Vauxhall Vectra V6 Estate - Super Racing Internationale

[W00DY]

In a move that makes absolutely no sense I've got rid of my E39 530i and bought a ropey old Vectra.

Why? Well I've never owned a V6 and always had a bit of a soft spot for the Vectra since I was a lad and my Father had a few as company cars. I needed an estate and this was cheap so I took a punt. Life is about experiences and this I'm sure will be one of those.


I give you the 2001 Vauxhall Vectra SRI 2.6 V6 Estate.



It drives pretty well considering it's an old Vectra with 140k miles on the clock and the V6 sounds lovely. The non-telescoping steering column is really st and it's pretty dirty having been off the road for 5 years or so, until it was revived and given a fresh cambelt. It could use some love, but we'll have to see how much it deserves.

[Trophy Husband]

W00DY said:

In a move that makes absolutely no sense I've got rid of my E39 530i and bought a ropey old Vectra.

Why? Well I've never owned a V6 and always had a bit of a soft spot for the Vectra since I was a lad and my Father had a few as company cars. I needed an estate and this was cheap so I took a punt. Life is about experiences and this I'm sure will be one of those.


I give you the 2001 Vauxhall Vectra SRI 2.6 V6 Estate.



It drives pretty well considering it's an old Vectra with 140k miles on the clock and the V6 sounds lovely. The non-telescoping steering column is really st and it's pretty dirty having been off the road for 5 years or so, until it was revived and given a fresh cambelt. It could use some love, but we'll have to see how much it deserves.

It deserves all of it!
Think a rebadged Saab?
Not the other way around!

[Torquey]

I absolutely love these cars despite the criticism they get. Had a few over the years (SRI and GSIs) and hold some of the best memories.

Only mod required was a performance air filter.

[devnull]

Love the number plate - DERP.

I had a vectra for 4 years when I was 21 in 2003. It had an engine and spec that I never knew existed - the 1.6 8v envoy model. I wrung every last bhp out it and then some.

Always remember the vvoc members thinking that the 2.5 V6 was some kind of epic fast machine and could outdo impreza turbos. Also remember there was a hallowed press car with likely the only instance of sat nav being fitted to it - ultra epic rare hens teeth. Found it https://passionford.com/forum/cars-for-sale/262089...

Enjoy it OP - loads of happy memories in mine!

[Fluffsri]

I had a 2.5 SRI for 9 years. Did everything I needed it to very well, I loved it! It ended up heavily modified and went like the clappers LOL. Enjoy it!

[Mr Tidy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

I had a 1992 Cavalier SRi in the mid-90s and really liked it, but then in the late 90s I got collected from a station in a V6 Cavalier for a business meeting and remember being pretty impressed with it - especially how it sounded!

[Carlososos]

As others have said induction kit works lovely on these if for nothing else they make it sound throaty.

[Giles_L]

I had a P reg 2.5 Sri estate about 15 years ago, really nice engine and drove quite nicely.

[whytheory]

I jumped on the hater bandwagon in period but I have a thing for these 90/00's Vauxhalls now, especially the Vectra, look at those wing mirrors!

Look forward to updates, and more pictures

[alexcrosse]

Yes! love this. I often did a similar thing. When I used to have a 'shed' e46 330, I constantly looked at 2.5 vectras to replace it.

I used to frequent migweb back in the day because I had a C16XE in my old mini. I always used to look at the Vectra Challenge cars that would occationally come up. 888 built touring cars with dog boxes, AP brakes, PI dashs, & blueprinted MSD V6s in. Mega special and they used to swap hands for about £5-6k back in the day!

Couldn't buy a gearbox for that now...

Anyway! Looking forward to seeing how you enjoy it. Love a vauxhall, love a v6, love an estate!

[SturdyHSV]

Yeet Derp is an excellent number plate, look forward to seeing how this goes.

At what point should the "BTCC wrap" comments start?

[W00DY]

Thanks for all the comments chaps. Would never have thought it'd get any love here, but they're becoming very rare.

Trophy Husband said:

It deserves all of it!
Think a rebadged Saab?
Not the other way around!

I didn't much care for my 9-3 so can't say that'll work for me, but initial impressions are that I much prefer the Vectra.

devnull said:

Love the number plate - DERP.

I had a vectra for 4 years when I was 21 in 2003. It had an engine and spec that I never knew existed - the 1.6 8v envoy model. I wrung every last bhp out it and then some.

Always remember the vvoc members thinking that the 2.5 V6 was some kind of epic fast machine and could outdo impreza turbos. Also remember there was a hallowed press car with likely the only instance of sat nav being fitted to it - ultra epic rare hens teeth. Found it https://passionford.com/forum/cars-for-sale/262089...

Enjoy it OP - loads of happy memories in mine!

Yeet Derp has made the numberplate usefully easy to remember. I do love a base spec car so that sounds great. This isn't fast, but it does feel quicker than I expected 170bhp to feel. I guess it's probably fairly light by modern standards. A GSI would've been nice, but the prices some are asking are mental.

Fluffsri said:

I had a 2.5 SRI for 9 years. Did everything I needed it to very well, I loved it! It ended up heavily modified and went like the clappers LOL. Enjoy it!

Awesome, can't see me keeping this 9 years, hopefully it'll prove useful and at least slightly interesting.

Mr Tidy said:

I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

I had a 1992 Cavalier SRi in the mid-90s and really liked it, but then in the late 90s I got collected from a station in a V6 Cavalier for a business meeting and remember being pretty impressed with it - especially how it sounded!

It does sound great. I don't think so many people have fond memories of the Vectra, but for me that's part of the appeal.

Carlososos said:

As others have said induction kit works lovely on these if for nothing else they make it sound throaty.

It's on my "to do" list, need to do some research on what works and what is currently available.

Giles_L said:

I had a P reg 2.5 Sri estate about 15 years ago, really nice engine and drove quite nicely.

I prefer the looks of the pre-facelift cars, whilst the facelift cars supposedly drive better, but it's not as if I had a choice.

whytheory said:

I jumped on the hater bandwagon in period but I have a thing for these 90/00's Vauxhalls now, especially the Vectra, look at those wing mirrors!

Look forward to updates, and more pictures

Looking back it seems odd that there were so many Vectra haters, but it has at least kept prices low and now the subtle differences between it and its rivals have become irrelevant. Vauxhall had lots of nice design touches in this period like the mirrors, but the brand itself seemed a bit uncool and old fashioned.

alexcrosse said:

Yes! love this. I often did a similar thing. When I used to have a 'shed' e46 330, I constantly looked at 2.5 vectras to replace it.

I used to frequent migweb back in the day because I had a C16XE in my old mini. I always used to look at the Vectra Challenge cars that would occationally come up. 888 built touring cars with dog boxes, AP brakes, PI dashs, & blueprinted MSD V6s in. Mega special and they used to swap hands for about £5-6k back in the day!

Couldn't buy a gearbox for that now...

Anyway! Looking forward to seeing how you enjoy it. Love a vauxhall, love a v6, love an estate!

It's certainly a long way off a similar aged BMW in feel and quality, but it's all lasted pretty well.

Vectras did make for great looking race cars. I realised I hadn't mentioned that another reason for the purchase is my love for 90s BTCC, any warm version of normal family saloons are therefore cool in my eyes.

SturdyHSV said:

Yeet Derp is an excellent number plate, look forward to seeing how this goes.

At what point should the "BTCC wrap" comments start?

A BTCC inspired estate would be pretty cool, but I think thaat might be out of the budget and my girlfriend would almost certainly disapprove.

[W00DY]

I will get more photos at some point showing a slightly unloved car that has been awoken after a long period of not doing much. The chap I bought it from has owned it since 2003 as his family car and when they bought a new car in 2015 it just lived in the yard at his car dealership, but since he's selling up now it had to go. Usefully he put a fresh cambelt on it and an MOT, but that's about it, so a good service is first on the list of jobs.

[s m]

Torquey said:

I absolutely love these cars despite the criticism they get. Had a few over the years (SRI and GSIs) and hold some of the best memories.

Only mod required was a performance air filter.

Same here - the GSIs sound fantastic

[s m]

Mr Tidy said:

I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

I had a 1992 Cavalier SRi in the mid-90s and really liked it, but then in the late 90s I got collected from a station in a V6 Cavalier for a business meeting and remember being pretty impressed with it - especially how it sounded!

Very good memories of the Cavalier V6 as well too Mr T!

A friend bought one of the late runout models when it was just a budget banger ( or shed money now )

Sounded really great on the standard exhaust. In my opinion the engine was putting out VERY BIG horses for 167bhp

He took my friend across to pick up his M3 from Moseley Mototorsport one sunny evening. Coming back, M3 nicely warmed and running well, friend decided to put the hammer down and unleash all the S14’s competition heritage, put the budget Vauxhall in its place ………..


…….only it didn’t. Cavalier was glued to the M3s rear all the way home

On the bypass he pulled alongside and we had some in gear ‘pulls’ - literally nothing in it - just down to who got on the throttle earlier

M3 owning mate was very surprised. Often wish I’d bought that Cavalier off my friend for a cheap roomy daily
Steering was a bit quicker on the V6 Cavaliers too iirc

[Huskyman]

I owned a T plate SRi 2.5v6 saloon in the late 00’s and really liked it. Despite my best efforts rust took hold in the rear arches. I did fair bit of work to it including replacing the rear manifold that cracks on those. It replaced a 1.8 vectra that got squashed by a bus… Weirdly the v6 was better on fuel and sounded lovely. Still miss it.

[bungz]

One of the comfiest cars I had was a Vectra B.

9 years old utterly rotten, slow Di version, aircon didn't take gas, and shook quite violently at 70mph and above.

Still loved it as my first barge.

Then the diff shat itself out the side of the gearbox on the M6.

Shame

[Davie]

I can't even remember the last time I saw a Vectra B estate let alone an SRi V6... in fact the last estate I probably saw was my old GSi Tourer and that was probably 2012 era perhaps? Yours looks surprisingly good all things considered, the Vectras you do see these days are either utterly hanging or enthusiast owned so seeing one like that feels a bit time warp!

[molineux1980]

Slightly oddly, I'm pondering an estate to sling the MTB into the back of, and i've a V6 itch.

I was actually pondering a Vectra V6 as I found the mirror design interesting at launch, and loved the BTCC Vectras.

Watching with interest.

[D1bram]

Like that! For me, that era marked the end of Vauxhalls which held something of an appeal