RE: Vauxhall Astra GSI: Spotted
Discussion
I bet It drives better than a mercury comet convertible
I had one of these back in 1996
And the c20xe is one of the best 4 pots ever created, although mine was exchanged for a let
For more power thoroughly enjoyed mine at the time
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As a chav from that time period I salute that car and the choice of colour. Awesome bit of kit!
It was popular to buy the 1.4 version and glue the gsi body kit and vents to it.
Its Just Adz said:
I had a MK3 GSI and absolutely loved it, the C20XE was, and still is, a great engine.
I don't think it's worth anything like £5k though.
If I had the garage space I’d be seriously looking at the Mk2 16v in the OP article though I don't think it's worth anything like £5k though.
My old one exists but the guy likes it too much to sell
I had one of these new as a company car back in 93. Not mentioned in the article is that there were two versions - the 2.0 and the cheapskate 1.8 which had steel wheels with trims. Mine was the 1.8 as the 2.0 was outside the maximum car allowance for my grade. Unusually at the time I ordered mine with air-con which was great in the summer. There were several attempts to steal it but it had an alarm fitted plus a steering-pedals lock. To drive it was fine, at least at the speed I drove it. I won’t claim it was as good a handler as a contemporary Peugeot but it was good enough and got me around.
It was pretty reliable and only let me down once when the passenger side electric window failed in the down position. Fortunately I was near home and left it in the locked company underground car park until it could be fixed. From memory there was a known problem at the time with rain getting on the window motors.
The other car I considered at the time was Rover 216 GTi but could only get the single cam engine and no air-con within my spending limit. So the Vauxhall it was.
Overall, given the limits at the time I was very happy with the car.
It was pretty reliable and only let me down once when the passenger side electric window failed in the down position. Fortunately I was near home and left it in the locked company underground car park until it could be fixed. From memory there was a known problem at the time with rain getting on the window motors.
The other car I considered at the time was Rover 216 GTi but could only get the single cam engine and no air-con within my spending limit. So the Vauxhall it was.
Overall, given the limits at the time I was very happy with the car.
s m said:
Augustus Windsock said:
As an aside, does anyone else think that the mk2 GTE (as mentioned in the narrative) has a barren interior, as in there seems to be nothing in there? Mind you, minimalism isn’t necessarily a bad thing I guess.
What stuff is it missing from the interior compared to other hot hatches of the time thoughInstrumentation with oil pressure, battery voltage etc - check
Great seats - check
Central locking - check
Radio cassette with Fischer c- box storage - check
Adjustable steering wheel - check
Opening rear quarter vents - check
Sunroof - check
Hot hatches of that era didn’t have a lot of the modern stuff
There is of course something to be said for such an interior rather than some of today’s tech-fests with a plethora of switches and widgets festooned over every available surface.
So would I buy this or an XR2, or RS Turbo?
Hmmmm not sure but at this price it seems to be good value (again, difficult to quantify).
After all I’m old enough to remember 3dr Cosworths struggling around £5k...
Talking of GTE’s somebody grab hold of this champion edition on co part of all places
I’d grab it myself if I had the spare cash
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/25599949
I’d grab it myself if I had the spare cash
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/25599949
Reciprocating mass said:
Talking of GTE’s somebody grab hold of this champion edition on co part of all places
I’d grab it myself if I had the spare cash
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/25599949
Ooh that's lovely - I remember back in the day they were the most stolen car in the UK!I’d grab it myself if I had the spare cash
https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/25599949
The red-top was a fantastic engine - Swindon Engineering used to build them with nearly 300 bhp.
They were quicker than most cars in that era. I remember going to a track day at Brands Hatch with a mate, and one of his other mates took along his new company car - a red Mk3 GSi red-top. He wanted to check the tyre pressures after his first session, but he couldn't because the dust caps had melted onto the valves!
I wish I had somewhere to stash cars like this. Values are only going one way - mostly driven by Fast Ford prices.
I don’t recall these being particularly massively loved at the time, certainly not as much as the Mk2 GTE that’s for sure. Then again all the competition was too more ‘warm’ hatch thanks to the insurance craziness of the hot hatch era.
I’m sure someone who adored them at the time and doesn’t need one as a daily could stretch to five large ones, so I expect it will find a buyer at that money, but not me.
I’m sure someone who adored them at the time and doesn’t need one as a daily could stretch to five large ones, so I expect it will find a buyer at that money, but not me.
Lovely that. Not the best car of its era, but quite a handsome thing and very much of it's time. I'd always pick the RS2000 over one of these, but can still appreciate these.
It seems pretty fashionable to knock cars of this era, but they weren't nearly as bad as some make out. We got some great hot hatches in the 1990s and some great race/rally cars off the back of it.
It seems pretty fashionable to knock cars of this era, but they weren't nearly as bad as some make out. We got some great hot hatches in the 1990s and some great race/rally cars off the back of it.
CDP said:
Have you driven either?
The Vauxhalls of the 80's and early 90s were pretty decent cars for their time.
I wouldn't pay £5k for this or a MK2/MK3 Golf (and definitely not the Escort) but it's a tidy example and if somebody wants one a much cheaper option than a restoration.
I drove both back when we were all younger and the Vauxhall’s pretensions couldn’t match it’s peformance. The Lada drove as you’d expect - which is where I was going with this.
£5K for a 20 year old luke warm hatch is ludicrous money to be asking.
As an aside, I was at The Classic Car Show today. Super busy with a very different crowd to those who’d have been at a similar event 10 years ago. Prices were nuts IMO. For instance, £180K being asked for an extremely tidy but definitely not pristine BMW 3.0 CSL in neither body or paint.
Be interested to see what other attendees thought...
The Vauxhalls of the 80's and early 90s were pretty decent cars for their time.
I wouldn't pay £5k for this or a MK2/MK3 Golf (and definitely not the Escort) but it's a tidy example and if somebody wants one a much cheaper option than a restoration.
I drove both back when we were all younger and the Vauxhall’s pretensions couldn’t match it’s peformance. The Lada drove as you’d expect - which is where I was going with this.
£5K for a 20 year old luke warm hatch is ludicrous money to be asking.
As an aside, I was at The Classic Car Show today. Super busy with a very different crowd to those who’d have been at a similar event 10 years ago. Prices were nuts IMO. For instance, £180K being asked for an extremely tidy but definitely not pristine BMW 3.0 CSL in neither body or paint.
Be interested to see what other attendees thought...
Jon_S_Rally said:
Lovely that. Not the best car of its era, but quite a handsome thing and very much of it's time. I'd always pick the RS2000 over one of these, but can still appreciate these.
It seems pretty fashionable to knock cars of this era, but they weren't nearly as bad as some make out. We got some great hot hatches in the 1990s and some great race/rally cars off the back of it.
I would prefer an RS2000 too, but only in Mk1 or Mk2 format - the Mk4 just traded on the RS2000 brand and wasn't anything that special by the time it got launched IMHO.It seems pretty fashionable to knock cars of this era, but they weren't nearly as bad as some make out. We got some great hot hatches in the 1990s and some great race/rally cars off the back of it.
smithyithy said:
Wasn't this regarded as one of the worst handling FWD 'hot' hatches ever?
For some reason I think it was this car that, when at the launch on April 1st several journos were advised that after lunch they'd be meeting the Chassis engineers and someone piped up at the back of the room 'April Fools! There aren't any!' such was the poor handling and chassis.Had a red top one of these and the needle used to go right off the Speedo! My member plate read 140mph if you can, underneath the reg. My mate had a gsi 24 Carlton and he use to use double the petrol on the same return journey to Southend and we left and arrived at the same time driving silly speeds over 20 years ago!
Its funny how much stick Vauxhalls get on articles like this. I was reading the facebook link last night and nearly everyone was slating this car. Amusingly there were comments about how badly they drove when new from people who only looked about 30 years old from their profile picture.
A mate of mine had one in the early 2000s and I was quite impressed when he took me out in it. The main issue as I recall was the obtrusive traction control which used to cut in early and ruin the fun. The chassis itself was grippy and the car cornered flat. The engine was a peach and in terms of straightline performance this was a match for a 306GTi-6 which had an additional 17BHP and arrived 4 years after the GSI.
People also forget that 1992 was a bad year for hot hatches, coming after the insurance clampdown. None of the cars around then were particularly brilliant. Personally I'd take this over a Tipo or the Escort RS2000 for the enbgine alone.
A mate of mine had one in the early 2000s and I was quite impressed when he took me out in it. The main issue as I recall was the obtrusive traction control which used to cut in early and ruin the fun. The chassis itself was grippy and the car cornered flat. The engine was a peach and in terms of straightline performance this was a match for a 306GTi-6 which had an additional 17BHP and arrived 4 years after the GSI.
People also forget that 1992 was a bad year for hot hatches, coming after the insurance clampdown. None of the cars around then were particularly brilliant. Personally I'd take this over a Tipo or the Escort RS2000 for the enbgine alone.
greenarrow said:
A mate of mine had one in the early 2000s and I was quite impressed when he took me out in it. The main issue as I recall was the obtrusive traction control which used to cut in early and ruin the fun. The chassis itself was grippy and the car cornered flat. The engine was a peach
Oh man, bring back the memories. South Africa never got the 16v NA motor. I had an "Opel Kadett 200ISE" which was an 8v. Not the quickest (although faster than the mk3 GTI at least) which was a lovely cruiser. I did 160k kms in 3 years with mine.
What SA did get, was a TS. Got one hell of a reputation for torque steer, and massively tunable. Lots of them running around 11s on the 1/4. At the time, there was no faster hatch.
What SA did get, was a TS. Got one hell of a reputation for torque steer, and massively tunable. Lots of them running around 11s on the 1/4. At the time, there was no faster hatch.
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