#01#Are you VXR enough? This is the question being asked by Vauxhall's aggressive advertising of its performance brand. It cleverly places an expectation and a challenge on prospective purchasers. The cars in the range are class leaders in terms of being the most powerful and have the performance to match.

The Astra VXR is based on the rakish looks of the Sport Hatch we enjoyed last year but in an altogether more serious guise. The looks are overtly aggressive and eye catching with the expected body work: flared arches, deep spoilers, ducts and sills. It stands aside not just from the lesser Astras, but from other hot hatches as well.

Heavily sculpted looks are backed up by big alloys wrapped in rubber of the dimensions usually reserved for cars such as the BMW M3. If there is any doubt about whether this car is the real deal or a tarted-up lower order Astra pretender, the central exit exhaust is the final distinguishing feature. It is easily the lairiest looking of the main protagonists in the market place; both the Focus ST and Golf GTi cut a much more restrained and sober dash on the roads. This in itself will shift a decent amount of cars from the showrooms.

The interior is much like that of the normal Sport Hatch, but with suitably bolstered VXR Recaro leather seats, leather-trimmed gaiters and wheel. There's plenty of room up front but the thick C-pillar and plunging roofline can make the rear feel a little claustrophobic and the whole cabin is a little on the dark side. The finish and quality is a match for the Focus ST, but lacks the class of the Golf GTi.

On the road, the VXR immediately feels decidedly frisky. Throttle response is instantaneous and it takes a small amount of acclimatisation to actuate it smoothly enough to avoid surging through low-speed areas. This sense of throttle control is key to the Astra VXR driving experience in general. Clumsy throttle pedal inputs will go some way to ruining your fun in the VXR. Why? The dreaded 'T' - torque steer.

#p##02# Plant the throttle of this Astra out of a junction or a slow bend and the wheel will wriggle in your hands and tug at your wrists and arms. Even in a straight line in second and third gears (and indeed fourth in the wet in one case), simply booting the throttle will introduce you to the VXR's unruly nature. Factor in large wheels and tyres that have a tendency to follow the contours of the tarmac, and stiff suspension to accentuate the issue, and in the wrong circumstances with the wrong driving style the VXR can become something of a pain.

Paradoxically this is a good thing. Feeding the 237bhp and 236lb.ft of torque produced by the blown four-pot two-litre through the front wheels of a car is not an easy task and it actually makes the driver consider their inputs more carefully, rewarding smooth and measured actuation of power as opposed to the "plant it" philosophy one can adopt in lesser vehicles. There are times when the chassis and the traits of the car can annoy, but these are largely outweighed by the times it provides entertainment.

Searing straight-line pace (the Astra feels a tad quicker than the claimed figures - 0 to 60mph in 6.2 seconds and 152mph all out, for the record) is coupled to flexibility that is somewhat at odds to the levels of boost being used in the engine. Six quickly swapped well-spaced ratios ensure instantaneous accessible acceleration in almost all contexts. The performance lives up to the looks.

But we've been here before with Vauxhall as far as I can remember, back to the Astra GTE 16v of the late 80s, a hatch with class leading performance, sufficient to humble the lesser Porsches in their respective eras, but undermined by a poor chassis. To prevent perpetuation of this undesirable predicament Vauxhall enlisted some help from the gurus at Lotus. Unlike its rivals, and despite the presence of a pan-European OPC version of this car, the VXR enjoys a chassis setup defined specifically for UK roads.

The result is impressive. Powerful brakes reign in the ponies as you arrive at every bend and the turn-in is sharp and impressive. Grip through the bend is huge with minimal body roll and enough suppleness to iron out the inevitable unwanted irregularities we so enjoy on our roads. Traction out of the corner, assuming the throttle is fed in smoothly, is good and in most cases torque steer is absent. However, even when driven as considerately as possible the wheel does occasional squirm in your hands.

#p##01# The VXR is probably the rawest hatch on the market and will remain as such until the arrival of the new Honda Civic Type RR. The Astra VXR appeals on a level of thrills and involvement most others can't. The negative is that some of the adrenaline is due to the waywardness that creeps into the repertoire now and again, which is a real shame and something I'd trade a few ponies to eradicate.

So to answer the question, am I VXR enough? Ultimately, a friend who asked a similar but more telling question ("Could I live with the car everyday and spend my own money on it?") answered this question for me. The response to this, indeed both enquiries is a negative one. As capable as the VXR is, and it's a cracking car. The bang for buck quotient is ridiculously good and the looks are hot hatch magic, but it is too hard core; too edgy; too VXR.

It's an exciting and involving car to drive, but lacks some subtlety; you could say this about the looks as well. It will appeal to people in a way that a Golf GTi never will and this obviously applies vice versa also. However, the Focus ST manages to dynamically match, or beat, the VXR in most dynamic comparisons whilst remaining more refined and composed.

The Astra VXR is one of the best fast Vauxhalls in memory and deserves to be successful for that. Some slightly better manners and, ironically, a little less power to restore some of the order and it would push hard for class honours. As it is, it just misses out to our class benchmark, the Ford Focus ST.#p##05#

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Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch UK range overview

- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.6i 16v: £14,387
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.6i 16v Easytronic: £14,837
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.8i 16v VVT: £15,062
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.8i 16v VVT auto: £16,057
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 2.0i 16v Turbo (170PS): £17,497
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.7CDTi 16v (100PS): £15,847
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.9CDTi (120PS): £16,677
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.9CDTi (120PS) auto: £17,977
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch Design 1.9CDTi 16v (150PS): £17,527
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SXi 1.4i 16v: £13,537
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SXi 1.6i 16v: £14,037
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SXi 1.6i 16v Easytronic: £14,487
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SXi 1.7CDTi 16v (100PS): £15,497
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 1.8i 16v VVT: £15,397
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 1.8i 16v VVT auto: £16,392
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 2.0i 16v Turbo (170PS): £17,197
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 1.7CDTi 16v (100PS): £16,197
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 1.9CDTi (120PS): £16,727
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 1.9CDTi (120PS) auto: £18,027
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi 1.9CDTi 16v (150PS): £17,227
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 1.8i 16v VVT: £16,047
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 1.8i 16v VVT auto: £17,042
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 2.0i 16v Turbo (170PS): £17,847
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 1.7CDTi 16v (100PS): £16,847
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 1.9CDTi (120PS): £17,377
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 1.9CDTi (120PS) auto: £18,677
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi (with exterior pack) 1.9CDTi 16v (150PS): £17,877
- Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch GTC (special edition) 1.8i 16v: £15,192
- Vauxhall Astra VXR: £19,120