Comparing supermini-based hot hatches is a fraught and emotive business. Name a favourite and you risk offending someone whose brand loyalty and personal preferences have led them to prefer one of the others. A lively discussion, with raised voices and occasional mild abuse, will almost certainly follow.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the cars currently available to apparently similar potential customers are so different. The rawness of the Ford Fiesta ST and previous-generation Renaultsport Clio stands in marked contrast to the gentler and more subtle appeal of the current RS Clio and the Peugeot 208 GTi.
My pick in recent years has been the Vauxhall Corsa VXR, but any fool could see that it had a pricing problem. The Nurburgring and Clubsport special editions, which were the really good ones, both cost over £22,000, far more than what the manufacturers already mentioned were charging for their cars and dangerously close to the cost of a MINI John Cooper Works. And the thought of a MINI fan being satisfied with a Vauxhall badge wasn't one worth spending much time on.
With the new VXR, Vauxhall has addressed this problem. Although there have been many improvements, its base price is a much more reasonable £17,995, and even if you choose the optional Performance Pack, which we'll be investigating shortly, you'll still pay a relatively modest £20,395. Vauxhall could have scored an important psychological point if it had managed to get this figure below £20,000, but £20,395 isn't bad.
However much you pay, you get a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine rated at 202bhp, the same as the older Nurburgring and Clubsport and rather more than the old VXR on which they were based. That figure assumes that you're running on super unleaded petrol. Opel quotes 207bhp for its OPC version, but that's on higher-octane fuel than you can buy in the UK. On regular unleaded the output will be slightly short of 200bhp.
The turbocharger has an overboost function which operates for up to eleven seconds (not five as you may have read elsewhere) on full throttle. However, it doesn't affect maximum power because it works only between 1,900 and 3,000rpm.
Any higher than that and the pressure inside the cylinders would exceed what the designers have determined to be the safe limit. Overboost has an effect in road use but probably not on a race track, as you'd be unlikely to let the revs drop below 3,000 there.
Like the previous Corsa VXR, this one loses out badly to the main opposition on running costs. Combined fuel economy and CO2 emissions are 37.7mpg and 174g/km, the latter figure meaning you'll pay £205 annually in Vehicle Excise Duty from year two onwards. The Fiesta, Clio and 208 all come in at just under 140g/km, so Vehicle Excise Duty payments for those are much lower at £130. Even the 155g/km MINI JCW is cheaper to tax, though admittedly by only £25.
The £2,400 Performance Pack, expected to be chosen by no more than half of UK buyers, is interesting in many ways, not least because it gives the car a quite different character. It includes a Drexler limited slip differential also found in the previous Corsa VXR and its Astra equivalent, plus 18-inch wheels in place of the standard 17s, Michelin Pilot Supersport tyres, larger brakes and uprated springs and dampers.
I've driven a Performance Pack car both on the road and in a media-only competition held at a wet Knockhill race circuit. At Knockhill, it was superb, and frankly better than I was. The turn-in was good, there was no mid-corner understeer unless you hit the power too early and too hard, and while the back end was keen to step out the ESP would catch it again very smoothly.
The only real weak point was that the brakes, while effective to begin with, became very spongey after only a few laps. Admittedly, with two monster applications and two milder but still serious ones in a mile and a quarter, Knockhill is tough on brakes. Still, I'd have expected the Corsa's middle pedal to remain firm for longer than it did.
On public roads, the Performance Pack VXR is exceptional, better to my taste than the Fiesta ST and with greatly superior ride quality. But the non-Pack version is better still. The softer suspension makes the front end a little bouncy and makes the car less capable of accepting hard power applications in corners. However, the ride quality is in a different league, with none of the harshness that the Pack's set-up occasionally leads to, and there's far less road noise. You don't really need the Drexler diff in these conditions, and even the smaller brakes should be up to the job.
If you're going to use your VXR on trackdays or in competition, by all means go for the Performance Pack. If you don't plan to take it off the highway, save yourself the £2,400.
The level of standard equipment is impressive. For the £17,995 base price you get bi-xenon headlights, a heated windscreen, Vauxhall's IntelliLink infotainment system, splendidly supportive Recaro seats and a Remus exhaust system. The latte feature has been tuned to be exactly as loud as the law permits. Some people don't like the sound it makes, but I think it's quite good for a four-cylinder turbo car at higher revs.
Options include carbonfibre-effect trim for the door mirrors and front grille logo bar and a panoramic glass sunroof which has not been offered on any previous Corsa VXR other than the Arctic Edition. There are six exterior colours, of which only solid Flame Red is included in the price. All the others (including Flash Blue, not available on any other Corsa) will cost you more.
