Vectra vxr8?

[Del Boy]

Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.

I like them a lot, I'm not going to say the handling is brilliant because it really isn't, but by no means did I think it was terrible.

[omega3000]

Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.

I could buy a 3.2 mig for that  or some pipes and kit for lpg'in mine 

[D]

Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.

I like them a lot, I'm not going to say the handling is brilliant because it really isn't, but by no means did I think it was terrible.

I suppose it depends on how hard you push it. I am always scraping the mudflaps on my Omega by cornering at too high a speed for the corner. So I guess you probably drive a lot more decently than me. Compared to something like a ST220, they are absolutely terrible. I wouldn't buy one with my money, no way. Straight line speed is stunning and the interior is quite nice, particularly the seats.

[brummieboy]

Thanks for the opinions chaps...good to know about the coilovers...sounds like it could get pricey...

Dan

[Manual Elite V6]

The Vectra VXR does not have brilliant handling nor is the handling terrible, my father now owns one in estate form and it handles rather well for a fwd car with close to 280bhp, I think the car gets slated so much for its handling as people tend to think of the handling issues that the Astra VXR has.

[D]

Having driven both the Astra and Vectra VXR (inc the Nurbugring model); I would prefer the Astra. It is again problematic in terms of its handling; but at least it feels somewhat smaller in size and more controllable in the corners. The vectra is so poor that I dont think anything in terms of mods I have seen so far have made it any better. The estate is slightly worse due to it size I guess. But as I said, it does have stunning straight line speed. If I lived across the pond, I would have no hesitation in owning one.

[D]

The Vectra VXR does not have brilliant handling nor is the handling terrible, my father now owns one in estate form and it handles rather well for a fwd car with close to 280bhp, I think the car gets slated so much for its handling as people tend to think of the handling issues that the Astra VXR has.

In isolation and at slowish speeds its fine. Push it hard and it is really bad. There is no other way to describe it. Compare it to something properly sorted like a ST220 and you realise how much worse it is.

[Manual Elite V6]

The Vectra VXR does not have brilliant handling nor is the handling terrible, my father now owns one in estate form and it handles rather well for a fwd car with close to 280bhp, I think the car gets slated so much for its handling as people tend to think of the handling issues that the Astra VXR has.

In isolation and at slowish speeds its fine. Push it hard and it is really bad. There is no other way to describe it. Compare it to something properly sorted like a ST220 and you realise how much worse it is.

Driven hard I still say the handling isn't that poor at all, the only issue it has like most high powered front wheel drive cars is terrible torque steer, estate cars often handle slightly better due to having better weight distribution apparently, thats one of the main reasons most of Audi's perfomance models tend to be estates.

[D]

Subjective I guess. I think its dire and frankly I have yet to drive another modern powerful car that handles so poorly. The amount of understeer it can generate is unreal. Even a Skoda VRS does a much better job. Mondeo 2.5T is superb compared to the Vectra. On a trackday in Brands hatch that I went to last year, there were a few Vectra VXRs in a shiny blue colour and they were scarily inadequate around bends.

BTW most of Audi performance cars are also available in an estate form, not the other way round as you put it. I dont think they make anything that is solely available in performance estate form. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

BTW most of Audi performance cars are also available in an estate form, not the other way round as you put it. I dont think they make anything that is solely available in performance estate form. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

First RS4 and the RS2 were estate-only.

[henryd]

BTW most of Audi performance cars are also available in an estate form, not the other way round as you put it. I dont think they make anything that is solely available in performance estate form. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

First RS4 and the RS2 were estate-only.

they were indeed,saloon was S4 I believe and less power

[D]

True the B5 was an estate only version. It is also quite old (2000?) and only produced for 2/3 years? Too young to remember the RS2.

I was referring to the current crop of RS's none of which are exclusively estates. If handling was truly an issue with saloons then I would assume they would stick to producing estates only.

[tigers_gonads]

Iirc, the RS2 was a audi 80 estate with alot of tweaking by Porsche.

They stuck a wopping big turbo on it to get about 300 bhp in standard tune and closer to 500 with a little fettleing 

[henryd]

Iirc, the RS2 was a audi 80 estate with alot of tweaking by Porsche.

They stuck a wopping big turbo on it to get about 300 bhp in standard tune and closer to 500 with a little fettleing 

A mate of mine had one,the V5 read Audi/Porsche

[Del Boy]

I've just taken delivery of a 2007 '56' Vectra VXR, I forgot how good this engine was, if you want a quick car mate, just get one  . The way the thing absolutely takes off in third gear is without any question or shadow of doubt worth the money, and the noise  .