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COURTENAY SPORT SUCCESS

Massive congratulations must go to Courtenay Sport and Adrian Churchill for their success in the Dunlop Production Touring Car Trophy. Having been fiercely competitive all season in the team’s evergreen Astra VXR,  Adrian went into the final round at Croft on the 25th of September in a very strong position. In the end a strong 2nd place in the first race and a 3rd in the second, combined with a poor showing from nearest rival Garry Duckman, were enough to hand Adrian the championship with 203 points.  Although this will be the last season for the him in the VXR, Churchill ensured the car’s career ended in a flourish by taking victory in the final race of the season, albeit less than a second ahead of the similar car of Joseph Girling.

BTCC LEGENDS AT TOTAL VAUXHALL LIVE

When it comes to Vauxhall, no name is more synonymous with the brand than two-times British Touring Car champion John Cleland. John made a name for himself getting the best out of Cavaliers and in a championship that captured the nation’s hearts. 

Manta Manta!

Living in 1980′s Germany must have been tough at times. The horror of the Berlin wall, living so close to a huge communist powerhouse and the prospect of bumping into David Hasselhoff must have made for a fairly scary decade. So scary in fact that the German’s were inspired to churn out some very odd films, the weirdest (and strangely coolest) was ‘Manta, Manta.’

I’ve never seen the film in full and I’m still not that sure of the plot either. From what I’ve been able to piece together it tells the story of a rivalry between a Manta obsessive called Bertie and a Mercedes driving yuppie. There’s also a sub-plot involving Bertie’s girlfriend, a wet t-shirt competition and an ‘anti-Manta radio station.’ Sounds great, doesn’t it? The soundtrack is right up there with Top Gun’s in terms of cheesiness, I keep expecting to hear ‘Highway to the Dangerzone’, and mullets abound.

All the naff acting aside the  car chases are brilliant in an over the top way, think 80′s Fast & The Furious and you’re pretty close. You really can’t argue with a motorway full of Manta GTE’s either, even if the choice of pink detailing on Bertie’s car might have been a questionable one. I can’t pretend to understand what on earth the film is trying to get at, apparently it has a cult following in Europe, but from what I’ve seen I really like it. For those interested a version with English subtitles can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FxLyMKu0GE

Retro Opel action! Total Vauxhall takes a look at the Steinmetz Racing Commodore.

In preparation for a photoshoot and feature on a Carlton-powered Opel Commodore I began trawling the web for suitable information on the model’s competition history. It didn’t take long till I stumbled upon this video of Steinmetz Racing’s Commodore swapping paint with a host of other late-70′s touring car heroes including a BMW M1, BMW CSL ‘Batmobile’ and a host of Capris and 911′s, all playing out on the legendary Nurburgring….

Total Vauxhall is ten this year! Here’s a look at the rarest issue of all – Number Zero!

It’s hard to believe it, but Total Vauxhall will be celebrating its 10th birthday this summer. As a result, we’ve been raiding the old archives, and we’ve found a mega-rare Issue Zero! It’s a mock up example that was supplied to advertisers and so on. Click through for a look at the very first cover of TV!

The early days of sat nav! Total Vauxhall looks back at one of the first.

While having a rake through our library of old press shots – from the days before everything was done digitally – we found this cracker. It must date from the late 1990s. Click through to see a classic sat nav / audio / wooden dash combination!

Can you help Total Vauxhall solve the mystery of the Mk1 Astravan?

I was having a bit of a tidy up today, and found this snap of a young chap alongside a cracking Mk1 Astravan. The only problem is – I can’t seem to find an accompanying letter to go with it. Therefore, we can only ask around to see if anyone knows anything. Click through…

Who remembers these? It’s the Opel Corsa A Sprint and Spider concept on totalvauxhall.co.uk

We were looking for a picture of a Corsa Sprint today when I remembered that I had seen one in Germany back in 2006 on the Corsa D press launch. So, one short rake through the archives later and we found not only snaps of the wide-arch Sprint, but also a very unusual convertible concept car. Click through to see ‘em…

Retro press shots on totalvauxhall.co.uk. Two early Nova SRs and a police-spec Cavalier SRi 16V

Here’s a couple of old press shots from the Vauxhall archive. Check out the Nova SRs; both have the extraordinarily rare option of headlight washers. Click through…