Remember when guilty pleasures came with more pleasure than guilt?
What’s the most ridiculous car to have been put through a manufacturer’s performance division? Japan’s many, many sport kei cars spring to mind, all of which are brimming with charm and Gran Turismo appeal yet are all limited to 64hp under the segment’s stringent regs. In America, pickup enthusiasts are obviously spoilt for choice when it comes to utility vehicles beefed up with superchargers, track-honed suspension and, yes, aero kits.
It’s not like we’re averse to a whacky sports special in Britain, either. You could argue that the Lotus Carton is the perfect example, with Hethel taking one of the most dreary cars ever made and turning it into, at the time, the world’s fastest-performance saloon. That’s the last time we’d ever see the two British marques come together on such a transformational project , but Vauxhall did go it alone in the mid-2000s with its homegrown VXR division.
Of course, that’s before you hit the loud pedal. Pinning your right foot to the floor unlocked 180hp at 5,500rpm from a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-pot, which was good enough to send you and your family from 0-62mph in under eight seconds. Meanwhile, the suspension was stiffened up and lowered by 10mm at the front and 15mm at the rear, and extra stopping power was earned by a set of larger ventilated brake discs.
The results were, er, mixed. Reviews at the time noted that the Meriva’s high centre of gravity and skinny footprint did result in a fair amount of body roll, while the lack of a limited-slip differential meant that spirited driving was often accompanied by copious amounts of torque steer. The thing is though, had Vauxhall thrown a trick diff in or spent countless hours honing the setup, the Meriva VXR would have cost considerably more than its lofty-for-2006 price tag of £16,500.
In far more straitened times, it still has the potential to tickle the funny bone. Not for the north of 15 grand, of course, but how about £3,650? For that, you’re getting a seemingly very tidy example with just 68,000 miles on the clock and a fresh MOT. It’s pretty rare, too.puts the number of registered examples left at 109, down from a peak of a little over 250 in 2009. Hard to imagine many would have been kept in as good a nick as this, left alone left untouched by the look of it.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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