High-performance Opel goes Astra-y

On the back of Holden Special Vehicles' recent confirmation it has a hot version of the Holden Cruze in its forward planning, come these Carparazzi photos of a similarly-enhanced version of the new Opel Astra.

Although the latest Astra has barely hit the roads in Europe, the sportily-inclined hatch pictured here is expected to be the next GSI variant, complete with more power, hunkered-down suspension and a subtly macho body rework. A new front bumper assembly, twin oval tailpipes and a lower ride height are some of the clues to be gleaned from the photos.

Carparazzi also mentions the car getting a twin-turbo 2.0-litre four-cylinder developing 142kW, which will certainly provide the new car with more punch than the current GSI.

What this means for a forthcoming, pumped-up Holden Cruze is pretty indeterminate. HSV's association with Holden small cars is on hold now that the Astra VXR coupe has been dropped, and the company has gone on record saying it will not be importing Opel models from Germany to fill the gap.

That leaves the Cruze -- along with HSV's confirmation it is on the way to bringing us a performance version of the small car, bearing the company logo. Details at this stage are relatively sparse: The styling is currently being worked on, and fiddling the dynamics would be a lay-down misere for HSV.
But questions of how it will be powered are open to speculation.

Although the Cruze builds on the same platform as the new Astra, the connections are otherwise pretty loose -- engines, suspension, even the hard points in the body structure are understood to be different.

The first factor is most significant: If there's a shortcoming with the small Holden, it's the old and now undernourished 1.8-litre petrol powerplant. To become an HSV, something will need to be done -- and it would be reasonable to speculate that a rework of the current Cruze engine would hardly be in order.

The most likely contender would seem to be a 1.4-litre turbo engine available in European Cruzes, although with its small capacity it could not be expected to stack up favourably against the 142kW twin turbo expected in the Astra GSI.

With a quoted 104kW the turbo 1.4 is identical to the current Cruze's normally aspirated 1.8-litre engine, although the torque figure of around 200Nm is higher (the 1.8-litre Cruze quotes 176Nm). HSV could undoubtedly contrive to up the 1.4's power output, but by how much is another matter.

However there's always a sneaking suspicion that HSV will come up with an entirely favourable solution.

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