RE: Very fast Vauxhalls | Six of the Best

[Firebobby]

wormus said:

Pickle_Party_247 said:

wormus said:

Not really, it’s a thread about fast Vauxhalls and the fact is that GTS is priced correctly. BMW fan boys would buy an M5 instead but it’s largely irrelevant as the sort of person who’d buy the Vauxhall wouldn’t choose a BMW.

The real point is that the vast vast majority of people who have £50k to drop on something fast won't be buying a Vauxhall!!

Why does that matter & how is it relevant? It only needs one person to buy it & personally, I'd rather drive a rare Vauxhall/Holden than own a mass produced, dull BMW.

Would that be a dull mass produced vauxhall or were the Holden's "hand built"?

[greenarrow]

How can you have a fast Vauxhall six of the best article without an Astra?!!! GTE, GSI, VXR....surely worthy of inclusion......

[richinlondon]

always preferred how the VX220 looked over the Lotus product.

[greenarrow]

mcpoot said:

It's only relevant because you rather petulantly said you couldn't see the point being made and accused anyone one preferring a M5 over your beloved VXR8 as a BMW fan boy.
It's ok to go your own way and prefer your Holden/Vauxhall just as it's ok for the rest of us to say we'd rather the superior M5.

Which M5 is superior? Probably not the F10 M5 with its chocolate engine and reputation for dullness amongst M5s, which you can pick up for around £30K for similar age and mileage to the VXR8 featured in this article. I think I would take the VXR8 over that model, if not the later G30 M5, a competition example from 2019 of which is for sale on this site for £45990 (wow, M5s really do depreciate!!)...... I currently am running around in a BMW and a Vauxhall btw, so I've no particular bias in this debate.

[RazerSauber]

Fast and Spurious said:

Great - 2 of you agree its a Vauxhall. Well done!
It's still a Lotus - Type 109

Type 104 for a start but it's a Vauxhall body, chassis, engine, gearbox and electronics. There was some engineering done and a turbo added by Lotus. Just because Lotus gave it a type designation, doesn't mean it's a Lotus vehicle. They designed the majority of the Sinclair C5 and a Lotus engine block went into the C4 Corvette ZR1. Are they both Lotuses? Or does "it's a still a Lotus" depend purely on it having a type designation?

smilo996 said:

Criticising Vauxhall for doing badge jobs is a bit odd considering they are Opel in Germany and companies like VW have morphed into masters of this.

I don't think many big manufacturers don't have badge engineered vehicles now. BMW perhaps are the exception, Porsche.

Deranged Rover said:

As to the list - no Cavalier Turbo? 204bhp, 150mph and 0-60 in 6 seconds sounds like fun to me!

Shame it had a transfer box made out of chocolate. Fast for the time but requiring constant tyre rotation and replacements to keep the transfer box happy is a major drawback. I believe just a better intercooler boosts power quite substantially though. I still think the V6 was the better engine overall. Most of the power but none of the drive train fiddling.

[DKS]

RazerSauber said:

Type 104 for a start but it's a Vauxhall body, chassis, engine, gearbox and electronics. There was some engineering done and a turbo added by Lotus.

Are you saying Lotus designed the Z20LET engine? Interesting.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

I love a Zafira GSI/VXR. Had a look at a Zafira GSI back in about 2008 though and remember the interior feeling really dated even back then. Probably gone full circle now and is magnificently retro. I'm odd like that though - I loved the Vectra VXR too - HUGE estate with lots of power through the front wheels for super stupidness. Loved it more for Clarkson slating it...

[anonymous-user]

Firebobby said:

wormus said:

Pickle_Party_247 said:

wormus said:

Not really, it’s a thread about fast Vauxhalls and the fact is that GTS is priced correctly. BMW fan boys would buy an M5 instead but it’s largely irrelevant as the sort of person who’d buy the Vauxhall wouldn’t choose a BMW.

The real point is that the vast vast majority of people who have £50k to drop on something fast won't be buying a Vauxhall!!

Why does that matter & how is it relevant? It only needs one person to buy it & personally, I'd rather drive a rare Vauxhall/Holden than own a mass produced, dull BMW.

Would that be a dull mass produced vauxhall or were the Holden's "hand built"?

There are only 40 VXR8 GTS in the U.K. and they stopped making them in 2017 after Holden closed its doors. It remains the most powerful car Vauxhall sold.

There are about 2200 M5 Competitions in the U.K.

See the difference? Vauxhall - rare and collectible hence better residual value. BMW - common chav wagon in waiting.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

In fact the more I look at that Zafira the more I like it. £5k for a useable, quickish, quirky classic... seems almost sensible. And its local to me... luckily no room on the drive at the minute for a 130k mile 21 year old Zafira

[Rich Boy Spanner]

JRHartless said:

Why is the VXR8 so expensive compared to V8's of a similar vintage from other manufacturers?

I'd assumed the whole point of a V8 powered Vauxhall/Holden is its supposed to be blue collar V8 but it's actually more expensive than Merc or BMW to name just two.

Well it was cheaper when new. Looks like it turned out to be an almost depreciation proof car.

[s m]

greenarrow said:

How can you have a fast Vauxhall six of the best article without an Astra?!!! GTE, GSI, VXR....surely worthy of inclusion......

I did think that too GA

[s m]

Rich Boy Spanner said:

JRHartless said:

Why is the VXR8 so expensive compared to V8's of a similar vintage from other manufacturers?

I'd assumed the whole point of a V8 powered Vauxhall/Holden is its supposed to be blue collar V8 but it's actually more expensive than Merc or BMW to name just two.

Well it was cheaper when new. Looks like it turned out to be an almost depreciation proof car.

Yep, I guess the rarity of them means they hold their value better than the German stuff. Having a manual box is attractive to me but I’d like the supercharged one if I needed a big car like this

[Davie]

RazerSauber said:

Deranged Rover said:

As to the list - no Cavalier Turbo? 204bhp, 150mph and 0-60 in 6 seconds sounds like fun to me!

Shame it had a transfer box made out of chocolate. Fast for the time but requiring constant tyre rotation and replacements to keep the transfer box happy is a major drawback. I believe just a better intercooler boosts power quite substantially though. I still think the V6 was the better engine overall. Most of the power but none of the drive train fiddling.

Probably going to have to stop you there. The transfer boxes were fine, the weak point was the fact they ran an accumulator that was linked and needed replaced once every blue moon. The boxes themselves were fine.

I bought one in 2002 and had one of the first “Locked boxes” fitted plus a few other mods… front mounted intercooler, Wallace Performance ECU, exhaust… it ran about 275bhp at its peak and withstood many launches without any issues for years.

Wasn’t the most dynamic of things but was better with Bilsteins, poly bushes, Abbott Racing steering rack brace and solid mounts. But then all performance Vauxhalls if that era benefitted from some chassis mods.

Genuinely quick car, even in standard guise… modified, mine was good for 13.5sec quarters and I saw 154mph on GPS before I got scared. Never really gave me any issues, bar self inflicted ones.

[Roberty]

eddietiv1 said:

That serves you right for buying a (mongrel) na vx220 that had been previously written off, bound to feel like a bag of spanners. Ps they can all suffer with the dreaded osmosis, I've previously owned a vhpd engined s1 and currently a vx turbo and in my opinion they are both fantastic cars, and pretty hard to separate really other than the power delivery.

Wow touchy much!

And no mine wasnt a written off mongrel. Although it has been written off since mind!

[Deranged Rover]

mcpoot said:

It's only relevant because you rather petulantly said you couldn't see the point being made and accused anyone one preferring a M5 over your beloved VXR8 as a BMW fan boy.
It's ok to go your own way and prefer your Holden/Vauxhall just as it's ok for the rest of us to say we'd rather the superior M5.

I’m sure the BMW is definitely superior in terms of higher running, servicing and parts costs.

[selondonman]

vxr8 gts, too expensive

[selondonman]

s m said:

Yep, I guess the rarity of them means they hold their value better than the German stuff. Having a manual box is attractive to me but I’d like the supercharged one if I needed a big car like this

It is far too expensive for what it is plus the rareness makes servicing and parts more expensive

do u buy at supercharged merc or jag instead .. easier to live with in the UK

[s m]

selondonman said:

s m said:

Yep, I guess the rarity of them means they hold their value better than the German stuff. Having a manual box is attractive to me but I’d like the supercharged one if I needed a big car like this

It is far too expensive for what it is plus the rareness makes servicing and parts more expensive

do u buy at supercharged merc or jag instead .. easier to live with in the UK

I don’t think you can get the Merc or Jag as a manual though unless it’s an old Jag 6-pot XJR

Personally I’d take the manual in a VXR8 s/c but chacun a son gout as they say

[AlexGSi2000]

CouncilFerrari said:

They're about, I've got a Cav GSi that I'm just finalising the restoration of.

Beautiful.

[Moospeed]

Neil1323bolts said:

Equus said:

Neil1323bolts said:

Well there’s a can of worms , but I would say the vx220 is more lotus than Vauxhall, for me it’s a lotus with a Vauxhall engine...

And Vauxhall badges, and Vauxhall identity on the V5.

But yes, I agree that it's got more Lotus DNA than the Carlton... yet Lotus owners seem to disparage the VX220, yet celebrate the Carlton. Go figure.

And my vx still proudly wears it Vauxhall badges front and rear ! I know a lot have been removed , never really understood that one, embarrassing driving a Vauxhall?

I took the rear badge off mine because it looks ste, far too big for the panel. No issue with it being identified as a Vauxhall though as it had the front and wheel badges remaining.

That was despite it being a Lotus.

If anyone has ever worked on both, or even just glanced inside the arches or in the engine bay - in fact if you had a top down view of the engine bay not showing the bodywork and identifying badges there would be a fair few experienced people that wouldn't know they were looking at the Europa or Tubby.

The main thing though - despite the looks, despite the componentry, despite being nerdy enough to "spot the difference" in the innards - it has to be the drive every time. Aside from the dreadful heater (fixable) and dreadful ABS (fixable) and missing left foot rest in the VX then you aren't missing much if you wondered how much you were missing compared to the Lotus.