New Opel / Vauxhall Astra J Cabrio Spied [Video]

Greetings Opel and Vauxhall fans. You probably have a lot to be happy about if you haven’t switched to Hyundais or Kias, and that’s because the whole lineup is being revamped, with fresh and innovative cars like the Adam supermini, or the new and very powerful twin-turbo diesel engine.

Also part of the model revamp, the cabrio version of the Astra J will be launched. Opel engineers have been working on the car for about a year now, and it should be ready soon. Two prototypes were testing on the Nurburgring track in Germany, honing their setup, when fastsportscardriver took this video of them.

The cars were testing various setups, with the roof up or down, and both test cars had a pair of dummies in the back seats to simulate the effect of the extra weight. You can clearly hear the back tires chirping away in the corners, trying to deal with the understeery nature of FWD cars.

The wheelbase of the car will be borrowed from the new Astra Sedan, while engine options will be the same as in the Astra GTC coupe, including the 1.6 turbo with 180 hp and the new twin-turbo diesel with 195 hp.