Proud new VXR Nurburgring owner - 280/835

[nick_sixx]

Hey guys,

Last week I was lucky enough to get an Astra VXR 'burg for my 22nd birthday. I am loving the car so far - and am very pleased I didn't get a Focus XR5. The car came with a modest stereo using the stock HU so that was added bonus. Unfortunately - not being sexist here! - the previous owner was a young woman, so there is gutter rash on all of the wheels, and makeup, panadol, and pop cd's left under the seats haha.

After driving fast-ish cars (FC Rx-7, Pulsar Gti-R, EG6 Civic, Volvo 850R) for the past 4/5 years, the VXR is definitely living up to standard.

So far I have ordered a K&N panel filter, but was wondering what other mods members have done to their VXR's?

At the moment I am looking at a bigger downpipe+cat and a reflash (can anyone recommend Bluefin?). I don't want to go down the full exhaust route, seeing as my parents paid for two thirds of the car, and will be pretty disappointed if I "wreck the car by turning it into some sort of hot rod."

Anyway, thats it from me. I will try and get some photos up soon, even though I'm sure everyone already knows what it looks like.

EDIT: Photos in post #34

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[Shay]

Hey mate.

Welcome. Could only dream of getting a pressent like that next year...

where abouts you located?

there are a lot of mods you can do without drawin attention.

Most of the turbo boys runs the Deisel or 2.2L airbox instead of the std, as this allows you to get rid of the horrible crossover pipe...

id definately reckomend getting a whiteline heavy duty sway bar, best bang for buck mod IMO

[CNBLU]

Congrats on your purchase mate, its a great car.

[sooty]

Holy crap you have generous parents! Very lucky mate. I can't even remember what I got for my 22nd it was that good

Keep reading through the forums, you'll find stacks of info

[Greenmeanie]

Welcome to the forum

[chrissn89]

Welcome mate, and very lucky, a beautiful car.

Sensible mods would be CDTi air box mod, sway bar, de-cat 3" down pipe, FMIC, and BlueFin or EDS IPF Those will really get the car flying. Enjoy

[btm]

wowsers, congrats on the epic birthday present!

[kabel]

Welcome.
Plenty of go fast bits available.
Try Regal Autosport for an EDS IPF handheld tuner.
Might give you some more flexibilty over the Bluefin unit for future mods.

[nick_sixx]

thanks for the responses guys. I was very very lucky to get the car. I have always bought my own cars while pestering my parents for a new one, so eventually I wore them down haha. Some of my best friends from school have been given: Mazda 3 MPS, DC5 Type R, VW R32, Cooper S Works, Mercedes CLK 380(?), and perhaps best of all - a BMW Z4-M, so I'm happy to not be driving a 15 year old volvo anymore.

Will definitely look into a handheld unit, I have also found a few references to stratagem...are these any good?

Will look at the 2.2/diesel airbox in the future. I will see how well this panel filter holds up in the stock airbox first I think.

Is 3" the best size for a downpipe? ie can you go bigger without hitting sway bars etc?

The handling is quite impressive already (I don't know what all the car reviewers are talking about - saying it falls short of a Golf Gti etc....we used to have a golf GT that was horrible around corners), but a sway bar would be pretty good.

I am in Bardon in Brisbane (inner north-west-ish) if anyone else is around there - would love to see another VXR to compare.

[Nurb608]

Welcome to the site mate. Very nice choice of car (Yes, i'm biased).

As said, get a whiteline adjustable rear sway bar on it, it completely transforms how the car drives around corners as you can dial out some of the understeer. The original reviews on the handling was done with the sri-t setup underneath which is slighlty different to the production spec and is why they all complained about torque steer etc.

For the dump pipe, 3" fits no worries, but the exhaust flange on these cars is different to what you'd find on most so just need to keep that in mind.

In regards to tuning, I guess it depends on how far you want to go and what sensation you want out of the car. There are 3 popular ones being the Dreamscience (Stratagem), Bluefin and the EDS IPF.

Make sure you sign up on www.hsvvxr.com as well www.vxronline.co.uk also has heaps of info on just how far you can mod these things.