.

Still, after driving it I think additional steering feel would do the Insignia some favours. Even if they increased the current amount of feel to 'some'.

[GTEYE]

Extra choice should always be welcomed.

I'm not sure the Insignia though has aged that well as a design....although its not that old. Something a bit bland and Primera- like about it for my tastes...

[300bhp/ton]

gofasterrosssco said:

Will people really pay an extra £1500 for a different / improved front suspension design on their diesel Vectra?? Big shiny wheels, overly stiff springs and stick on tat perhaps, but improved suspension...?

Oh, and those single piston brake calipers aren't going to do your 20" wheels any favours

I suspect the reality is, how many people actually order a diesel Vectra to spec rather than simply buying what the dealer has or can get quickly?

This means they'll make 'x' number of cars with this option regardless and they'll just be in stock and flogged. I guess there's some wiggle room for delaers too for the price.

On the flip side if they don't do this, then no, there'll probably be none.

[heightswitch]

So sir can have the std car with the crappy front suspension or pay £1500 more for a car with the suspension we should be putting on as standard anyhow???

When will people start to realise that generally front wheel drive rose over RWD because car manufacturers managed to convince the great unwashed that it was better..when acttually it was much cheaper to make...now they are trying to blag the public into paying more for another marketing gimmick which in real terms still isn't RWD..!!

When I first looked at the pics I thought that they must have bought the rights to the original mini and needed to re-use a subframe design from the 50's

Stroll on.

Edited by heightswitch on Thursday 16th August 13:06

[VXRuss]

They are NOT twin turbo, they are twin scroll turbo.

[shalmaneser]

heightswitch said:

So sir can have the std car with the crappy front suspension or pay £1500 more for a car with the suspension we should be putting on as standard anyhow???

When will people start to realise that generally front wheel drive rose over RWD because car manufacturers managed to convince the great unwashed that it was better..when acttually it was much cheaper to make...now they are trying to blag the public into paying more for another marketing gimmick which in real terms still isn't RWD..!!

When I first looked at the pics I thought that they must have bought the rights to the original mini and needed to re-use a subframe design from the 50's

Stroll on.

Edited by heightswitch on Thursday 16th August 13:06

FWD is better for the majority of motorists. More roomy interior, lower price, more forgiving handling...

It's not a conspiracy against you!

Best keep that tin foil hat on, though.

[toohuge]

300bhp/ton said:

I suspect the reality is, how many people actually order a diesel Vectra to spec rather than simply buying what the dealer has or can get quickly?

This means they'll make 'x' number of cars with this option regardless and they'll just be in stock and flogged. I guess there's some wiggle room for delaers too for the price.

On the flip side if they don't do this, then no, there'll probably be none.

Exactly this, I imagine that Vauxhall have a load of VXR suspension parts lying around. These will be offered as an option first and then rolled out on a special edition later. Dealers will just buy cars 10 at a time etc and then flog them at whatever price they can to make numbers up.

Chris