BEST SERVED HOT

摘要

Vauxhall's Mk5 Astra hit sizzling point with the VXR, a car so rapid that it held the hot hatch record at the Nurburgring. Today, they start at ￡3000, as John Evans explains In this age of smart diffs, let's hear it for the Mk5 Astra VXR, a 237bhp hooligan with muscle-building torque steer. In 2008, former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Manuel Reuter piloted a production example around the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 8min 35sec, at the time a record for a hot hatch. Given how popular the car is with tuners today (specialists Courtenay Sport once showed off a VXR producing 560bhp), one has probably since lapped the M25 in the same time.