Twenty years ago, when the V8 powerhouse was still becoming established, someone thought it might be a good idea to add some stickers and fibreglass bodywork to the Holden Astra sedan and hatch (which were themselves rebadged Nissan Pulsars).
It is based on the Holden Astra Turbo but gets the go-fast treatment by General Motors’ white coats at Opel, which is why that brand’s trademark “lightning” badge is on the steering wheel. The up-rated engine, brakes and suspension were engineered at the Opel Performance Centre in Germany but the car is assembled in Belgium.
HSV’s input? Six badges (one on each wheel, plus the nose and tail), fitted in the phase between the docks and the dealerships.
This has some diehard fans in a spin as the coveted HSV badge has, until now, been reserved for cars that have gone down HSV’s Melbourne production line. For some enthusiasts, seeing an HSV badge on a four-cylinder car is like Jimmy Barnes singing a duet with Michael Buble. A horrible thought.
“The important thing about this car is that it delivers the performance an HSV customer would expect,” HSV managing director Phil Harding said at the 2006 local launch of the VXR. HSV has enjoyed record V8 sales over the past two years but it has rightly been hedging its bets with a four-cylinder performance car.
The VXR Nurburgring feels more poised in corners and more comfortable over bumps.
The new set-up allows you to enjoy the car more, instead of bracing every time you hit a pock-mark. I drove the VXR Nurburgring longer and harder than I drove the original model because it wasn’t a chore. It does exactly what you want it to do.
The steering and brakes feel more responsive. And we know from experience that the VXR is among the fastest of the front-drive hot hatches (0 to 100kmh in about 6.2 seconds). I was loving it - and even started thinking about taking one off HSV’s hands. I got dangerously close to calling a finance company. But, alas, it’s not perfect.
The VXR is fine for around town and open-road driving but anyone considering the occasional track day (a reasonable thought given it was named after a racetrack) will soon realise it needs a limited-slip differential. Such a device transformed the Megane R26 from an over-excited puppy into a precision instrument and I reckon it would be the finishing touch to the VXR.
At the moment, cars like the VXR rely on electronics to keep things under control. But when push comes to shove, when a hot hatch is in a hurry, stability control is as pleasant as a Band-Aid on a hairy arm.
Here’s hoping that some time soon the same engineers who came up with the Nurburgring edition of the VXR have some competitive spirit and attempt to knock off Renault’s lap time. And if they only built, say, 815 cars, they’d be even more collectable.
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