Here is a short review from Richard hammond
HOLDEN SHOT
Aussie supercar is thrusting powerhouse for ?35,000
IT'S got a Vauxhall badge on it and you can buy it at a Vauxhall dealership, but it's not a Vauxhall. It's actually a Holden.
Just as the Germans and other mainland Europeans have Opels and we have Vauxhalls, the Australians get Holdens - all are branches of the giant General Motors family.
So Down Under, where this mad motor was born, it's the Holden Commodore Clubsport R8.
But we'd better call it the Vauxhall VXR8 or the people from Luton will torch my house for messing up their brand messages.
Anyway, now we've got its identity sorted, let's have a look at the VXR8.
And there is one key fact. This is the most powerful car you can buy in Britain for 35 grand - well, ?35,105 to be exact.
Underneath the bonnet is a six-litre V8 engine that's also used in the Chevrolet Corvette sports car. It's simple, big, will never break, has 411bhp and sounds absolutely fantastic - especially with the optional ?1,150 sports exhaust system.
I sat in it in the drive just revving the engine until my wife came outside to tell me I was scaring the dogs and that I was meant to be going to the shops.
Because the VXR8 has the level of performance that would seriously bother a BMW M5 or Audi RS6 - it's limited to 155mph and does 0-60mph in 4.9sec - you start thinking of the car as a genuine rival to these German super-saloons.
And if you do, you get a bit of a disappointment when you get climb inside the Vauxhall.
The seats are sexy buckets that hold you in place and the steering wheel is thick-rimmed and sporty, but the dashboard and the rest of the interior looks dull and plasticky.
Then you remember that this car costs almost half the price of an M5 - and you let it off.
If you own a TVR and have just heard that a stork will soon be making a delivery to your house then the VXR8 is your motor. Like a TVR it's a bit crude but again, like a TVR, it's very easy to have a great time in it.
Instead of the fancy seven-speed semi-automatic gearbox that's fitted to the BMW M5, the Vauxhall has got an old fashioned manual gearbox with a lever and a clutch pedal.
The engine has been tweaked to make it more driveable - which means that it pulls better from low revs and that you can drive it everywhere in third gear, even pulling out of junctions. If you're a motor sport addict with satellite telly, you might have seen racing in Australia called V8 Supercars.
Australia doesn't make many different types of cars. Two, in fact.
The Holden Commodore and the Ford Falcon. The V8 Supercars is a gloriously noisy scrap between Ford and Holden. It's a great spectacle, but the good thing is that some of the racing know-how has rubbed off on the road cars.
The VXR8 handles really well, has accurate steering and is fitted with enormous red painted brake callipers that work as well as they look.
If you hit a big bump in the road you can feel the whole car shake, but it never feels like you're going to lose grip.
But the VXR8 is already a bit of a dinosaur. If you drive it gently - and if you are the sort of person who drools over a 411bhp rear-wheel drive saloon then it is unlikely that "gently" will be the word - the VXR8 will do about 15mpg.
Not a car to arrive in at tomorrow's Live Earth concert.
The Facts
Vauxhall VXR8
Four-door saloon
Price: ?35,105
Engine: 6.0-litre V8, 411bhp
0-60mph: 4.9sec
Fuel consumption: 15.3mpg
The Rivals
Chrysler SRT8 - Another performance star from abroad. Bit crude but 425bhp V8 does the business. ?39,040
BMW M5 - Amazing V10 engine has 500bhp. Very sophisticated car but extra money doesn't actually bring more fun. ?64,495
Audi S6 - Engine is from Lamborghini and sounds amazing. As mad as the VXR8 but posher. And another twenty grand. ?55,375
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/motori...objectid=19413192&siteid=89520-name_page.html
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i think he likes it
