Photo: Virtuel-Car
I still remember how things used to be done in the hot hatch world. Cheap plastic, a few red stripes and the most overpowered four-banger engine were all standard. This formula gave us the first Focus RS and the Astra GTE. However, Opel and a few other companies seem to have gone all soft on us.
You see, for two generations, the Astra OPC has been the benchmark for sending retarded amounts of power to the front wheels. 2-liter turbo engines made family cars into BMW rivals, but Opel's engineers have forgotten that.
Recent reports suggest there won't be a replacement for the hot Astra until 2017 or later. Also, the 2-liter doesn't fit, so they'll switch to the 1.6-liter and hope it's enough. So far, all the other companies who tried to do this ended up with hot hatches that look good but are lacking in the go-fast department.
The recent industry trend is for upsizing, not downsizing. For example, Volkswagen quit making the 1.4-liter twin-charger and made a 1.8-liter to replace it. MINI, on the other hand, borrowed a 2-liter turbo from BMW to make its Cooper S and John Cooper Works.
So yeah, we may reach a point where not-so-MINIs use bigger engines than Opel. To lessen the blow dealt to our moral, we're going to examine these renderings of the next-gen Astra OPC made by Virtual-Car.
This French designer understood that Opel was going for a lack-luster approach and switched things up accordingly. Instead of the sexy triangular exhaust that the outgoing OPC model came with, we get two normal pipes (borrowed from the Corsa). The Front is restyled in a more subtle manner, and only the alloy wheels hint at a true performance car.
Meanwhile, the game has moved on significantly. The Honda Civic Type R packs over 300 horsepower and there could even be a 400 horsepower Golf R by the end of 2016. Even if they give us about 270 hp from a 1.6-liter, nobody is going to bat an eyelid at Opel's achievements.
Recent reports suggest there won't be a replacement for the hot Astra until 2017 or later. Also, the 2-liter doesn't fit, so they'll switch to the 1.6-liter and hope it's enough. So far, all the other companies who tried to do this ended up with hot hatches that look good but are lacking in the go-fast department.
The recent industry trend is for upsizing, not downsizing. For example, Volkswagen quit making the 1.4-liter twin-charger and made a 1.8-liter to replace it. MINI, on the other hand, borrowed a 2-liter turbo from BMW to make its Cooper S and John Cooper Works.
So yeah, we may reach a point where not-so-MINIs use bigger engines than Opel. To lessen the blow dealt to our moral, we're going to examine these renderings of the next-gen Astra OPC made by Virtual-Car.
This French designer understood that Opel was going for a lack-luster approach and switched things up accordingly. Instead of the sexy triangular exhaust that the outgoing OPC model came with, we get two normal pipes (borrowed from the Corsa). The Front is restyled in a more subtle manner, and only the alloy wheels hint at a true performance car.
Meanwhile, the game has moved on significantly. The Honda Civic Type R packs over 300 horsepower and there could even be a 400 horsepower Golf R by the end of 2016. Even if they give us about 270 hp from a 1.6-liter, nobody is going to bat an eyelid at Opel's achievements.
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