Owners of 4x4s are under...
Owners of 4x4s are under attack again. Following London mayor Ken Livingstone branding urban off-road drivers "idiots", the Government"s most senior transport adviser, Prof. David Begg, has called for financial penalties, too. He wants 4x4 buyers to pay higher road tax and extra congestion charges in the capital.
Named after the famous...
Named after the famous race track in Germany, where much of the hot hatch’s pre-production development was carried out, it’s based on the standard car, but with a number of significant tweaks.
Available now for ?20,995 – a ?1,635 premium over the standard car – it comes in an all-white paint finish and matching lightweight 18-inch alloy wheels. Chequered flag graphics, tinted glass and carbon fibre-effect mirrors and B-pillars complete the exterior modifications.
Inside the theme continues, with carbon fibre detailing on the door trims and facia, while maps of the circuit are stitched into the backrests of the front seats. Each car also has a unique plaque in front of the gearlever, which displays the model’s build number.
Only 835 examples of the limited edition Astra VXR will be made. This number refers to the car’s fastest lap of the 13-mile circuit – eight minutes and 35 seconds.
And this special model should be capable of a similar feat, because apart from a Remus sports exhaust, co-developed with Vauxhall’s British Touring Car Champ?ionship-winning team, it is mechanically identical to the standard model. That means it comes with a 2.0-litre turbo?charged engine developing 237bhp, six-speed manual gearbox and electronic stability control.