Thursday 22nd August 2013

PH hillclimbs a VXR: Time For Tea?

Can a standard Astra keep up with the hillclimb boys? Watch and find out

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This year PistonHeads contributor Alisdair Suttie has been campaigning a bog-stock Astra VXR in the MSA Hillclimb Leaders Championship. You can read about his adventures here but there's a full video of his recent outing at Shelsley Walsh here. Give 'em a cheer if you're at Prescott or, as Al says, come along and give them a run for their money!

 

[Vocal Minority]

Was that you lot, then?

We did wonder why someone had trotted out their brand new road car to do a hillclimb, when the default choice is an older car, but rather modified.

And it is THE oldest racing track, and the August meeting is supposedly the longest running meeting in the world. Both since 1905 - war years excepted.

Edited by Vocal Minority on Thursday 22 August 16:10

[HeMightBeBanned]

So what time did the VXR on its standard road tyres achieve up the hill?

[Oddball RS]

135i would have been quicker........................

Or if you remember a chipped 335d (Thats going back some)


I know i know. i'll get my coat.

[DallaraV8]

Best time for the car was 35.92, class won on 32.15 by a well developed GT3, another well developed Impreza did 33.59. As Shelsley is a power hill I reckon he did pretty well.

[JAMason]

If you guys were in the VXR, then who was it in the GT-R!? Some lovely cars there on the day!

[JAMason]

If you guys were in the VXR, then who was it in the GT-R!? Some lovely cars there on the day!

[Matt97]

I remember seeing the car at Gurston Down earlier this year, was quite good for a standard VXR.

[Baryonyx]

The best car Vauxhall has made in years!

[alisdairsuttie]

Vocal Minority said:

Was that you lot, then?

We did wonder why someone had trotted out their brand new road car to do a hillclimb, when the default choice is an older car, but rather modified.

And it is THE oldest racing track, and the August meeting is supposedly the longest running meeting in the world. Both since 1905 - war years excepted.

Edited by Vocal Minority on Thursday 22 August 16:10

Yup, that was us. My best time was pretty poor in the 37s - racing excuses are all primed and ready, but the reality is I just didn't push hard enough. David did very well to get into the 35s. I promise to give it my all at Prescott (missing Gurston for family reasons).

Tony Bunker is the man in the GT-R and he's really flying. If you saw his 'moment' just off the line on one of his Saturday runs, you'll know how hard he was trying. He's also got a pacemaker fitted, though I'm not sure if that qualfies has being modified! Still, his car is chipped to 570hp.

I knew Shelsley is the oldest motorsport venue in the UK - pressure of being in front of a camera when I have a face for radio...

[andyps]

Interesting to see this, the car and driver combination was entered at Harewood Hillclimb in May, an event I didn't do but the VXR had a best time of 71.61 seconds. I started competing this year and have now done 4 events at Harewood in my factory standard Fiat Coupe 20VT which has done 188k miles and is on the original shocks and springs. My best time so far is 72.83 so I am feeling pretty good about that!

If anyone is interested there is another event at Harewood this Sunday, come along and say hello if you are there, I'm car 76 this weekend and the only Fiat Coupe entered!

Edited by andyps on Thursday 22 August 22:38

[skyrover]

Baryonyx said:

The best car Vauxhall has made in years!

"cough" monaro "cough"

[Beyond Rational]

How many unmodified cars get entered?

[Baryonyx]

skyrover said:

"cough" monaro "cough"

I find them quite dull and totally unsuited to UK roads (especially our B roads). The Astra should be more fun.

[SturdyHSV]

Baryonyx said:

skyrover said:

"cough" monaro "cough"

I find them quite dull and totally unsuited to UK roads (especially our B roads). The Astra should be more fun.

That's alright, Vauxhall didn't 'make' any of it anyway other than the badges they stuck on

Recently been taking bits off playing about and everything has 'made in australia' or a holden badge on it

[windy1]

I wonder how much weight you could take out of the car without compromising what is "standard roadgoing" spec for the class?

I reckon you could get 200kg off that easily to make it go a lot quicker.

A useful engineering excercise for the GM engineers perhaps? Their cars could do with going on a diet!

Can you believe an HA Viva weighed just 709 kg back in 1964, whereas todays astra is 1475 kg!!!

[s m]

skyrover said:

Baryonyx said:

The best car Vauxhall has made in years!

"cough" monaro "cough"

I do like the Astra ( used to own a 16v GTE ) but as a fun car I'd definitely go for the N'Ring Corsa VXR. That's just based on razzing round Oulton Park though

[DaveH23]

This may be a bit of a noob question but does the new VXR differ from the GTC?

[andyps]

Having looked further following my post above I think I should be fair and say that the day after I did my 72.83 time in July the Astra VXR driven by David Finlay did set a time of 69.11. I am still quite pleased though - when new my car had 20% less power than the VXR, almost certainly has a lot less rubber and has done a great deal more miles. On top of that it is probably worth about 2% of the cost of a new VXR!!

[andyps]

Beyond Rational said:

How many unmodified cars get entered?

There are a few, at Harewood this weekend in the class I am in there is a standard Audi S3 and a standard TT RS, not sure about some of the other cars as they aren't regulars. in the classes for under 2 litre there are probably more standard cars, but quite a few with uprated suspension and turbo cars in particular often seem to have mods to the breathing bits of the engine.

[andyps]

windy1 said:

I wonder how much weight you could take out of the car without compromising what is "standard roadgoing" spec for the class?

I reckon you could get 200kg off that easily to make it go a lot quicker.

A useful engineering excercise for the GM engineers perhaps? Their cars could do with going on a diet!

Can you believe an HA Viva weighed just 709 kg back in 1964, whereas todays astra is 1475 kg!!!

Probably not a lot, for the class the interior has to retain the seats although the drivers seat can be changed for a different type. The bonnet and boot lid can be changed for different materials. Otherwise major weight components pretty much have to remain in place. The next step is to change to the modified class which allows many more changes but gets a lot more competitive as a result.