Vauxhall Astra VXR Nurburgring Edition

Newswheel staff :: 12 December 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Vauxhall, Vauxhall Astra, Europe & UK

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The 'Ring gets rogered by Vauxhall's marketing men

There’s nothing quite like being sequestered for a special edition from a mainstream manufacturer to turn a cult following into mass market mediocrity. The latest victim is the hallowed tarmac of the Nurburgring circuit in Germany, leveraged by Vauxhall for the new Astra VXR Nurburgring Edition. Described by Vauxhall as “mechanically similar” to the boggo VXR, we can forgive the 'Ring Edition’s lack of engine mods, but surely some chassis tuning isn’t too much too ask for?

Apparently it is. Just as the 'Ring Edition’s 237bhp blown four-pot is identical to the standard VXR, its chassis settings have also been left untouched.

What, you therefore cry, is the point of this somewhat cynical special edition? Cosmetics, that’s what. Namely the striking white-with-black-check-accents paint job (we’re feeling charitable, aujourd’hui), 18-inch rims, again soaked in white paint, and a REMUS back box. And some interior graphics and gubbins including the obligatory numbered plaque. Oh, the humanity!

All of which means “Nurburgring” is probably set to go the way of “GT” or “Grand Prix” and become tired, overused and hackneyed. In the next few years, no doubt, it will be brutally raped by the marketing men and plastered all over miserable little end-of-line hatchbacks with pencil-thin tyres and tinted-glass sunroofs. Having been rendered unspeakably naff, it will be discarded, left to rot on the pile of devalued and defenestrated special edition detrius. Well, probably.