The hottest, made hotter.
3rd February 2009
The Vauxhall Corsa is a common, everyday car. The Corsa VXR however is a taut, powerful, fast car that goes like a bat out of hell and stops hard thanks to massive brakes, sits low to the ground with sporty suspension, etc. It’s one of the fastest hatchbacks money can buy. So trying to make it even faster and even more powerful would be crazy. Far too outlandish a task. But if you did try and tune one up, what sort of demonic creature would you end up with?
Welcome to the Corsa VXR-R, courtesy of Thorney Motorsport. Yes, this is another case of a tuning/motorsport company working late each night playing around with their toys, but unlike a lot of the results, anybody can buy this one. You could even get one from a Vauxhall dealership if you ask the right people the right questions.
VXR-R - a menacing car needs a menacing appearance
The exterior is as you’d expect - black paint job, some special-edition stripes, some aesthetic changes such as exhausts that would look good on a Lamborghini, bigger alloy wheels, pointier wingmirrors, etc. Not sure I like it though. The green-rimmed alloys are a bit much, but then the VXR was built to be outlandish and antisocial, so it’s only natural that the VXR-R would be even more so.
The most important thing with this car is the power. It may only have a 1.6L four-cylinder engine like normal Corsas, but it puts out a whopping 230bhp. In a car the size of a kleenex tissue box, that’s good for a 0-60mph time of 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 160mph. So if you drive a Porsche Boxster for its performance, you are going to look stupid when a boy racer comes flying past you in his Corsa, and you can’t keep up.
But don’t worry, you won’t be the only one. The BMW M3 has over 400bhp and yet is slower than this. Even the 572bhp Audi RS6 is slower than this. All because they’re bigger and much, much heavier.
Not bad for a boy racer’s hatchback. But then again this isn’t just some Halfords job on a cheap supermini. Thorney Motorsport have built this car from ground up, using indoor and outdoor circuit races as a constant proving grounds. They add parts to the car, they race it. If it wins, great, keep said bits. If not, go back, change some parts and come back. If ever there was a road car truly bred by motorsport, this is it. So naturally it will destroy most cars designed purely for the road, especially when driven by someone who knows what they’re doing.
The interior is actually quite tame given the nature of this car. You get sport seats as you’d expect, but the rest of the interior is very ‘Vauxhall’, if you know what I mean. It’s all nice enough, but not what you’d expect for a tuned-up racer designed to be driven hard. You even get lots of legroom in the back - something quite rare for fast cars.
Want one? You’ll need £22,495. But that said, this is a limited edition car by a motorsport team. You won’t be worrying about the options list because, well, there isn’t one. Given that the car I want costs £20k without any of the stuff I want in it (including leather interior) and about £24k with, I may well change my mind after this!
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