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REVIEW Vauxhall VXR8 GTS
Wizard of Oz
An Aussie muscle car is rebadged as a Vauxhall and comes to the UK. Get ready to tie your kangaroos down…
Australia has made a major contribution to British culture over the past few decades. We’ve laughed with Dame Edna Everage, sung along with Kylie and tried to work out what it is yet with Rolf Harris. And who hasn’t sipped a cheeky little Aussie chardonnay? But the land down under has also started exporting cars to us in recent years. Or, more accurately, one specific car, a Holden Specialist Vehicles (HSV) E3 GTS, which has been imported by Vauxhall (both companies are part of General Motors) and renamed the VXR8. Its appearance is pretty much what you’d
expect from a modern Aussie muscle car – brash, brutalist and with the subtlety of a punch from a boxing kangaroo. But in a good way. It wears its fire-breathing, V8-powered monster’s heart on its sleeve, thanks in part to the new ‘Shockwave’ grille, air intakes and LED running lights at the front, plus the twin exhausts and lairy spoiler at the back. The range of colours that scream “Look at me!” does nothing to detract from the impression that this is not a car to mess with. Its muscular profile is a good reflection of the
car’s character, which is very much dictated by what’s under the bonnet – a 6.2-litre V8
Dump the clutch and the VXR8 does a credible
impression of a quickie from Glenn McGrath
driving | April / May 2011
producing 425bhp at 6,000rpm and 406lb/ft of torque at 4,600rpm, which results in a 0-60mph time of 4.9 seconds and a limited top speed of 155mph. As these output figures suggest, the VXR8 really comes alive at higher revs, especially above 4,000rpm, when the booming, snarling V8 comes into its own and it starts to gather pace rapidly. The engine can be mated to one of two six-speed transmissions, a manual and an auto: the auto isn’t bad, but it’s a bit slow on the uptake, so the manual is the one to go for to truly make the most of the car’s performance. But all that power would be pointless without dynamics that enable it to be deployed to maximum effect. Thankfully, a taut chassis means that body control is superb and the ride is surprisingly compliant, thanks to Vauxhall’s Magnetic Ride Control (MRC), a suspension system that works by sending an electric current through damper units filled with magnetic particles, and which adapts up to 1,000 times a second to road conditions and driver inputs. The steering is also direct and accurate, so it goes exactly where you point it, and there’s lots of grip available to ensure that the VXR8’s power is usable. Of course there’s a price to pay – and we’re not talking about the fact that if you’re not careful at reining in the VXR8, you could very quickly find yourself racking up the penalty points. No, this is one thirsty car. The official fuel consumption is just 20.9mpg (20.6mpg for the auto): in the real world, however, the average owner of a V8-powered car will be looking at returns closer to the low teens. The CO2 emissions figure of 320g/km (324g/km for the auto) also means that vehicle excise duty will cost
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