Spied: Insignia OPC at the Ring
August 24, 2008 by George Skentzos
The Opel Insignia has certainly made an impression since the staggered reveal of the sedan, hatch and wagon variants over the past few weeks.
Now the final iteration has been spotted prowling the Nurburgring during a stint of performance testing.
Whilst on paper, the Insignia may seem out of place of the world’s most infamous circuit; this is actually our first glimpse of the performance flagship OPC model.
No doubt hiding some new performance flare behind the duct tape, the OPC variant is expected to boast a new front skirt with bigger air intakes, wider sills and wheel arches, and a moulded rear lip spoiler.
Under the hood is a new turbocharged V6 power plant which should deliver over 220kW, likely mated to a performance version of the lesser model’s all-wheel drive system.
Print it: 
Now that sounds like a serious performance car, yes please Holden.
I don’t know why the answer continues to elude those dumb-ass American companies. Design and engineer them in Europe, manufacture them in Korea.
That way you’d get Insignia-like styling and dynamics at Epica prices, with better-than-European quality.
Simple really.
Yep, i’ll take one………..
I can’t see why people think they look good.
CM, the word is they are going to do exactly what you say at least for the Australian market with the next Epica either being based on the Insigia or built alongside it and sold as the premium mid size car as is going to happen with the Astra and New Viva with possibly a rear wheel drive varient although I believe the Torana / Pontiac G6 will more likely have the rear wheel drive layout.
Oh and Jeremy, you must be blind as you are one of the minority. Spam word is faster which this variation of the Insignia definately is.
Cant say that rear end works for me, bulges in odd places and the chrome seems unnecessary. Major improvement over the current vectra though.
looks like a rounded out mazda 6
Like everything but the rear end…
Definitely not pretty
Looks terrible!
Hope the performance makes up for it theough.
I can’t believe people are saying it looks terrible. It looks like it has a widebody, and check out those curves on the doors. It looks bloody good for a car of this class.
I think the sweeping rear roof line that is coming in is silly. I test drove a Mazda 6 wagon, and there was more room in the back in an Astra. Bring back the flying bricks. I agree, ugly a**, stupid “flame” tratment on the side, and bra’s can hide all manner of sins!
RIGHT ON CAPTAIN,SPREAD THE WISDOM.EPICA VERSES INSIGNIA 4 THE SAME DOSH,NO CONTEST…..
Jeremy, i agree about the roofline issue. I can’t fit in the back of a VT-VZ Commodore without touching just touching the roof. Ah well, it means i always get the front seat in a mates car.
Hi folks – i’m here again after two weeks Northern Spain. Gonna pester you all now.
Insignia looks great, not a medium car either its large!
Those wheels don’t look like th eoptional 20inchers available and as shown on the London Motor Show Cars.
no name the car is medium sized. It replaces the Vectra and it is 4.6 metres long. that is Mazda 6 and Honda Euro territory.