Astra GSi

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

Anyone know much about these?

One of my mates has just swapped his 2.0 corsa for a J-Reg one and just thought I'd see what peoples opinions of them were. How do they compare to a Clio/19 16v in standard from? I believe they are about 150 bhp so would be a bit quicker, but not sure how much there is in it.

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

I used to love them them, never drove one. Infact i've never even seen one over here

Retroholic Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 1000

good cars for a vauxhall, i believe engine mounts are a problem, and the rust too

Site Subscriber Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 2929

my mate had one, tbh its faster than a valver but its a 2.0l and has the extra bhp. his had 180bhp though so was quite rapid.

nice cars but they dont look as nice as the valver, nor do they handle as good.

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

I've never really liked any astras I've seen before but saw his briefly the other day and I have to say it looked rather nice. The corsa he had was on about 170bhp so as you can imagine it was pretty rapid, so unless this has had a lot of engine work which I'm not sure of I can't see it being quicker than that.

I'm not the biggest fan of vauxhalls but ocassionally I see some I like.

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

the only one i have a soft spot for is the MK1 astra, i had a 1.6sr with gte bdykit and recaro seats front and rear Shocked

and on webbers it was my 1st car at the age of 14

lol slight off topic

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:02 pm

bbracer16valver";p="101086 wrote:

the only one i have a soft spot for is the MK1 astra, i had a 1.6sr with gte bdykit and recaro seats front and rear Shocked

and on webbers it was my 1st car at the age of 14

lol slight off topic

One of my mates had one of those, quite liked them actually very retro!

Saw a mk2 White GTE the other day, they go like stink, well they used too!

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

yea drove a mk2 sxi which is the gte with more extras and that was a storm

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:16 pm

No a Storm is a VW Scirroco! now this is getting confusing

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

hmm, funny this, was having a (long) Rolling Eyes

convosation about astra gsi's eairler today.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

mk3 gsi will get humped by a decent 19.

Mk2 the 19 will have it in the twisties, straightline the 156 XE has it.

But its a 2 litre the 19 uisn;t.

And that is renaults biggest fuck up, the 19's competition the astra and escort both had 2 litre engines, the 19 may have been equal or 15bhp down on power but the extra torque of the bigger engines especially on roll on pull would hjave been very much appreciated.

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

One or more of the road test articles in the scan section includes both the 19 16v and the mk3 astra GSi. Handling is pish on the Astras by all accounts. mk3 has some electronic traction control thingy that's meant to tame the handling, but it's still shite. I've been in a mk2, it's just a boat full stop.

Retroholic Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 1000

also, i reckon that most people modify both the 16v's and the GSi's anyway, so.............. Bah, Laughing

so i hope you are all talking in standard form.......... Laughing

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

yea to 19 not begin a 2L is a issue spesh with these damm fiesta ST's and 172/182s around!

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

there is a turbo for that lump tho..

2.0 16v turbos that came out of the 4x4 cavs.

plenty of them about.

Level 4 User Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 83

The 'redtop' engine is a good strong engine,that is providing the cylinder head doesn't go porous!haha! - common problem!! My friends got a nova with the astra gsi engine in and its pretty fast. My second car was a nova then i grew up and decided a 16valver was the only way forward Very Happy

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

good man!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Mk3 GSi the only Astra I would have!

Someone on the Vectra forums has shoe-horned an Omega 3.0 V6 lump into a Mk2 GTE - man after me' own heart!

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

i seen a few v6 novas aswell was one on ebay not to long ago

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

link

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPER-NOVA-2-5-V6-VERY-FAST-150_W0QQitemZ130002900792QQihZ003QQcategoryZ9858QQcmdZViewItem

Level 4 User Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 89

I drove one of the mk4 GSi Astras the other month as it was up quite cheap, but it was pap.

The engine was very nice ill give it that, 197bhp turbo, and the recaros were nice, but everything else wasn't.

The gearbox being the worst, it was shockingly bad, and i wanted to like it so much.

Aw well, saved me some cash Smile

Mk3 early 2.0 red tops are cracking though really, yeah so the handling isnt that great but in most situations in day to day driving you wouldnt notice I reckon.

MK1 GTE with a redtop dropped in would be nice though Smile