Vauxhall VXR8 GTS

This car is the last of its kind, but what a way to bow out

- Jethro Bovingdon

WHEN I LOOK BACK ON MY time with the VXR8, it’s nearly always with a smile. Okay, so when an over draft warning pinged through onmy phone I might have rued the 18.1mpg, but even when the children were eating gruel and my wife was darning socks, I reckon it was probably worth it. The VXR8 GTS isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s unique, big-hearted and almost impossible not to love (unless you’re Dickie Meaden, who hates it).

I wanted to run this huge Vauxhall because it represents the end of an era for the incredible line of V8 powered, rear-drive saloons built in Australia. Ford no longer builds the Falcon and now the Holden Commodore – on which this car is based – is dying, too. The whole Holden versus Ford rivalry is like a way of life for car enthusiasts in Australia, so it must feel especially painful for hardcore fans of the V8 Supercars race series, who’ve grown up as ‘Ford guys’ or ‘Holden guys’. I don’t have that history but even so it’s sad to see this loud, lairy breed disappear from the motoring landscape. Other reasons? The practicality, of course. And the 6.2-litre supercharged V8with 576bhp and 545lb ft.