Vauxhall Astra GTC unveiled

The Vauxhall Astra GTC Concept - Paris debut

Vauxhall teased the next edition of the new Astra – the three-door Astra – last month ahead of a reveal at the Paris Motor Show in a few weeks. But with just over three weeks to go to Paris we now get much more detail on the Vauxhall Astra GTC Concept.

And it looks to us as if Vauxhall are going to stick with the GTC moniker for the production car, so this Concept may well be very close to the final production car. But actually, we think the closest production version of the Astra GTC Concept will be the new Astra VXR, which will keep some of the more ‘Concepty’ bits (like the big, 21″ alloys).

Vauxhall seems to have raided the style-box from the Vauxhall range – past and present – for the design of the GTC, although in these renderings it does look cohesive.

The blade surfacing on the side is grabbed from the five-door Astra, but it’s reversed to give the impression of integrated side skirts. There’s a sharp crease down the centre of the bonnet which is a feature from Vauxhall’s of old – like the Viva and Cresta –  and swoopy, ‘eagle-shaped’ headlights. Out back there’s LED lights and a spoiler at the top of the hatch.

The Astra GTC is actually slightly longer than the five door Astra although its roof line is much lower. Despite that Vauxhall say there’s still plenty of room for five adults. Underpinning the new body is a wider chassis and the GTC gets an electronic LSD and Vauxhall’s FlexiRide adaptive damping.

The concept gets a 2.0 litre turbo lump with direct injection and stop/start coupled to a manual ’box. What is of more interest – away from Vauxhall polishing its green cred with this show car setup – is that it seems likely the GTC will get endowed with something around 300bhp to create the 2011 Vauxhall Astra VXR.

Vauxhall are promising more detail on the GTC at Paris. But don’t get too excited yet as we reckon the Astra GTC is not going to hit the roads in the UK until the 4th quarter of 2011.

Hopefully, the Astra VXR will arrive at the same time.

By Cars UK