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03 March 2010 - 10:00
Geneva show: Vauxhall GT/E
Blimey, the Vauxhall Insignia's going a bit Batmobile on us. Vauxhall's Geneva show concept car is the Flextreme GT/E, and the designers hint that a lot of the styling ideas here will turn up on the next Insignia in five years' time.
The designers pretty much took up residence in a wind tunnel, and got the cd down to 0.22. They managed to avoid the bread van tail of your usual low-drag saloon (step forward Mr Prius) by shaping a swoopy pair of blades over the rear wheel arches. Apparently the blades ‘cheat the air into thinking the car has a cut-off tail', according to designer Malcolm Ward. Like, wow. We had never before attributed the atmospheric gas with the power of cognitive reasoning.
Cutting drag was important in this car because it's another low-energy machine. Power comes from the same system as the Vauxhall Ampera and Chevy Volt. It's driven by a 150bhp high-torque electric motor, with a load of batteries in the centre tunnel and under the back seats. You charge it up overnight, but if you run out of juice on a long journey, a small petrol generator kicks in to keep the battery out of complete flatness, and keep you going with performance undiminished.
To prove it, Vauxhall-Opel's boss Nick Reilly drove an Ampera prototype on the 300-mile run from Opel HQ near Frankfurt to the show at Geneva.
Vauxhall was in ebullient mood at the show, with a promise of billions of pounds of new investment from the American parent GM. That's a remarkable turnaround given that just a few months ago Vauxhall-Opel was nearly bankrupt, GM in the states was already bankrupt, and Vauxhall-Opel was nearly panic-sold.
Paul Horrell, Consultant Editor of Top Gear magazine
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The grille kinda looks like a mazda and the styling is not very special
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@blueswift, I was thinking the same myself...looks like a badge-engineered MB.
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@blueswift, I was thinking the same myself...looks like a badge-engineered MB.
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The front grille looks 'Flextremely' similar to the Mercedes SLS.
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So bacically instead of the car burning fuel directly, it's burnt in a powerstation and then sent out to the car with the obvious loss of energy making the car less environmental than if it had a proper petrol engine installed. God I hate these electric cars.
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the nose has been lifted straight off a merc SLS!that's plagiarism for sure.plus the rear doesn't gel well with the front.looks like something that should belong to an imperial stormtrooper
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Definatley another car i wont buy becuase its a gm which means its only good for one thing: rental/fleet cars
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looks nice!!!
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Well...the headlights are nice.
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I really don't like it, its ugly, too showy and frankly pointless and I don't like the fact that its got no wing mirrors, i just can't get used to cars with no flaming wing mirrors.
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not a bad looking car. i just dont like it being a hybrid
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The front looks like a cartoon guy laughing. Vauxhall went a bit bubble with this one!!!
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WHAT ARE YOU DOING VAUXHALL???????? If you are going to make it have a VXR option which can rival supercars,preferebly 600BHP ones
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for actual human beings
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not eco menalists
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because it looks like a supercar
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Yes, it looks like an SLS, but a bit more modern (and weirder)
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BlueSwift commented on this article
03 March 2010
WOW! Same front styling as the Mercedes SLS (which looks ugly to me)! Looks awkward as well. =X. And i like the Insignia VXR better actually.
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