HSV goes hot-hatch hunting with VXR

The unveiling of the 2.0-litre turbocharged Astra-based VXR concept at this year's Sydney motor show couldn't have been better timed.

With petrol prices making headlines daily, a smaller-engined car with HSV cred suddenly looks to be a good idea ... especially if it gets to share garage floorspace with a regulation HSV-badged thunderer.

The VXR was unveiled in Sydney as a reaction-gauging, production-ready concept. If the public likes it, expect to see it go into limited production next year.

Even in concept form, the VXR is the first four-cylinder in HSV's 18-year history. Mind you, with 176kW of power and 320Nm or torque on tap, this is a 16-valve four-cylinder to reckon with.

The VXR is built by Opel's HSV-style performance division, OPC. It's sold in the UK as a Vauxhall, and is a tit-for-tat offering to HSV for the UK-market, HSV-built Monaro VXR.

Thanks to a handy 6.9kg/kW power-to-weight ratio, performance is said to be right in HSV's regular ballpark, too, with 0-100km/h happening in just over six seconds. A major contributor to that performance has to be the car's close ratio, six-speed gearbox.

The VXR looks the part, too, with its HSV-style nose, 19-inch alloys and – although it's up top, rather than on the bootlid – a rear-mounted wing.

"With its success overseas we thought it was time to assess the Australian public's response to the VXR," says HSV's Sales and Marketing Director, Chris Payne. "Indications are that it will be very well received, and if that's the case, we will look to make a limited number available through HSV dealers in 2006, and who knows where this could lead to with exciting future products."

"It will be a totally new category for HSV," Chris Payne says, "but we wouldn't be looking at VXR if we weren't convinced that it's capable of setting new benchmarks in the hot hatch class."

Chris Payne says that, should the VXR go on sale here, it would carry a pricetag "below $43,000". At that price, he said, HSV expected to attract a new group of buyers to the brand, including young urban-based singles and couples. As "sensational value for the performance dollar," he said, the HSV faithful may even look at parking a VXR alongside their V8-engined car.

A marketing decision would be made after expressions of interest from the Sydney motor show had been assessed, he said.