RE: VX220 Turbo replacement on its way
Tuesday 19th July 2005
Saturn Sky in DetroitRemember the Saturn Sky we featured in our report on the Detroit Motor Show back in January (see link below)?
VX220 Turbo replacement on its way
GM's 250bhp sports car due for 2006
Saturn Sky in Detroit
It's coming your way. The successor to Vauxhall's VX220 Turbo with its Lotus Elise underpinnings, will get a 250bhp 2.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine and arrive in the UK late in 2006. It will be clad in the Saturn Sky's bodyshell.
It'll be a Vauxhall, sold like the VX220 through main dealers, and will cost some £22,000 -- performance of some five seconds for 0-60mph and a top speed of 150mph is promised, according to a report in Auto Express.
Discussion
I've actually been around Goodwood in one of these cars, last winter I forced the team that work for me to do a "Roadcraft & Wetgrip" training at Goodwood, whilst overseeing them, two matt-black prototypes turned up, lapping the circuit quite briskly. I'm well known to the marshall's at Goodwood, and they said to one of the test drivers that I should have a ride, he duly obliged and I enjoyed a couple of laps. The car felt quite impressive on circuit, but it isn't a "European scale" car, it huge by sports car standards, probably a foot wider than an MX5 or S2000. Looking under the bonnet it was clear that the design had never concidered right hand drive, the slant four laying directly in the path of a right hand drive steering column.
A good effort for GM as a US sports car, but just by vertue of its size never a serious competitor on Europe.
A good effort for GM as a US sports car, but just by vertue of its size never a serious competitor on Europe.
Ratspants said:
"With an estimated weight of 1,300 kg, this version of the Sky will be nippy" from >Yahoo<.
It's just going to be a regular GM car rather than a Lotus under the covers.
Ah well, where's that S3 Elise? 2008?!?! Boo!
Ben
blimey, thats almost as heavy as my old 5 series or an M3 CSL.
Hmm... 
Or I could spend £18K on the upcoming top-spec MX-5 which will have better handling, looks, quality and packaging, AND I can have it in RHD. Then I'll bet I can spend the £4K difference on, say, a supercharger conversion, complete w/ uprated brakes and suspension?
Or how about an S2000?
And stuff the four-banger - for a £22K Saturn, I should at least get a V6!
A horrible replacement for the VX220.
Or I could spend £18K on the upcoming top-spec MX-5 which will have better handling, looks, quality and packaging, AND I can have it in RHD. Then I'll bet I can spend the £4K difference on, say, a supercharger conversion, complete w/ uprated brakes and suspension?
Or how about an S2000?
And stuff the four-banger - for a £22K Saturn, I should at least get a V6!
A horrible replacement for the VX220.
The Sky weighs 1300kgs with a smaller engine so it wont be a VX220 replacement dynamically speaking, which is a shame.
Vauxhall have missed a trick here, the VXT was keenly priced for the level of performance and handling it provides. A small tweak here and there and you are in supercar performance territory for peanuts. Yes the Elise is perhaps sharper but its not got the grunt unless you spend a significant amount more and the VXT had its own little niche.
As has been said why would you buy this over an MX5?
Vauxhall have missed a trick here, the VXT was keenly priced for the level of performance and handling it provides. A small tweak here and there and you are in supercar performance territory for peanuts. Yes the Elise is perhaps sharper but its not got the grunt unless you spend a significant amount more and the VXT had its own little niche.
As has been said why would you buy this over an MX5?
Plotloss said:
The Sky weighs 1300kgs with a smaller engine so it wont be a VX220 replacement dynamically speaking, which is a shame.
Vauxhall have missed a trick here, the VXT was keenly priced for the level of performance and handling it provides.
The VX never sold well, in GM terms. So despite the arguable "halo product" benefits of the VX, this new car will sell many more units. It's only a replacement in so far as it's the "sports car" in the GM range. A winner for GM in the long run.
Lotus will get more sales in the future when VX owners are looking to get a newer car, but VX owners were pained to have had to choose Vauxhall in the first place and as such are not the market this new car is aimed at.
Ben
Lotus will be well happy with this announcement - what's wrong with Vauxhall? Why not replace the VX with something similar, why produce this American looking heavy old crap... I was starting to like them again until this... The VX220T is an excellent car, little less sharp than the Elise / Exige but shed loads of torque with low weight and fun in much the same way... So that's Vauxhall out of the 'true' sports car market...
shot2bits said:
Lotus will be well happy with this announcement - what's wrong with Vauxhall? Why not replace the VX with something similar, why produce this American looking heavy old crap...
The same reason Saab gets stuck with rebadging Chevy trucks and Scoobies (while at the same time, comparatively massive amounts are spent on futile attempts to make us believe what we want is not a BMW or Audi, but a Cadillac
) - GM pays, GM decides... and so far, they have shown to know cr*p about the European market...
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