Thursday 7th April 2005

New fast Astra hits the streets

Vauxhall launches game and Sport Hatch this week

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Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch

Vauxhall is offering a chance to be among the first in Britain to drive the upcoming Astra VXR -- in a game that is. The company aims to bolster the appearance of the new 200bhp Astra Sport Hatch, which hits showrooms on Saturday. According to Vauxhall, the car is included in its ‘Million Mile Drive’ programme, a chance to take a three day test drive.

PHers might want to wait for the VXR though. The fastest Astra of the range, the VXR puts out 240bhp and 229lb-ft of torque from its turbocharged 2.0-litre four-pot mill, but isn't due until summer.

It's also because the VX Racing Astra Sport Hatch makes its debut in the first round of the 2005 British Touring Car Season, which gets under way on 9 April.

Online game

The game has seven levels and, said Vauxhall, allows you to race against friends or a computer-controlled rival on a choice of circuits, which all come complete with obstacles such as jumps, oil slicks, stray tyres and patches of sticky mud.

Racers can tackle seven tricky tracks in a VXR220 or Monaro VXR, and Vauxhall reckons they have handling and performance characteristics to match the dynamics and driving experience of the real production cars.

Once you’ve got used to racing using just the cursor controls on the keyboard, see if you can make the leader board by posting the best lap times on the Web

The game is here.

Astra Sport Hatch story and details here.

[klassiekerrally]

An Astra with 240 bhp...
... I'm getting old!

[Fire99]

yep but as Jeremy Clarkson said, he'd eat his own hair if the new Astra was like the prototype.

Hey Presto.. Hair on Toast it was!

I think the new Astra is pretty cool.. Even a certain fleet manager i know who is not over keen on Vauxhall likes it..

240bhp??? It'll be a blast!!

[Dougie.]

Good on Vauxhall for launching the VXR brand, they should've done something like that a long time ago.

Erm, I can't see how to make the game work on the VXR site? There's nothing to say what keys to press and pressing all of them does nothing either.

[hughesie2]

Fire99 said:

Hey Presto.. Hair on Toast it was!

[Pedant mode On]

I think it was an omelette actully

[Pedant mode Off]

[klassiekerrally]

Dougie. said:

Erm, I can't see how to make the game work on the VXR site? There's nothing to say what keys to press and pressing all of them does nothing either.

Well, how realistic can it get?

Make sure you've installed the right (latest?) Flash player and use the arrow keys. It even works on an old Mac with OS 9.2...