RE: PH Heroes: Vauxhall Astra GTE 16V

[mp3manager]

Managed to find an old photo. =^>

Edited by mp3manager on Saturday 27th September 03:19

[Mr. Potato Head]

Spotlamps are so 80s.
My first two cars had lamps bolted to them almost straight away.
I feel so old.

[K50 DEL]

Tazfan said:

G503 XAN, where are you now?

This was a black 1300cc

SORN last ran out in Oct 99, now unlicensed so probably scrapped :-(

[K50 DEL]

mp3manager said:

In Feb '86, I was searching for a white Mk1 but couldn't find a decent example. So settled for an silver 8v Mk2 on a B plate. Absolutely loved it, fantastic car for a 19 year old. B 305 MSM where are you now?

Unlicensed since Feb 1993 I'm afraid.

[markxw]

i saw that heritage GTE at the PH show, brought back happy memories. My dad had four in the late 80s and early 90s when he worked for GM. All four were stolen by joyriders, one was stolen twice in the same weekend. Back in those days in NI, the police wouldnt go near abandoned cars in case they were boobytrapped, so they phoned you to say which dodgy housing estate it had been left in, and dad would have to go and pick it up himself, once to find it only had 3 wheels left on it.

The day he got his first 16v, he got pulled doing downhill VMAX on the motorway, by an armoured montego. This was in the days before traffic police back home when they were usually too busy chasing terrorists.

Mr Plod said, "16v? very nice, first one i've seen, just got it?"
Dad says, "yeah, company car, picked it up today, it's actually the first one into NI",
Plod, "stronger top end than the old 8v it seems, we struggled to catch up with you"
Dad, "er, yeah"
Plod, "well listen, ive got the seargent in the back of the car so i've gotta make this look good, but do us a favour and try and keep it below a ton, yeah?"
Dad, "yup, sorry, will do"
Plod, "all right then, have a good day"

Awesome

[rallycross]

fastfreddy said:

rallycross said:

fastfreddy said:

I raced these when they first came out. Great engine but the suspension wasn't really that well developed and they chose an odd tyre size which meant we were limited in our choice of Blue Book listed tyres.

I could keep up with the BMW M3s down the back straight at Snetterton though.

All in all a pretty good car and I managed to get one as a company car which was handy when I needed spares for the racer

were you driving them in the uniroyle and monroe prod saloons?

Yep.

those were great race series, makes the dunlop sport max thing of today look a bit sad doesnt it?

stick some pics up, did you do the Willhire? Used to go to those events with Andrew Jeffrey, , when he had the nova sport was not much slower than the gti's!

I remember whizzo williams racing a gte at the willhire

[joz8968]

markxw said:

...Plod, "well listen, ive got the seargent in the back of the car so i've gotta make this look good, but do us a favour and try and keep it below a ton, yeah?"
Dad, "yup, sorry, will do"
Plod, "all right then, have a good day"

Awesome

Sadly, we'll never see these times again

Edited by joz8968 on Saturday 27th September 11:46

[Tibs]

I've always had a Mk2 Astra of some sort or other, love the shape of them, but never had a GTE due to insurance costs and personal situation.

Managed to get my hands on one finally nearly 2 years ago now, love it, admittedly having its down sides but overall, I dont regret buying it and love every second behind the wheel. The C20LET engine and LSD provide the grunt and certainly surprise a few more 'exotic' cars on my travels.

[rallycross]

did you fit the lsd as they never had that as standard

[Shropshiremike]

Tibs said:

I dont regret buying it and love every second behind the wheel. The C20LET engine and LSD provide the grunt and certainly surprise a few more 'exotic' cars on my travels.

Looks really tidy that does chap - good effort

I miss my 16 valver - great car and pretty economical for the performance as well.

[mark seeker]

I had 2 GTE's, an 8 valver which gave me 30,000 hassle free miles. I then traded in for 16 valver and the list of problems was endless, I never had the same feelings as for the 8v.

Comfortable, quick and soaked up the miles. Both cars were white, the only colour that you needed in 1989.

[Bigdick]

Hi,i had a 2ltr 8valve red,well orange realy as it had faded a tad!!
did 130 no problem,but when i looked in my mirror the wife's friend had gone white,and when i saw myself...so had i!!
fantastic car though with fond memories,never done 130mph since though.

Regards

Richie

[Shropshiremike]

Dave Dax builder said:

Ahhh, The only car ever to be styled on Steam Iron.

I think if you mean the teardrop shape you're forgetting the Honda CRX ...the original "steam iron" was the mk1 MR2

[neiljohnson]

I had an sri an 8 valve & a 16v all were great cars sold the 16v after rebuilding a melted engine then it tryed to kill my mate! Wish car makers were still allowed to make cars like these

[tuscanboy]

Had two 8V GTE, when I was 23. Had the first G Reg one nicked in Glasgow, and drove the replacement H Reg into a tree 6 months later. I wasn't on best terms with insurance companies!!!

[The Doggers]

It's bizarre. I haven't seen one of these for years. Then a couple of days ago I read this and then last night I saw one parked in a backstreet in Leeds centre, exact same as the one in the feature!

[Chainguy]

tuscanboy said:

Had two 8V GTE, when I was 23. Had the first G Reg one nicked in Glasgow, and drove the replacement H Reg into a tree 6 months later. I wasn't on best terms with insurance companies!!!

Glasgow was dreadful for it. I think that outside London, it was the ringing capital of the UK at one point for a few years. To easy to do back then.

[Pigeon]

Waugh-terfall said:

I like how they go and make the speedo, rev counter and the auxillary dials digital and then keep the analogue odometer and trip-meter

Non-volatile memory wasn't so straightforward in those days

The digital dash was st though, hard to read and unreliable...

[filski666]

ooooh - love em still!!!

I had a white F reg one with the coscast head, and later a burgundy H reg one.

super lift off overtseer!!!

If I could find a nice un-molested one now I would definately buy one again!

never understood why the 16v got a twin rear anti-roll bar rather than just a bigger/stiffer single one?

anyway - who cares - they were more fun, rawer and faster than a Golf GTi 16v (although it might have just felt faster) - all IMO of course

Edited by filski666 on Monday 29th September 08:38

[Shropshiremike]

filski666 said:

ooooh - love em still!!!

I had a white F reg one with the coscast head, and later a burgundy H reg one.

super lift off overtseer!!!

If I could find a nice un-molested one now I would definately buy one again!

never understood why the 16v got a twin rear anti-roll bar rather than just a bigger/stiffer single one?

anyway - who cares - they were more fun, rawer and faster than a Golf GTi 16v (although it might have just felt faster) - all IMO of course

Edited by filski666 on Monday 29th September 08:38

- sounds like yours handled the same as mine.

The front ARB on the 16v was also slightly thicker than the 8v ..... not sure whether they filtered than in on the 8v later as well though. They ran more -ve camber on the back than the 8valvers.( I think it was about 1 deg 40 mins rather than about 30 minutes for the 8 valve )
If you got the geo set up to proper factory specs it made a big difference.
I suspect, rather like Integrales of the time which were notorious for it, not many 16valvers came out the factory, with the same setting!