I am joining the mini-supercar league ;-)

[Dakkon]

Well the 3.2 Carrera Sport has gone to her new owner and after a busy week of chasing down five examples I have finally settled on one and on Saturday I put my deposit down on an 18 month old VX220 Turbo, ex-demonstrator so has all the options in star-silver.

Just in time for the run down to Le-Mans.

Couple of questions:

I am pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I am curious as to the opinions of more experienced owners, so with its short wheel base how easy is the car to drift?

Much more importantly though is how good are the stock brakes on a trackday, do I need to look at uprating them straight away if I am thinking of a few trackdays?

[Dakkon]

Thanks for the reply.

I have been onto VX220.org, but cannot register as a new user, keeps on giving me an error message.

One other question I have is that reading an article about the VX220 NA and the Turbo it said Vauxhall reduced the front wheels slightly to induce slightly more understeer.

Is it worth putting on the wider front tyre to get rid of this understeer or do you just use your right foot to induce oversteer? Obviously it then follows can the wider tyre fit the stock 17 inch rim?

edited for my crap spelling

Edited by Dakkon on Tuesday 6th June 09:45

[Dakkon]

I have already spoken to Plans, (really nice chap on the phone) about the LSD they do for about 1200 quid.

After Le Mans I think it will go to them for a few things to be done.

I was just curious as to whether fitting a wider front tyre was worthwhile at all?

[Dakkon]

Plans say a properly set up LSD will not induce understeer and is much more effective in improving performance than more engine power as you are able to use more of your existing power.

I get very frustrasted coming off a corner and spinning up the inside wheel (Trackdays I am talking about here)

[Dakkon]

Thanks Thorney I shall try again.

As for the move from a 3.2 to the VX220T, its a revelation, 3.2 is a nice GT car, by todays standards its not that quick, but the handling is pretty good and you get a real sense of the car connected to the road, for me the running costs were a killer and one of the reasons why I sold it, even for a standard 12k service I was being given a 4 figure bill.

I have always liked the VX and test drove the VX220T when it was first launched but until recently it has stayed out of my price range. With the Porsche constantly eating money it had to go, but I wanted something that handled well and was pretty rapid.

I toyed with the idea of an S2000 as its a little more pratical, but I was also fairly sure I would get bored of it quickly.

So, I went for the VX220 Turbo, and what a car, the steering is light, the car is sooooo pointy, just turn the steering wheel and round it goes, no hesitation, it just does everything you ask, plus it has a much better power to weight ratio so is significantly quicker tha the 3.2.

I really, really like the VX and im very pleased to have made the change, it has 18 months warrantly left so if anything break Vauxhall can pick up the bill, but even general servicing should be no where near what I was paying.

Only picked it up yesterday, so a bit early for a detailed report, but so far its great, just gave it a really good clean and waxing ready for Le Mans next Thursday