Opel takes Adam racing (2012) first official pictures

Vauxhall/Opel has built its new Adam city car around the idea of chic street-cred, but it's now given the Mini Cooper rival a healthy dose of motorsport pedigree as well. An international rally series is being readied for the Adam, where competitors will use a race-prepped version of the city car.

The regular Adam is pitched as a blank canvas for buyers to individualise, with 22 different alloy wheel options, 12 dashboard colour choices, and the option of a Rolls-Royce style fairy-lit roof lining. The Adam Cup gets modifications of a different sort: a full roll-cage, stripped interior, lightweight wheels with motorsport-spec rubber, and a tall sequential shifter to punch through the gears on short stages.

Close to full FIA R2 rally car standards, it'll see action in the Opel Rally Cup, as a support event to the Rally Masters Series. To encourage younger drivers into the sport, Opel has set up a junior points system for drivers under 27 years of age. The cream of the youth crop will win special coaching for the 2014 season. Meanwhile, the top senor drivers win cash prizes. The Adam Cup will see rally duty until 2016, when it'll be replaced by a race-prepped version of the next-gen Corsa supermini.

Opel isn't just heading back to the rally stage. For the 2013 season, it'll offer a customer racing car for on-track pursuits: the Germany-only Astra OPC Cup. OPC (Opel Performance Centre GmbH) is the equivalent of Vauxhall's VXR line, meaning what you see here is an essentially an endurance racing-prepped version of the new Vauxhall Astra VXR hot hatch.

The widened body points to stretched front and rear tracks, covering lighter wheels and racing tyres. There's also a new front splitter lip and an even more outlandish rear wing, roll-caged cabin, and a racing fuel system for faster pit-stops. The Astra OPC Cup will run in its own one-model racing series, with the Blue Ribband event of the 2013 season set to be a 24-hour endurance race at the Nurburgring.

By Ollie Kew