MK3 Astra Gsi... who remembers?..

[D1on]

Anyone remember these?
they seem to of aged into quite a cool retro car.. and were supposedly rather rapid in their day...

What's peoples opinions?
Anyone had any experience with one?...

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/610/member68il.jp...

[Mr Happy]

Much prefer them in standard trim myself though!

I'd quite like to have one, didn't the back arches on these suffer horrendously badly from rust though?


(Found on Google Images)

[AlonzoHarris]

I had a flame red Astra 2.0 Gsi back in the days....the engine was a peach, and pretty quick, but it cost a fortune to run. I can remember it being back to Vauxhall for lots of work that I would not have expected from a car so young.

I will say, that with those 'fan' type alloys, bodykit, twin rectangular exhausts and gorgeous bonnet vents, it was one of the best looking hot hatches around.

[Fast Charlie]

As a teenager I loved these.

My olds had a calibra and I done everything I could to get them to go with the Astra but they liked the couple over the hatch

[Panda76]

Always wanted one but they were always out of reach ( financially) instead I had my Xr2 to blat about in.
A pub mate of mine was a welder at power stations and on very good money for our age,meh had one brand new in white. Lovely car, wasn't jealous much lol.

[nails1979]

When I first started working an older work mate had a dark blue with koni suspension and 17" venoms when I had a 4 speed 1 litre nova. I was in awe of it.

[QuantumTokoloshi]

There was a limited edition run of these in South Africa, using the Calibra turbo motor, the 200TS, always wanted one of them.

[SystemParanoia]

Mr Happy said:

Much prefer them in standard trim myself though!

I'd quite like to have one, didn't the back arches on these suffer horrendously badly from rust though?


(Found on Google Images)

thats not standard.

it's lowered and has a 5 stud hub conversion to allow it to run cav/calibra turbo alloys

[tali1]

Bit of a damp squib aftet GTE 16v - which was one of quickest cars in class,whereas the GSi was just class average.Even the bigger and comfier GSi Cavalier was a match for it.
No wonder it did not sell well.

[Baz Tench]

tali1 said:

Bit of a damp squib aftet GTE 16v - which was one of quickest cars in class,whereas the GSi was just class average.Even the bigger and comfier GSi Cavalier was a match for it.
No wonder it did not sell well.

That, and the fact that the hot-hatch bubble had pretty much burst by the time these came out.

It was a lottery owning one, with the theft rate etc.

[Mr Happy]

SystemParanoia said:

Mr Happy said:

Much prefer them in standard trim myself though!

I'd quite like to have one, didn't the back arches on these suffer horrendously badly from rust though?


(Found on Google Images)

thats not standard.

it's lowered and has a 5 stud hub conversion to allow it to run cav/calibra turbo alloys

It transpires you are absolutely correct. Allow me to retry:

[Crafty_]

As someone else said wanted one but it was out of reach, settled for a Cavalier Gsi that was later replaced by a turbo.

I can remember a guy from Jersey commissioned Courtenay to make one of these 4x4 using cavalier running gear. Wonder where it is now.

This was a great era in Vauxhalls, everything interchanged so swaps (engines, gearboxes, suspension, axles.. everything really!) were rife which is why so many of these got turbo'd.

They killed this model off when the XE engine got the chop due to emissions, it was later revived (about 1998 or so) with a 1.8 ecotec, didn't sell well but it was a old design and the engine was disappointing.

[SystemParanoia]

Mr Happy said:

SystemParanoia said:

Mr Happy said:

Much prefer them in standard trim myself though!

I'd quite like to have one, didn't the back arches on these suffer horrendously badly from rust though?


(Found on Google Images)

thats not standard.

it's lowered and has a 5 stud hub conversion to allow it to run cav/calibra turbo alloys

It transpires you are absolutely correct. Allow me to retry:

Much better

[anonymous-user]

Oddly enough I was just thinking today how rare it is to see any Mk 3 Astra. They were a pretty unremarkable thing anyway, but almost all of the (literally) hundreds of thousands sold seem to have vanished completely. I suppose the youngest would be 16 now and the oldest 23 years old!

[tali1]

SystemParanoia said:

Mr Happy said:

SystemParanoia said:

Mr Happy said:

Much prefer them in standard trim myself though!

I'd quite like to have one, didn't the back arches on these suffer horrendously badly from rust though?


(Found on Google Images)

thats not standard.

it's lowered and has a 5 stud hub conversion to allow it to run cav/calibra turbo alloys

It transpires you are absolutely correct. Allow me to retry:

Much better

GSIs also come with these rarer alloys- made it look like a boggo GL - no wonder owners ditched them

[s m]

tali1 said:

GSIs also come with these rarer alloys- made it look like a boggo GL - no wonder owners ditched them

Those alloys were on the slightly later cars than the original fan blades with 205s on.
IIRC they ran a 195 and were slightly narrower to combat some of the handling criticisms levelled at the Mk3 Gsi when it was launched. The late 90s cars ran a different alloy again - a 10 spoke type

[Baryonyx]

They were a very good looking car, and quite up to the competition of the time, something which Vauxhall soon lost pace with. I looked for one a couple of years ago, hoping to find a decent one for some old skool N/A hot hatch thrills (I bought a 106 Rallye). The examples I found on the used market were absolutely shocking, the absolute epitome of a car that had become almost valueless and utterly desecrated by the Max Power morons, or simply left to rot on sink estates.

[Jonny_]

dme123 said:

Oddly enough I was just thinking today how rare it is to see any Mk 3 Astra. They were a pretty unremarkable thing anyway, but almost all of the (literally) hundreds of thousands sold seem to have vanished completely. I suppose the youngest would be 16 now and the oldest 23 years old!

Only ever see them in a state of "Utter and Total Nail" these days, and even then only very rarely. Never thought a lot of this, or any other 1990s Vauxhall, but when I was in my teens these were absolutely everywhere and noticing their rarity now makes me feel old!

[Leins]

Remember reading somewhere that these were actually less aerodynamic than the Mk2. Anyone able to confirm?

[16plates]

Back in the day when i was tearing about in a series 2 escort RS Turbo, my 2 mates were in these... one with the C20XE and the other with the C20LET. XE was clean, a nice example but pretty slow. Looked well though. The LET on the other hand was a rare beast, fast as f**k as i recall.

Cool cars, not seen one on the road for years now, the good ones will be stored only to see light in the summer months and the bad ones will have rotted away by now i expect.