Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: brummieboy on 23 September 2012, 09:57:02

Title: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: brummieboy on 23 September 2012, 09:57:02
 I know its not an Omega,
but am thinking about one of these next year...maybe...
currently I'm driving a  v6 mk3 mondeo,and its been great,
so the st220 is also a possibility...Any views welcome, have a good day! :y

Dan
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: kingycos2 on 23 September 2012, 10:42:21
Its either a vectra VXR or a vauxhall VXR8, 2 totally different cars. The Vectra is a very quick, reliable car, but needs coilovers as the handling is catastrophically bad, that's on the basis your gonna throw it round corners etc!!! 
The VXR* is a machine, simple as... Price difference is about £12k but the noise they make is worth that, never mind the performance. Best 4 door saloon available at the minute IMO.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2009-09-VAUXHALL-VXR8-V8-6-SPEED-MANUAL-1-OWNER-6800-MILES-MINT-/370650979575?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item564c851cf7
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: GastronomicKleptomaniac on 23 September 2012, 11:10:39

The VXR* is a machine, simple as... Price difference is about £12k but the noise they make is worth that, never mind the performance.

The economy difference is quite something too. Not that the Vectra is frugal, but VXR8 is in the low to mid teens in town. If I could, I would...
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: omega3000 on 23 September 2012, 18:38:20
(http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab83/Tiger_885/smiley_emoticons_anbeten01.gif) V8
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: waspy on 23 September 2012, 20:24:50
My advice would be to join some HSV (Holden Special Vehicles), Monaro/VXR8 forums & learn about the cars. Please don't call the R8 a Vectra especially on these forums as you'll get abuse.
They're first of all a Holden which is from Australia. Don't expect the normal VX dealer to know much about them, you could take it to a VXR VX dealer, but they really don't have a clue either. There are some specialist dotted around the country for servicing & parts if you need them.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: brummieboy on 23 September 2012, 22:50:09
Apologies for the typo!! Its the vectra vxr that i meant! The vxr8 is in another league!
Cheers for the advice so far... :y

Dan
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: feeutfo on 23 September 2012, 22:54:22
For a minute I thought someone had put a v8 lump in a vectra.  :-\
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: GastronomicKleptomaniac on 24 September 2012, 00:50:49
For a minute I thought someone had put a v8 lump in a vectra.  :-\

I think that would destroy the Vectra-C's famed handling ;)
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: the alarming man on 24 September 2012, 08:40:25
For a minute I thought someone had put a v8 lump in a vectra.  :-\


it is bad enough with a diesel.... :y
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: omega3000 on 24 September 2012, 09:46:05
Erh getting confused  :( so the vxr vectra is the one with the V6 turbo and with a little suspension tweaking it would be fine  :-\ :-\
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: GastronomicKleptomaniac on 24 September 2012, 10:35:14
Erh getting confused  :( so the vxr vectra is the one with the V6 turbo and with a little suspension tweaking it would be fine  :-\ :-\

Yes. If a little chavvy in that metallic blue colour.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: tunnie on 24 September 2012, 10:46:20
Erh getting confused  :( so the vxr vectra is the one with the V6 turbo and with a little suspension tweaking it would be fine  :-\ :-\

Pah, no, with a V8 it would be far from fine.

The chassis can't even handle the 3.2 V6  ;)
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: kingycos2 on 24 September 2012, 10:56:44
Vectra vxr with standard 2.8t engine is a quick car, but on top of the cost of the car, a decent brand set of coil-overs is nearly a £1000, and they are a must as it under steers catastrophically. So buying one and then some lowering springs wont help.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: Del Boy on 24 September 2012, 11:45:57
The Vectra VXR is a quality bit of kit, and they're very quick.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: D on 24 September 2012, 12:53:03
Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: Del Boy on 24 September 2012, 12:56:32
Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.

I like them a lot, I'm not going to say the handling is brilliant because it really isn't, but by no means did I think it was terrible.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: omega3000 on 24 September 2012, 14:15:22
Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.

 :(

I could buy a 3.2 mig for that  :( or some pipes and kit for lpg'in mine  ::) :P ;)
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: D on 24 September 2012, 14:57:27
Till you get to a corner and then you find yourself in a ditch. It cannot do corners fast, so its not fun to drive. Terrible torque steer as well, deadly on a bumpy road. No amount of coilovers will correct the understeer as the chassis is poorly set up. Coilovers just make the ride even harder and uncomfortable.

The ST220 on the other hand is very well set up, despite being FWD. No point having the extra horses unless you plan to only drive on straight smooth roads.

Sorry but the Vectra VXR is a terrible car. And tax post 2006 is £460.

I like them a lot, I'm not going to say the handling is brilliant because it really isn't, but by no means did I think it was terrible.

I suppose it depends on how hard you push it. I am always scraping the mudflaps on my Omega by cornering at too high a speed for the corner. So I guess you probably drive a lot more decently than me. Compared to something like a ST220, they are absolutely terrible. I wouldn't buy one with my money, no way. Straight line speed is stunning and the interior is quite nice, particularly the seats.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: brummieboy on 24 September 2012, 21:52:10
Thanks for the opinions chaps...good to know about the coilovers...sounds like it could get pricey... :o

Dan
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: Manual Elite V6 on 24 September 2012, 22:06:19
The Vectra VXR does not have brilliant handling nor is the handling terrible, my father now owns one in estate form and it handles rather well for a fwd car with close to 280bhp, I think the car gets slated so much for its handling as people tend to think of the handling issues that the Astra VXR has.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: D on 24 September 2012, 22:51:28
Having driven both the Astra and Vectra VXR (inc the Nurbugring model); I would prefer the Astra. It is again problematic in terms of its handling; but at least it feels somewhat smaller in size and more controllable in the corners. The vectra is so poor that I dont think anything in terms of mods I have seen so far have made it any better. The estate is slightly worse due to it size I guess. But as I said, it does have stunning straight line speed. If I lived across the pond, I would have no hesitation in owning one.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: D on 24 September 2012, 22:53:15
The Vectra VXR does not have brilliant handling nor is the handling terrible, my father now owns one in estate form and it handles rather well for a fwd car with close to 280bhp, I think the car gets slated so much for its handling as people tend to think of the handling issues that the Astra VXR has.

In isolation and at slowish speeds its fine. Push it hard and it is really bad. There is no other way to describe it. Compare it to something properly sorted like a ST220 and you realise how much worse it is.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: Manual Elite V6 on 24 September 2012, 23:02:03
The Vectra VXR does not have brilliant handling nor is the handling terrible, my father now owns one in estate form and it handles rather well for a fwd car with close to 280bhp, I think the car gets slated so much for its handling as people tend to think of the handling issues that the Astra VXR has.

In isolation and at slowish speeds its fine. Push it hard and it is really bad. There is no other way to describe it. Compare it to something properly sorted like a ST220 and you realise how much worse it is.

Driven hard I still say the handling isn't that poor at all, the only issue it has like most high powered front wheel drive cars is terrible torque steer, estate cars often handle slightly better due to having better weight distribution apparently, thats one of the main reasons most of Audi's perfomance models tend to be estates.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: D on 25 September 2012, 01:00:33
Subjective I guess. I think its dire and frankly I have yet to drive another modern powerful car that handles so poorly. The amount of understeer it can generate is unreal. Even a Skoda VRS does a much better job. Mondeo 2.5T is superb compared to the Vectra. On a trackday in Brands hatch that I went to last year, there were a few Vectra VXRs in a shiny blue colour and they were scarily inadequate around bends.

BTW most of Audi performance cars are also available in an estate form, not the other way round as you put it. I dont think they make anything that is solely available in performance estate form. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: GastronomicKleptomaniac on 25 September 2012, 15:29:29


BTW most of Audi performance cars are also available in an estate form, not the other way round as you put it. I dont think they make anything that is solely available in performance estate form. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

First RS4 and the RS2 were estate-only.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: henryd on 25 September 2012, 16:39:48


BTW most of Audi performance cars are also available in an estate form, not the other way round as you put it. I dont think they make anything that is solely available in performance estate form. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

First RS4 and the RS2 were estate-only.

they were indeed,saloon was S4 I believe and less power
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: D on 26 September 2012, 12:59:24
True the B5 was an estate only version. It is also quite old (2000?) and only produced for 2/3 years? Too young to remember the RS2.

I was referring to the current crop of RS's none of which are exclusively estates. If handling was truly an issue with saloons then I would assume they would stick to producing estates only.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: tigers_gonads on 26 September 2012, 14:13:00
Iirc, the RS2 was a audi 80 estate with alot of tweaking by Porsche.

They stuck a wopping big turbo on it to get about 300 bhp in standard tune and closer to 500 with a little fettleing  :D
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: henryd on 26 September 2012, 14:18:15
Iirc, the RS2 was a audi 80 estate with alot of tweaking by Porsche.

They stuck a wopping big turbo on it to get about 300 bhp in standard tune and closer to 500 with a little fettleing  :D

A mate of mine had one,the V5 read Audi/Porsche :o
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: Del Boy on 29 September 2012, 21:43:23
I've just taken delivery of a 2007 '56' Vectra VXR, I forgot how good this engine was, if you want a quick car mate, just get one  :y. The way the thing absolutely takes off in third gear is without any question or shadow of doubt worth the money, and the noise  :-* :-*.
Title: Re: Vectra vxr8?
Post by: OmegaAnglesey on 29 September 2012, 21:56:13
These Insignia VXR's are dropping in price fairly quickly, Nicer all round than the Vectra mainly the interior feels less like its made out of a dustbin much better materials and isn't the VXR Insignia available in Auto i heard also ? + the 4x4 system is spot on "from a passengers point of view at least"
 [size=78%]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2009-VAUXHALL-INSIGNIA-VXR-48k-FSH-Big-Spec-/350606438992?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item51a1c5b250#ht_1064wt_1271 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2009-VAUXHALL-INSIGNIA-VXR-48k-FSH-Big-Spec-/350606438992?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item51a1c5b250#ht_1064wt_1271)[/size]