The outrageous Vauxhall Corsa VXR
23 August 2007 Stuart Milne got hold of the keys to Vauxhall's Corsa VXR and is hailing it as the perfect antidote to supercar excess. It might have taken a while, but Vauxhall has finally joined the tarmac-shredding supermini market. The current Corsa went on sale last year, but it wasn't until 2007 a truly hot version went on sale. Thankfully it was worth the wait. Something I discovered when Vauxhall brought an electric blue Corsa VXR to Auto Trader Towers yesterday. It was one of those cars which instantly brought a huge grin to my face.
The bodykit might be too heavy handed for some, but I reckon its bang on the money, particularly with that huge F1-style rear diffuser at the base of the rear bumper. An enormous centrally-mounted triangular exhaust looks ready to suck the cats eyes straight out of the road. It certainly gets the kids going. On a trip to the shops, a phalanx of hatchback-owning teenagers almost dropped their collective burgers into their laps outside McDonalds. The VXR-badged baby gets the pulses racing inside too. A pair of uncompromising front seats look and feel the part, and have the added bonus of generating complaints from your mum. But it's on the move where the VXR impresses most. The car's 1.6-litre turbocharged engine means the VXR will rocket to 62mph from rest in just 6.8 seconds before reaching 140mph flat out. That's 140mph in a Corsa!
It shines on the twisties too. It’s the bank holiday this weekend, so I'm hoping to play, but from the brief 100 mile stint I've enjoyed so far, it’s a corker. The steering is superbly responsive, enabling the car to switch direction like a five-seat go-kart. There's a bit of bodyroll, but then the suspension is just soft enough not to shatter the driver's spine every time the car travels over a stone. Compare the Corsa VXR and the Mini Cooper S back to back, and there's virtually nothing in it bar a few hundred quid and 0.2 of a second in the 0-62mph dash. The Mini might have the edge as a driver's car, but for a real sense of occasion, the VXR has the opposition licked. L.A.T.W.O.T. Video of the Week It's a racer in a Corsa VXR giving it the full moo on the Nürburgring – and why not.
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Its 17-inch alloys might look too diddy for a car which has been beaten by the Max Power stick, but it has more road presence than any supermini has the right to.
This staggering performance is thanks to the 189bhp and a massive 192lb/ft of pulling power – and a kerbweight of just over 1.2 tonnes.Page 1
