Lifted off Newspress...
Vauxhall
will use this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed to unveil the all-new,
325 horsepower Insignia VXR for the first time in the UK, and provide
visitors with the chance to see two stunning historic concepts that
have not been exhibited in public for many years.
The
high-performance version of this year’s European Car of the Year winner
will be displayed in the popular Supercar Paddock throughout the event,
which runs from July 3-5, ahead of its official media launch the
following week.
In
time-honoured FoS tradition, the Insignia VXR – which has just
completed a final 10,000 kilometre shakedown at the Nürburgring – will
demonstrate its exceptional Adaptive 4X4 chassis twice a day at 9.00am
and 1.25pm on Goodwood’s notoriously tricky hillclimb course.
Joining the
Insignia in the Supercar Paddock will be Vauxhall’s most powerful
production car ever, the supercharged, rear-wheel-drive, 6.2-litre
V8-engined VXR8 Bathurst S Edition. Rumour has it that the Bathurst has
been commissioned to create a new ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ display in
front of Goodwood House, although this has been strongly denied by
officials…
In pride of place
on the Cartier lawn, just across the way from the latest VXRs, will be
two historic Vauxhall concepts that have not been seen outside its
Luton-based Heritage Centre for nearly two decades.
Originally shown
at the 1966 Geneva Salon, the XVR was largely the work of David Jones,
Vauxhall’s charismatic head of design in the 1960s. Featuring gullwing
doors, pop-up headlights and all-independent suspension, the XVR’s
unique dash treatment was used to test reaction to ideas he had for the
later Firenza.
Joining the VXR
will be another wholly in-house Vauxhall concept, the radical SRV.
First shown at the 1970 Earls Court Motor Show, the sleek, imposing
shape belies its four-door practicality. But with an aerofoil, electric
self-levelling suspension and a ‘manometer’ to measure air pressure on
the car’s hull, the SRV illustrated Vauxhall’s forward thinking
technology stance that endures to this day.
