New VAUXHALL VXR8 review at a glance:
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Advantages: Shoulder-dislocating performance, in yer face styling, incredibly pliant handling, spacious, dirt cheap

Disadvantages: Tyre-shredding propensity, low rent interior, excessive (fuel) drinking issues, safety not as carefully thought through as we would have liked

Summary: Derived from Australia’s Vauxhall Vectra solution – a ground up build then we assume – the Vauxhall VXR8 is the full meat and two veg when it comes to providing the energy and raw power required to propel a four-door saloon to 62mph in under 5 seconds. Under-cutting its lorded up rivals by half (you know who you are BMW M5 and Merc E63 AMG) the VXR8 is equally at home as a family car here in the UK as it is leaving more spent rubber at the roadside than a HGV. OK, the interior is more Travel Lodge than De Vere’s, its (fuel) bar tab is immense and it give environmentalists the two-fingered salute, but wow…what a car.



New VAUXHALL VXR8 Review:
Vauxhall is referred to as Holden in Australia, and in that capacity has been known to bolt together some pretty exciting automotive kit. Just Google the words ‘Holden LS2 Maloo R8’ and you get the drift. Only you wouldn’t necessarily think so, given that you’re confronted with the image of what appears to be a customised ute. But if there’s one thing Aussies are good at then it’s going faster in a straight line than some other Aussie in a utility vehicle had before him.

The aforementioned Holden Maloo R8 was not long ago ragged across the outback in front of an audience made up entirely of a gaggle of bored marsupials and a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records; whose job it was to start and stop the countdown mechanism on his watch by the road side as a standard, production-based light-commercial breezed past him and a collection of furred and feathered critters. Packed with 6.0 litres of oomph - and possibly a few tinnies in the back - the Holden LS2 V8 Maloo blasted to 168.7 mph. Even Skippy looked impressed by all the commotion.

In theory the Vauxhall VXR8 is a very distant cousin of said ute, and comes with four doors and a boot - for the sake of civilisation - and resides here in the UK. For the more eagled-eyed of you it is of course the saloon version of the Vauxhall/Holden Monaro VXR coupe; that which gets supercar back’s up wherever and whenever it swaggers into view.

10,000 miles down under the Vauxhall VXR8 spends its days badged as Holden HSV Clubsport R8, and perhaps wouldn’t have caught our attentions but for the fact we one day noticed that its predecessor – the Monaro – could out-muscle road going stuff of Italian and German passport; for a fraction of the price.

The same perverse logic applies with the VXR8 too, which is roughly 50% less than an M5 Beemer or Merc E63 AMG. Which is borderline criminal. To look at the car is all side skirts, multi exhausts, 19” rims and LED afterburner rear lights, which make it appear the ideal vehicular transition from Subaru Impreza/Mitsubishi Evo-hood to sensible married adult, 2.4 children responsibilities. That’s of course if the kids like to be strapped into a giant Scalectrix car, that’s triggered to 62mph in a Ferrari-baiting 4.9 seconds, and goes on to dance with the devil at the dark side of 170mph.

Not that the VXR8 is all hurdy-gurdy, on the contrary. There’s always the danger that you don’t quite appreciate the speed you were doing as a member of the local constabulary notes down your particulars.

A short-shift six-speed manual transmission plants the driver firmly at the centre of the action, ringmaster in their very own 'circue du tres torque'. Epically-proportioned brake discs also heighten the sense that the 411bhp VXR8 will lend the same performance to the end of the act as much as the beginning, with Vauxhall insisting that the hyper saloon will come to a measured rest from 60mph in less time than a Lamborghini Murcielago. We’ll take their word on that.

Infinitely chuck-able into corners – although not suggested when overly damp – the VXR8 would brighten up any track day, where once you’ve disengaged the electronic traction control (and your cares) you can drift around hairpins and apexes to your heart’s content - or until the tyres need replacing – as this rear wheel-driven brute works hand in hand with the limited-slip diff to underline that it’s definitely no Sheila.

Analogies aside, the VXR8 isn’t all thrills and spills. The ride as you might expect is firm, even though the seats play their support role well. And then there’s the interior. Please turn away now if you’re easily offended. Think of the Vauxhall Vectra’s budget-conscious surface materials and you’re on the right, wrong lines. A dull sheen and a deeply un-alluring touch ensure that you don’t forge a mutual appreciation with any of the cabin’s core components, whilst the ‘contemporary’ designed handbrake is hateful to look at full stop. Still, there’s acres of space and a massive boot by way of compensation.

ESP, EBD and four airbags we’d say are the bare minimum – and legal requirement – for a car as volatile as the Vauxhall VXR8 too.

And as for the fuel economy, don’t even go there. 18.5mpg when on the shopping run, 12mpg when you’re out impressing your mates from the pub don’t make for good reading. 365g/km of CO2 harrumphed out of those rear tailpipes wont enamour you to either the Friends of the Earth, or the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But hey, life’s too short to worry about all that now isn’t it.