Brace Yourself For Tears: The Last-Ever Vauxhall VXR8 Is Here
Get your black armbands ready and try your best not to cry. The final Vauxhall VXR8 has been announced. It’s the very last time we’re going to be able to get excited about the big, brutish Australian that’s as full of character as anything else on the road.
Vauxhall’s Australian sister company Holden has been shut down with one final hurrah in the shape of the GTSR W1, and with global production of the Commodore almost at an end, now it’s the turn of the UK to get its own run-out special.
It takes the first part of the Holden’s name to create the VXR8 GTS-R, offering a specification unique to the UK. The glorious 6.2-litre supercharged V8 is boosted by 19bhp to 587bhp; enough to make it the most powerful production Vauxhall ever, but still 49bhp short of the ultra-special ‘road-legal race car’ Oz-only Holden GTSR W1.
The extra power comes courtesy of a high-flow air filter and a light remap.
On top of that, the last VXR8 also gets a limited-slip differential, upgraded six-piston calipers squeezing 410mm discs at the front, and larger 20-inch alloy wheels measuring a chunky 10 inches wide at the back and nine at the front.
Just 15 will be coming to the country with a price of £74,500. One will be shown to the public at the Goodwood Festival of Speed starting on June 29, as part of the First Glance Paddock. We’re sorry to be losing an absolute icon of non-American muscle, but at least it’s going out with a heroic bang.
Comments
I live in the USA and have never seen or heard about this car before, can someone explain why this is so sad?
It’s like when they released the last-gen Viper. No more Viper. Bye bye. Gone.
The Vauxhall VXR8/Holden Commadore is the Chevy SS here in America.
At one point it was the Pontiac G8 too.
Its sold as a chevy ss in the usa which you might know
Can I just correct a couple of things from the introduction paragraph at the very top.
1: The Commodore is still in production at the moment, the run of the final VF Commodores ends in late October, so there’s still a couple of months at least of new cars still being made (Not HSVs if that’s what you mean, but you can still order a ‘Holden’ if you wish).
2: Holden as a brand is not being killed off. Yes, production of Australian cars will end but the name will still be used on all imported GM products and a lot of the design and research facilities are still going to be used. Lang Lang proving ground being a standout example. They will still be tuning and tweaking the cars for Australian road conditions, which, are really quite different.
Either way, I’m sad to see our cars disappear.. I’ve grown up in Holdens and been in a Holden family. They’re pretty special down here..
I really wish they’d just said ‘f*ck it’ and released a VXR8 with like 1,200hp and no driver aids, that would’ve been fitting!
Basically a burnout machine
Goodbye old friend
Whee! My Ford is amazing! Sees this car Oh yeah, that’s cooler. Oh it’s that thing, cool. WAIT ITS GOING NOOOOO. world explodes
See you again intensifies
yup
Never knew this thing existed but I like it
How does 430kw, 740nm for 95,000 aud sound ?
Well… I don’t have to look at Australia anymore if I’m thinking about performance cars… Let alone muscle cars.
Definitely tears shed, this has always been high on my dream car list, well above the rolling tech demos that the rest of the European super saloon market has become.
Well, looks like the SS/Commodore pair will join the Evo and Viper as legends who have gone down in recent times. So to put it, Dodge is still doing decent without the Viper, but Mitsubishi isn’t doing so great after the passing of the Evo.
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