New Vauxhall Astra

The new Vauxhall Astra will be launched in September at Frankfurt

It’s a couple of months since Vauxhall released details of the New Vauxhall Astra, and they are now starting to gear up interest for the launch in September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, before the Astra gets released in the UK in October.

This sixth generation of the Astra is a good looking car, and has taken a lot of its design cues from the very good Vauxhall Insignia. And it has in its sites the Ford Focus, the VW Golf and the new Mazda 3.

So what better way to show its prowess than to produce a ‘viral’ video – without giving away too much detail – showing the new Astra mullering the Focus and the Golf on the track at Millbrook? Well, that’s what Vauxhall think, so they’ve enlisted the help of Vauxhall BTCC driver Fabrizio Giovanardi to have a blat at Millbrook and capture the whole thing on video.

Which makes an interesting take on the ‘Tease’ that torments us. But if we were going to do this we might have looked for some slightly more professional video editing and direction. But we guess that as Vauxhall sent this to us as a ‘Viral’ video they want to give the impression it’s just a lucky find of a bit of secret amateur footage. They succeeded on the amateur bit!

Bit unfair, really. It does its job, but I don’t think Fabrizio will be getting an Oscar for his gesticulation skills. But his driving’s not too shoddy.