Vauxhall has revealed the Estate version of the VXR8 – the Vauxhall VXR8 Tourer – which offers oodles of room and 425bhp.
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That sort of power in an estate car certainly offers a different experience to regular load-luggers with 0-62mph coming up in a slightly silly 4.9 seconds.
But, despite looking a bit past its prime even though it’s a new model, the VXR8 Tourer gets a reasonably sophisticated setup with McPherson Strut with progressive coils at the front and a multi-link setup at the back, launch control and a limited slip diff, all conspiring to try and put the VXR8 Tourer’s 425bhp power down through the rear wheels.
Vauxhall has tried to make the VXR8 Tourer an appealing package by adding in leather trim, ‘Performace’ seats, 20″ alloys a bi-modal exhaust and EDI which does an imitation of Japanese supercars by giving you stuff like G-force, torque and lap times on its display to show you just how wonderful the performance is.
Ignore the power and gizmos and you do have a proper load-lugging estate that can swallow up 895 litres of stuff with the seats up and a huge 2000 litres with the seats down. You’d have to buy a Transit to get more.
On paper the VXR8 Tourer is an appealing prospect, with a lot of oomph for a relatively bargain £49,500. But the reality is a bit less appealing. It just smacks of the same sort of thinking that led Rover to bolt a Mustang V8 in to the Rover 75 to show they could produce a car to take on the Germans.
And we know what happened to Rover.
M1TCH says
I doubt this will be a success, but hope it is on the basis that it may convince Jag that a XFR Sportbrake (or even V6 Supercharger) is worth putting together,,,
Tramp12 says
I find it quite appealing. Not in smurph blue and not new. But wait a couple of years and you’ll pick one up for £20,000 always assuming Vauxhall manages to get someone to part with £50,000 for a new one.
Brendan says
The VXR8 Estate shows why main stream car makers have given up on big cars.