'Even to hardened motorists, the apparent rushing straight into danger without being able to see that the driver is doing anything to avert it, must be at times disconcerting.' This was the opinion of a correspondent writing in the 'Commercial Motor' magazine about the latest Vauxhall taxi, in which the driver sat behind the passenger.
OK, that was in 1905, when car design was still rather experimental; but for reasons I shall come to later, the sentiment could be said to resonate in the new, high-performance Insignia VXR.
In 1905, Vauxhall was about to move to a new factory in Luton from a site once occupied by Falk's Hall, the London seat of the 13th Century knight, Fulk le Breant, whose griffin emblem was adopted by Vauxhall as its familiar trade mark. Although still strictly speaking Vauxhall Iron Works, the Luton factory began to turn out cars in earnest, and very soon they were used for competitions, with engines designed by a young Lawrence Pomeroy, who helped power the workaday Vauxhalls into the racing hall of fame.
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the Insignia's quoted acceleration time of 5.9 seconds is to 60 mph, not 62 |
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This competitive ethos has seldom deserted the Vauxhall marque, and much of the inspiration for the iconic VXR series of cars owes its existence to the company's successful involvement in touring car championships. Notwithstanding its having been long-ago absorbed into the GM Europe network, the Vauxhall name remains pre-eminent in the minds of tin-top tifosi, and it is many of the lessons learned on the track that make the new Insignia VXR such an imposing car.
Two models are available: hatchback and touring; and it is one of the latter I tested in its range-topping Nav Sports trim, which is yours to unleash for £33,135.
The Insignia VXR Sports Tourer is powered by a 2.8-litre, V6 Turbo ECOTEC engine, with a single-scroll turbo-charger and variable valve timing. The upshot is 325 PS and a peak torque of 435 Nm, together enough to break the six-second barrier and power the car on to a regulated 155 mph. But in a market segment where milliseconds count, the Insignia's quoted acceleration time of 5.9 seconds is to 60 mph, not 62, as is the case with most other manufacturers. So if you want to compare like with like, add two or three hundred milliseconds to the 5.9 and you would be about right.
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