ELECTRIC RACER CONCEPT PREVIEWS NEXT CORSA

The 789bhp Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo “shows where Vauxhall wants to take” its performance sub-brand

- WILL RIMELL

The next-generation Vauxhall Corsa has been previewed by the Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo, a 789bhp, 1170kg electric concept car built to show the future capability of the GSE performance brand.

While billed as a technical exercise for the PlayStation’s Gran Turismo racing game, it features “real-world” elements that will inform the design of the Mk7 Corsa, due next year, Vauxhall design boss Mark Adams told Autocar.

The concept, which nods to past Vauxhall/Opel motorsport models such as the Manta 400 rally car, also highlights its plans for hot GSE models. Adams called it Vauxhall's “Type R moment”.

He said the aim is to make “truly attainable poster cars” with “proper performance” that will “make people look at the brand differently” while also appealing to a younger audience.

NEXT CORSA

The concept sits on Vauxhall parent company Stellantis’s forthcoming STLA Small platform, which could be first used by the seventh-generation Corsa.

Basing the concept on this future platform and giving it the Corsa name were “very deliberate” moves, said Adams.

He explained: “When you do a concept, so many of them are one metre high, five metres long. It’s a great fantasy, but is it meaningful for people? As soon as you badge it ‘Corsa’, you make something that all of a sudden becomes something you can see [that is] more real, while having a much more compact footprint.”

Compared with the current, CMP-based Mk6 Corsa, the concept is 130mm longer and 105mm wider, suggesting the model won't grow too much in size.