Test drive Opel Vectra sedan 2002 - 2005 sedan
The attack strategy
The creators of the fastest serial opel assure that Vectra-GTS has an aggressive-sports character. Now turn left. And after three hundred meters at the traffic light to the right, ”said a talkative girl, forever settled in one of the many computers of my car. This thing is amazingly convenient - the on -board navigation system. Half an hour ago, studying the route, on which I had to evaluate Vectru-GTS, I admit, I was afraid to get confused in the intricacies of roads in the vicinity of Munich and complex Bavarian names. It turned out that thanks to the electronic assistant, the task was greatly simplified.
Tall ranks from Rousselsheim decided to present their hot hatchbacks in Bavaria, it was not at all accidental. The birthplace of BMW and Audi is famous for the greatest variety of roads: from wide and even autobahns and exciting-vast, almost mountain serpentines, to the field laes and cobblestone bridges.
Five hundred kilometers were quite enough to make sure how aggressive and to what extent this machine had a sporty character. The guys from Rousselsheim did not lie! However, everything in order.
Cracking tiger
25 elegant pulled handsome hands were waiting for us at Munich Airport. In addition to the color - white, red, blue, yellow, patterns of wheeled discs and nameplates, they were no different from each other. Everyone is good as for the selection and there is no uncle with them, not a Black Sea is an employee distributing cars. While I stand in line behind the keys, I manage to see them more closely.
The promised sports makes itself felt from the first glance. The darkened optics, a large trapezoidal air intake, inside which is guessed by a stylish shallow -mesh grill of a supposedly huge radiator, an elegant hint of a rally anti -winged on the stern - neither give a civilian version of a powerful racing shell. Very noticeable nuances in comparison with the sedan. It was more complicated to notice that the car became a flower of a 4-door counterpart.
Having reduced the road clearance by 20 mm, we were able to provide excellent aerodynamics (CX \u003d 0.28) and much more pronounced sports both in appearance and in the interior, ”the assistant chief designer Opel Karim Jordimaina confirmed in the evening. As for the appearance, there are no questions. And what about the interior?
Velvet claws Who said that a cozy, practical and comfortable salon does not get along well with sports notes in the decoration? On an excellent three -spoke leather steering wheel of a comfortable section and optimal diameter, there are buttons to control the stereo system and a computer. The front seats are quite tough, with pronounced side support and at the same time bribe with huge adjustments and tenacious upholstery.
In a 4-door sedan, the steering wheel and chairs are not at all like that. In addition, he does not have devices with chrome halo and a stylish matte aluminum strip on the front panel and doors. And GTS, in my opinion, is close to the ideal of ergonomics. The most picky may have claims to be a little wider than we would like to be a slightly wider, front stands, and visibility back through a salon mirror.
In a word, and the salon at the car, as the Germans promised, became more sports. Without unnecessary, however, pseudo -aches - in moderation. Just like the heroine of the detective Erla Stanley Gardner is a matter of velvet claws. But somehow the fastest serial Opel will behave in motion today? Aggressive and sports character is not only and not so much external tsatski and comfortable seats.
Doubts disappeared after a second or two after the start.
In addition to mechanical gearboxes, GTS can be equipped with a five -speed automatic machine with a stepbronics
Inside, the GTS diesel from the model with a 6-cylinder engine can be distinguished only on the scale of the tachometer, the red zone of which begins with 6500 rpm
The hidden dragon The car was good. The assembled suspension, clear, understandable - thanks to the amplifier that changes the parameters of work depending on the speed, the steering wheel (by the way, it is also owed by its acuteness by a unit large in comparison with the sedan gear ratio in the engagement of the gear -rack). And a cool, powerful motor.
Hare wield a gearbox lever behind the temperamental engine, and a little more than in seven seconds you will see the speedometer arrow at a three -digit mark. On the second, by the way, transmission. You can try kilometers at 160 and fifth stomp on the gas. 180, 200, 220, and GTS know everything, presses into a chair. The left strip of the autobahn begins to be released (will we live to live in Russia such a culture?), When 300-400 meters to the stern of the nearest car. It is a pity, another minute, and my electronic assistant suggests that it is necessary to turn off the speed track.
Further, the path lies along the winding paths, reprising also by steep climbs and descents. Here, if you pickle it, you can see that somewhere from 60 km/h acceleration, for example, on the third, not as nerd as we would like. So who prevents once again to use the pleasant gearbox in all respects and stick the second?
The behavior of the machine in turns is generally a separate song. GTS, although it is configured under a barely noticeable insufficient rotation, due to other suspension adjustments, is creating that not a single serial Opel could before. For me, his handling can be fully compared with such machines for the driver as Alfa-Romeo-156, Peugeot 406 or BMW three. Do not believe? I would not believe it either if I had not tried it myself.
Sports genes
Opel is one of those companies that do not spend their funds too much on car racing. Therefore, real racing cars with lightning in the emblem can be counted on the fingers of one hand. But to release sports options for ordinary sedans and coupe is a long tradition in Rousselshaim. That is why Rainer Traitz, one of the leaders of the company marketing department, believes that GTS has become a kind of reincarnation of past sports models. For example, Kommodora-GS/E-one of the best models of the company of the late 60s. The pretty mantle of the early 70s or her elegant and temperamental successor Monza.
On the roads of Germany, today you can find many wonderful predecessors of GTS - Opel -kalibra. From 1989 to 1997, almost a quarter of a million of these powerful, rapid coupes were sold.
Vectors of power support
Which of us, lovers of acute driver sensations, does not like to grab with a breeze, if a powerful engine, tenacious brakes and a strict suspension allow? So I had enough dating for firmly to believe: 211 -horsepower GTS - just what I needed to warm the new vector in the market.
Practical marketers from Rousselsheim, however, do not hide that the volume of sales of these machines in the European market will be 5-7% of the total number of vector family. The lion's share will have to go to cars with gasoline engines - in total there are four engines in the program, except for the V -shaped six, there will be another 1.8 liter 122 liters. p., 2.2 liters 147 liters. With. and 2.2-liter 125-horsepower diesel.
Why, ask, he is a sports hatchback? But why. Having swept here near Munich on less charged GTS, I found that even such cars can arouse temperament. Not the most impudent - about 10-11 seconds to hundreds - but quite enough to quickly accelerate, for example, at the exit of the turn. Or enjoy a clear enveloping in the coolest turn, slightly thrown or squeezing the trajectory with a gas pedal. And do not think how quickly the fuel tank is devastated. Do you think this is not important for a sports disposition? In the not at all poor Bavaria, the Germans, giving about 1 euro for each liter of gasoline, I assure you, they don’t think so.
Even if under the hood is not 211 liters. with., GTS has the same clarity of the suspension and the same attractive sports appearance. Only money you pay much smaller. Say, in Russia - we will begin sales at the end of this and early next year - the most powerful modifications will cost about $ 35 thousand. And the option with a 122 -horsepower engine can be purchased by $ 12 thousand cheaper.
It is this - the possibility of choosing for each with high quality and largely unique abilities that are not previously characteristic of serial Opel - this is perhaps the main strategy for the attack on competitors, faithfully chosen in Ruselsheim.
A pair of chrome mufflers under the rear bumper is the main distinguishing feature of a car with a 6 -cylinder engine
Opel Vectra GTS
Total information
Body
5-door hatchback
Equipped mass, kg
1390
Complete mass, kg
1990
Length x width x height, mm
4596x1798x1460
Base, mm
2700
Front/back, mm track
1535/1525
Maximum speed, km/h
248
Acceleration time 0100 km/h, with
7.5
Fuel consumption, l/100 km
10.1
Engine
Location
The front is longing
Design
gasoline, 6-cylinder, V-shaped, two camshafts in the head of the block, distributed fuel injection
The number of valves per cylinder
4
Cylinder diameter /piston stroke, mm
87.5 x 88.0
Working volume, SMZ
3175
Compression ratio
10.6: 1
Power, L.S. (kW) at rpm
218 (160)/ 6000
Torque, kgsm (nm) at rpm
290 (29.6)/ 3400
Chassis
Transmission
Front -wheel drive
Transmission
5-speed mechanical
Suspension:
Independent, with stabilizers of anti -resistance stability
front
At the racks of McEferson
behind
Mollycent
Steering
rhealenic type with an electro -hydraulic
Brakes
disk, in front - ventilated
The size of the tires
215/55 R16
Alexey Sergeev, photo Opel
Source: Magazine "Limousine" [07-08/02]
