Vauxhall Vectra BTCC

Giovanardi's old hero.

About The Car
This is Fabrizio Giovanardi's Vauxhall Vectra VXR BTCC car, it rivaled many in the championship including the Seat Leon Cupra Rs and the BMW 320s. Vauxhall entered the BTCC many years ago now and since then have taken a handful of BTCC titles. Drivers include Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal who is fairly new to the Vauxhall Team.

Of course now, this isn't the specific car they use in the BTCC, however the only thing they've 'really' changed for the upcoming season is the sponsors. We now believe that the new car will be black. Over the years, the VX Racing Team have brought up some stunning results, but now for 2010, the team has changed. The new team name is Uniq Racing with 888. Urgh...ok. Here are some of the results for the Vauxhall Vectra's past BTCC seasons.

2007: Position: 1st Points: 300

2008: Position: 1st Points: 262

2009: Position: 3rd Points: 266

2010: Current Position: 1st Current points: 38

VXR is the branding for high-perfomance trim specification, for models in many of Vauxhall's car range in the United Kingdom. It replaces the GSI branding which was previously used for top-performance cars like the Vectra. VXR models are being produced from the Opel Performance Center, a subsidiary of the automaker Opel which is in sister partnership with Vauxhall.

The former models of the Vectra VXR (of course because now they aren't in production) are these of the following which where in production from the years 2005-2009. Now, the Vauxhall Insignia VXR takes its place.

They were available in both hatchback and estate, the base price for the hatchback was £24,395. For the estate, £25,495. There is a noticable difference in the price margin of £1,100 but you do get a bit of extra boot space in the estate. Plus, you may have been able to grab a few extras as standard for the estate. It was available in the 2.8i (petrol) 24 valve V6 Turbo Engine. You could get 255bhp or 280bhp (190 kW) in the earlier models, 0-62mph in 6.1 seconds in the hatchback versions which is awfully nippy in my opinion, but 6.3 seconds in the estate, of course, it would be slightly slower due to the extra body-weight at the back end. In the hatchback, you could reach an incredible 161mph and in the estate, a mere 3 seconds slower at 158mph. 18" five-spoke alloy wheels with 225/45R18 tyres or optional 19" 10-spoke wheels and an Improved Interactive Driving System (IDS2), including Continous Damping Control (CDC) suspension system, upgraded braking (very useful if I may say so, I love the handling on cars like these) which were 345 mm discs on the front wheels and 292mm on the rear wheels. Fancy Xenon HID Headlamps and finally, twin trapezoidal exhausts.

Me Love Cars - Founder of Motopedia, Gameopedia and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 wiki. 21:07, April 22, 2010 (UTC)

The Statistics
POWER: Approx. 276 bhp, 262 ft.lbf and 4,800-6,300 rpm.

ENGINE DISPLACEMENT: 2,792 cc.

TOP SPEED: 161 mph.

0-60 MPH: 6.1 seconds.

ENGINE SIZE: 2.8i 24v V6 Turbo.

AVERAGE PRICE MARK: n/a.

Me Love Cars - Founder of Motopedia, Gameopedia and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 wiki. 21:07, April 22, 2010 (UTC)