Opel Astra OPC hot-hatch confirmed for Australia | CarAdvice

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Opel Astra OPC hot-hatch confirmed for Australia

OPEL ASTRA
By Jez Spinks |
FIND DEALS

The Opel Astra OPC hot-hatch has been confirmed for Australia and will make its local public debut at the 2012 Sydney motor show.

The most powerful version of the Astra yet has been expected given that Opel is focusing on the Astra nameplate’s recognition to build the profile of the German brand in Australia.

Opel’s rival for the likes of the RenaultSport Megane Trophee, Volkswagen Scirocco R and Subaru WRX will arrive in early 2013, with pricing to be announced closer to its launch.

“Australia has a long history of, and passion, for performance vehicles,” said Opel Australia boss Bill Mott. “Since launch we’ve continually been asked if and when OPC is coming and we are very excited to confirm that the Astra OPC will be in Sydney next week and will be available in our showrooms next year.”

With 206kW produced from its 2.0-litre turbocharged direct injection four-cylinder, the Opel Astra OPC will offer more power than the 195kW RS265, 188kW Scirocco R and 195kW WRX.

It’s quick off the mark, too, with a 0-100km/h time of 6.0 seconds dead.

The OPC is based on the sportier, three-door version of the Opel Astra, called the GTC.

In addition to the more powerful engine up front, it also includes lowered, more aggressive bodywork, trapezoidal exhaust pipes, 19-inch alloy wheels and a front mechanical limited-slip differential that works in conjunction with a so-called HiPerStrut front suspension to help improve traction and handling.

The Opel Astra OPC also features a variable three-mode damper system and Brembo brakes.

Hot-hatch touches inside include bucket-style front seats with race-harness slots (though conventional seatbelts are fitted and a flat-bottomed steering wheel that is smaller than those fitted to other Astras.

Opel officially launched in Australia in September to become a General Motors sister brand to Holden, with initial models comprising the Opel Corsa city car, Opel Astra small car and Opel Insignia medium car.

The Opel Mokka compact SUV is also expected, in 2013, to further expand the brand’s line-up.

Click to read CarAdvice’s review of the Opel Astra OPC.

 


 

  • F1orce

    0-100 times are pretty slow for a small and light car with 400Nm & 206kW

    Probably low tech Forced Induction System..?

    • Barry on the tray top .

      Thats pretty quick , will be interesting comparison with megane and sirocco

      • 5reasonreviews.com

        Report from overseas are that it is not as as good.

        Sirocco feels faster and has a better sound. Megane RS feels more alive.

        Apparently the engine suffers from some pretty bad turbo lag

        We will have to wait to see what aussie tuned versions are like though

        • Huwtm

          Really? That’s exactly the opposite of the reports that I’ve seen. One German test,(also an English one) in particular, commented specifically on almost non – existent torque steer, and NO turbo lag. Very tight build quality, – no rattles and squeaks.  

          • 5reasonreviews.com

            Well I hope that is right - because if it is, this version is going to be epic

        • Barry on the tray top .

          Correct sirocco and megane have definately rated better drives in UK write ups , its glossy, but no depth like the others , turbo lag is a major problem for the opel .

    • JooberJCW

      Huh low tech forced induction? Off the point completely

      Its mostly due to being fwd hardly getting traction

      Same issue with the focus RS . But in gear acceration would be great.

      • Nick

        what you have said doesn’t make sense.  Because it’s FWD, it would have very good traction (forward weight bias) from standstill as well as in gear acceleration as you mentioned.  RWDs are the ones that struggle off the line let’s remember…

        • Barry on the tray top .

          Correct nick , RWD slipping and a sliding sideways .

        • Pro346

          If fwd was so great wouldn’t all the drag racers switch to it? Errrh no!

        • Al

          You need to do your research Nick. Front wheel drives with decent amount of power will struggle off the line with lack of traction. Thats the reason a lot of car manufacturers rarely build high powered fwd >250 kw.

          If you ever look at a car launch off the line (fwd/rwd/4wd) the weight transfers towards the rear of the vehicle.Therefore there is a delay getting a decent amount of weight to front wheels to provide the grip.

          • Al

            to add. simple exercise to illustrate.

            Hop in a fwd car, accelerate hard. Is your body being pulled back into the seat or are you being pulled towards the steering wheel? The direction your body is being pulled is where the load is travelling.

          • nick

            bahaha.  read my response

          • Al

            to add. simple exercise to illustrate.

            Hop in a fwd car, accelerate hard. Is your body being pulled back into the seat or are you being pulled towards the steering wheel? The direction your body is being pulled is where the load is travelling.

          • Zaccy16

            yeah traction would be better in alower powered fwd put not a very high power one like this that struggles to get all that power down

        • JooberJCW

          You joking right? Its simple physics the FWD will struggle with traction, The mass may be in the front but when a car takes off in hard acceleration weight transfer pushes to the back.

          When in gear and have the momentum, rather than traction the resistance against the wind and being on greater gears are are more effecting it.

          • nick

            you are confused, read my post below

          • huwtm

            Sorry Nick, you are confused. It’s basic science taught at school, though you may have been away that say.  weight does transfer in cornering and acceleration. Cornering they deal with it with stabiliser bars. Think of it as gravity, the thing which holds us to this planet is created by the planet spinning. You can do the same experiment with a bucket of water. You spin the bucket you wont loose any water because the centrifugal force (or gravity) holds the water in the bottom of the bucket. 

            A car cornering or accelerating works the same way. The force of it moving forward transfers it’s mass to the rear wheels so a front drive car looses traction before a rear drive car. Hence as you state a rear engined car has better traction of the line because the mass is already over the back wheels and increases. That’s what G Force is. As in cornering. How many Gs you can go round a corner. Or mass opposed to gravity.

        • Huwtm

          Actually you are mixed up to put it politely, or if you prefer totally wrong. Think about acceleration – you floor the accelerator to go forward, all the weight goes to the back of the car, taking weight off the front wheels. Which is a disadvantage for FWD, obviously it throws the weight onto the back wheels giving an advantage to RWD cars. Kinetic Energy.

          • nick

            hi everyone who thinks I am wrong.  Sorry but I am not.  Most Drag cars are RWD yes, but in the really fast ones the engine is nearly over the rear wheels…  Similar to how a FWD car has its engine over its front axel… And can everyone stop saying “the weight transfers to the rear” because you are only regurgitating what you have heard from someone else who is also wrong. There is not a giant weight on rails inside the car that slide to the back under acceleration – what really happens is the balance changes in the same way a car’s balance does left to right while the car corners during circular motion.  Simply put, the best layout for acceleration times IS NOT RWD but rear engine RWD like the 911.  End of story thanks for playing

      • Zaccy16

        yeah it will probably pull in 3rd from 80-120 very quickly! like the mazda 3 mps

    • Zaccy16

      maybe it also struggles to put its power down

    • Kampfer

      It’s a FWD, not AWD right? At 6 seconds flat it’ll be one of the quickest FWD from 1-100km/h. All sport Astra were high power hard-to-control monsters, let see will this be any different.

  • tuzii

    my tuned golf gti is faster then that.

    this will sell like the HSV VXR did, in low numbers as its manual, and people can get very very similar cars in auto or dsg.

    dont tell me the usual “manual cars are better, you feel the drive in a manual etc etc”

    because really joe bloggs from down the street wants something that will get him from a>b in comfort, style, power, bit of an eye turner with the least effort.

    • Andrew Gesus

      my tuned Ferrari Enzo is way faster than this car too

      • Pro346

        My tuned datsun 120y is faster than your enzo…

        • Feelinlucky75

           And you guys can go right on back to playing forza

    • horsie

      is your tuned gti a auto ?

  • Shak

    I thought this would be Opel’s ‘surprise’ for the show next week, i guess not. Although that begs that question, do they still have something special to reveal at the show?

  • Radio 3DB

    VW is not even a bit worried about selling lots of GTis

  • Pauy

    It looks great! But only being available in Manual is going to hurt sales.

    • JooberJCW

      Maybe… was the Focus RS being in manual only a deal breaker though?

      I guess this will be a limited run model so it should be ok

  • RIchard

    The reason for the time is that the car is heavy. 

  • Altezza

    It’s an FWD car that makes acceleration slow. Look at Mazda 3 MPS for example. Imagine these cars being either AWD or RWD, it will be less than 6 secs.

    • Zaccy16

      the only disadvantage of awd is weight but definatley better traction

  • Mick Dunn

    Who really cares about 0-100 times?  It’s just a willy wagging number that looks good on paper.  6 seconds is plenty fast enough in the real world and what really counts, in-gear acceleration, will be awesome.  That’s what you need when overtaking and getting yourself out of trouble in traffic. Also a lot more sympathetic to the drivetrain.

    • http://twitter.com/SamMoss8191 Sam Moss

      I agree, 6 seconds is fast enough for me. Those looks and interior are what would seal the deal, simply stunning.

    • AMG63

      Your right there.  The trick in the MPS is to build revs and start in second (its got the torque to do this easily).  Pause, turbo spools, bang and It’s one hell of a  slingshot to 100 with no wheel spin – just a writhing steering wheel . 

  • Legnab

    pfff…my gti will destroy this

    • freshj1ve

      cool story bro

    • Cobber

      you, sir, are a wa*ker. 

    • Andrew Gesus

      pffffft my twin turbo civic will demolish this

    • Monk

      Your gti will destroy itself in the process.

    • horsie

      yea i guess the driver of the astra will be laughing so hard he will mess up his start

  • gt86.com.au

    this is MUCH better looking than the GTi or Golf R.
    It would also outhandle both.
     

    • JJ

      lol… it’s a Holden. It can’t out handle anything, except maybe other taxi’s.

      • Wert

        no logic with a hater – just pointless stupid comments 

        • JJ

          Don’t brush it off with a hater generalisation, fanboy (see what I did there?)

          They dug their own grave with the quality of their cars and you know it. Any questioning of this statement is disproven by the current state of the company.

          • horsie

            how is it a holden ?

  • Stiffla

    my iga will crush this…

  • Barry on the tray top .

    i would say opel were quite smart to disassociate themselves from the holden brand which is considered down market with the public , too many below average daewoo sourced cars have dragged the image down , i should know as we haul them at least twice a day .

    • barry the tow truck driver

      You sip latte and have manicured fingernails and sell pots and pans in the Adelaide hills.

      • Barry on the tray top .

        GEE twincharger your skirt is riding up , back in you old charger , nice purple paint job , taht would make you one of them .

    • Zaccy16

      yeah very good point, recent craptivas, cruzes barinas and the list goes on have been horrible korean cars!

  • Golf

    Don’t forgot the new model of Golf R (mk7) is coming next year… would be interesting to see all the challenger..

    • Simon

      Somehow I don’t think Golf buyers would switch to an Astra….

      • Barry on the tray top .

        We should all remember this opel thingy is not a golf competitor , its the sirocco , golf 5 doors not 3 .

        • JooberJCW

          You can get 3 door Golf R’s….

          But R’s are AWD, so yes a scirrocco is a more appropriate competitor.

      • Zaccy16

        yeah more scirrocco buyers though