RE: PH Blog: Astra timeline

[JayTee94]

hill79 said:

Barely a mention of the MK4 coupe? A Bertone styled, 200bhp 2.0 turbo which while never a class leader, is still a respectable drive over ten years later? (disclosure: I own one)

oh and there was an 888 special to tie in with all those Touring Car victories in 2001.



Quite a glaring omission from an article about Astra heritage.

I agree. I am too young to appreciate the older examples but the Mk4 was the first one that I really liked. My mate also had one, albeit just with the 2.2 engine. It was very good car and he took it to Santa Pod, Croft while also getting 142mph/7.9 to 60.

All those figures for a standard car is impressive, especially considering the price now..

[whitevancam]

I have to admit I'm not a big Vauxhall fan, although I did have Mk2 GTE 16V 'Back in the day'.

The new one though is very tempting, not because I think it will be the best hot hatch, I would be very suprised if it handled like a Megane RS but because of the ownership prospects.

Vauxhall are offering 0% finance and their lifetime warranty on all models including VXR's.

280bhp hot hatch with limited slip diff, fancy front struts, 100,000 mile lifetime warranty and interest free credit, makes if much more desirable if you have to put your own hand in your pocket.

Oh and my last lap round the Ring, last year, as a passenger in a 996 Turbo with X50 kit and DMS Chip we were overtaken by one car ( the owner of the Porsche hadn't had anything come past him all weekend ) the car that overtook us.....

A Mk5 Astra GTE.......

[Killboy]

s m said:

Fantastic - great post

If you interested, my mate has a wonderful replica build of the Mike Briggs winning car. He is racing it in Superhatch and doing pretty well. I've driven the car on track and it's sublime. He has even managed to bring Mike Briggs out of retirement to co-pilot in some endurance events,

http://www.carforums.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=7&t...

Edited by Killboy on Tuesday 12th June 14:58

[FrankyH]

khushy said:

The Astra GTE and the Cavalier 2000GSi are my two fav Vauxhalls of all time - great design, perfect lines - just a shame that the cam-belt on the GSi was made of (over) used, fat ladies knickers!!!!

khushy

My favourite Vauxhall would have to be the Carlton GSi 3000 24v. 3 litre, straight 6, 24v, R.W.D., manual, in a decent sized, handsome saloon. Fast too.
I miss the equivalent Vauxhalls and Fords now.

[anything fast]

FrankyH said:

khushy said:

The Astra GTE and the Cavalier 2000GSi are my two fav Vauxhalls of all time - great design, perfect lines - just a shame that the cam-belt on the GSi was made of (over) used, fat ladies knickers!!!!

khushy

My favourite Vauxhall would have to be the Carlton GSi 3000 24v. 3 litre, straight 6, 24v, R.W.D., manual, in a decent sized, handsome saloon. Fast too.
I miss the equivalent Vauxhalls and Fords now.

the Cav 2.0l 16 4x4 Turbo was not bad either, a 6 speed box was a novetly back then makes me feel old, the modern versions just seem boring in comparison. An Insignia VXR? A what? Exactly.. miss the old 90's stuff!

[callmedave]

Ive always loved the mk2's

Ive had a few of the other hot hatches of that era, R5 GTT's, 205 GTi's Golf MK2 GTi, The R5 and Astra GTE have always been my favourite, the R5 is top, but if i was to choose wisely (reliability/practicality) then the Astra is the winner, dont mind if its the 8v or 16v, but it has to be the digital dash all the way! felt like pilot when behind the wheel of that thing. Mine regretablly got stolen after breaking down in the middle of nowhere, but i always have a cheeky glance on the 'bay to see whats what.

I did hear a rumour of people buying the crappy mazda or daewoo thing that looks like this, and dropping the GTE running gear into the shells, anyone know about this ever being done?


Callmedave

[filski666]

I had two MkII GTE 16v Astras - awesome cars, I loved them - I would have another tomorrow if I could find a good one.

But I would take a MkI GTE with a redtop over a MKII anyday - gorgeous cars!

[anything fast]

callmedave said:

Ive always loved the mk2's

Ive had a few of the other hot hatches of that era, R5 GTT's, 205 GTi's Golf MK2 GTi, The R5 and Astra GTE have always been my favourite, the R5 is top, but if i was to choose wisely (reliability/practicality) then the Astra is the winner, dont mind if its the 8v or 16v, but it has to be the digital dash all the way! felt like pilot when behind the wheel of that thing. Mine regretablly got stolen after breaking down in the middle of nowhere, but i always have a cheeky glance on the 'bay to see whats what.

I did hear a rumour of people buying the crappy mazda or daewoo thing that looks like this, and dropping the GTE running gear into the shells, anyone know about this ever being done?



Callmedave

have seen a red daewoo at santa pod, that looks bog standard but was putting in 13 sec q/miles, I think it had a 16V red top with a turbo conversion. Ugly as fook but looked like top fun..

[Astra Dan]

Woo - can I get away with posting a few pics in here?

I love my GTE 16V. My first 'fast' car.



Amazingly I got it for under £200 6 years ago. Only needed a sill patch and rear arches.



The engines are bullet-proof if given regular clean oil. Mine's on 152k now and still takes a thrashing round Combe no worries. 156BHP, 150 with cat.

Dash is awesome fun, trying to make it miss as many numbers as possible when flooring it.



Went to the heritage centre couple years back and found it's little brother snuggled next it



I'd love a standard, clean Mk1 and early Mk3 but they're all only going up in value now. If it wasn't for the rust and scarcity of parts I'd be happy using mine every day. The missus still uses our 1.3 Mk2 daily.

[zygalski]

filski666 said:

I had two MkII GTE 16v Astras - awesome cars, I loved them - I would have another tomorrow if I could find a good one.

But I would take a MkI GTE with a redtop over a MKII anyday - gorgeous cars!

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3871413.htm

[Baryonyx]

hill79 said:

Barely a mention of the MK4 coupe? A Bertone styled, 200bhp 2.0 turbo which while never a class leader, is still a respectable drive over ten years later? (disclosure: I own one)

oh and there was an 888 special to tie in with all those Touring Car victories in 2001.



Quite a glaring omission from an article about Astra heritage.

I've always thought these were pretty cool, at least the interior anyway with that bright blue colour. However, they seem largely forgotten! Hardly ever see them for sale either.

[Astra Dan]

Mk4 Coupé Turbos are the new Calibra Turbo. By that I mean people lap them up for the engines. Coupé Turbos, even clean, sub-90k mile ones go for less than £1500. They're 200BHP and can top 150MPH. The Z20LET is now the engine of choice for Corsa Cs and lesser Mk4 Astra hatches - just like the C20LET was for Mk2 Astras and Novas 10 years ago.

[Loplop]

Fastest car I've ever been in was a Mk1 Astra.

Admittedly it wasn't really standard... Running gear from a 4x4 Turbo Calibra and a bit of fettling under the bonnet that sees it pushing in excess of 300bhp in such a light body shell means that even when I've been in Overfinch Supercharged Range Rovers, Alpina B10s, M5's and a Porsche 996 GT3 RS, this Mk1 Astra is the one that has done the most damage to my kidneys. It also sits next to a concours Mk1 GTE in a double garage just up the road from where I live and on the same road one of the neighbours daughters is seeing a lad with another Mk1 Astra, so the last time I saw a Mk1? A couple of days ago...

[Baryonyx]

anything fast said:

the Cav 2.0l 16 4x4 Turbo was not bad either, a 6 speed box was a novetly back then makes me feel old, the modern versions just seem boring in comparison. An Insignia VXR? A what? Exactly.. miss the old 90's stuff!

Now they really are a forgotten performance car. Though I was quite disappointed to discover they didn't have a true permanent, symmetrical AWD, more of a front-driver with a rear assist.

[LuS1fer]

Vauxhall also had issues with many 4x4 models and had to convert them to FWD, possibly temporarily, but I recall it was a farce at the time.

[MonkeyHanger]

khushy said:

The Astra GTE and the Cavalier 2000GSi are my two fav Vauxhalls of all time - great design, perfect lines - just a shame that the cam-belt on the GSi was made of (over) used, fat ladies knickers!!!!

The cost of cam-belt-snap damage min c£3000!!!!!!

But EPIC fun when working and the first really-cool white cars.

khushy

Never had any belt problems on my GSi2000. I honestly can't remember hearing of any either.

Cylinder heads however, were a completely different story.....

[IanJ9375]

MonkeyHanger said:

Never had any belt problems on my GSi2000. I honestly can't remember hearing of any either.

Cylinder heads however, were a completely different story.....

Wasn't an issue with the belts - it was the rollers they ran on (earlier one's were a plastic that disintegrated and later replaced with metal one's)

Evo seem to like the new car lots -
http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/2844...

[IanJ9375]

callmedave said:

I did hear a rumour of people buying the crappy mazda or daewoo thing that looks like this, and dropping the GTE running gear into the shells, anyone know about this ever being done?


Callmedave

Yes - the MK2 tooling was sold to Daewoo who sold it as the Nexia, seen a few redtop conversions done

[Mouse1903]

Never owned a Vauxhall or been a fan of standard ones but always been a big fan of hot ones. Mk3 Astra GSI is probably the best looking, despite it being the weakest to drive. The Mk4 in that blue colour looks great, how such a boring looking car in standard form can look so good! My mate has a silver Mk5 VXR and it is brutally quick as standard. Personally I'd love a Mk1 or Mk2

[IanJ9375]

whitevancam said:

I have to admit I'm not a big Vauxhall fan, although I did have Mk2 GTE 16V 'Back in the day'.

The new one though is very tempting, not because I think it will be the best hot hatch, I would be very suprised if it handled like a Megane RS but because of the ownership prospects.

Vauxhall are offering 0% finance and their lifetime warranty on all models including VXR's.

280bhp hot hatch with limited slip diff, fancy front struts, 100,000 mile lifetime warranty and interest free credit, makes if much more desirable if you have to put your own hand in your pocket.

Oh and my last lap round the Ring, last year, as a passenger in a 996 Turbo with X50 kit and DMS Chip we were overtaken by one car ( the owner of the Porsche hadn't had anything come past him all weekend ) the car that overtook us.....

A Mk5 Astra GTE.......

Do you mean a MK2 GTE or a MK5 VXR?

If a VXR what colour was it as I know a few who frequent the ring quite a bit