Trader Dreamer: Vauxhall Vectra Special

This week a one owner, high mileage Vauxhall Vectra has grabbed my attention. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is an ex-minicab, but fortunately this Vectra is much cooler than that. This Vauxhall barge is in-fact ex police, and it’s called a Special because it is. Beneath that un-impressive exterior lies a turbocharged 2.8 V6.

A Vectra V6 Special in Service - Photo from Trojan631

Essentially this car is the Vectra VXR without any of the trimmings, aside from the chassis and the engine. For many mention of the Vectra VXR will conjure images of the comical power understeer demonstrated on Top Gear, but while the Vectra does fall short of the Mondeo ST220 in handling stakes, it’s not a bad car either. Evo magazine tested it against an EVO IX FQ-320, Impreza II STI and E90 330i, click the link to read the full review. In summary, the Vauxhall is not totally outclassed by this rather well regarded group of machinery. It’s also a lot quicker than the Mondeo ST220. 60mph in the Vauxhall comes in just 6.5 seconds, and it will power on to 161mph – enough for the police to keep pace with most things.

So as a car the VXR is rather good, but what makes it worthy of this blog is the removal of the bodykit on the police special model. Here is a car that looks like a minicab or retired fleet car but with the pace of many a supercar from yesteryear – a better sleeper is hard to find. Aside from the fun that can be derived this you also get a fairly decent car, the interior is well screwed together and it doesn’t look bad from the outside either.

For the extreme performance you will pay the price in fuel economy; 27.4mpg combined is the official figure. While most people wouldn’t know the car is as fast as it is, insurance companies certainly do, this Vectra is insurance group 18.

Here’s some I found

Unfortunately one of the two Specials has sold over the weekend but there remains a silver example, with an untold mileage and no mention of how many owners the car has had. The other example had 136,000 miles and had come direct from the police, but was a little cheaper. If this silver one has had more than one owner it’d be worth waiting for a better example to come along. Of course they will all have high mileage, but will have also had a no expense spared maintenance schedule. All you have to do is put up with a few screw holes in the interior.

If you can’t stomach the fuel/insurance bill then there is a diesel special, these are generally estates, used as marked police cars (the VXR’s were often unmarked police vehicles). It features a 3.0 V6 Isuzu diesel, which hasn’t a perfect record of reliability but should have been well maintained in this instance. It’s no where near as quick as the VXR, 0-60 is a 9.7 affair, but in gear acceleration should be impressive, a huge turbo provides the V6 diesel with a massive 295 lbs/ft of toruque – more than the VXR. There are two examples available at the moment, one at £2,950 and one at £3,989, both with reasonable mileages.

Specifications

Vectra 2.8 V6 T Special

0-60 6.5 seconds
0-100 N/A seconds

Top Speed 161 mph
Power 251 bhp
Torque 258 lb/ft
Weight 1580 kg
Insurance Group 18
MPG 27.4

Warranty DirectReliability Index 130
How Many Left (2xTypes) 129

Vectra 3.0 V6 CDTI Special

0-60 9.7 seconds
0-100 N/A seconds

Top Speed 140 mph
Power 184 bhp
Torque 295 lb/ft
Weight 1636 kg
Insurance Group 12

MPG 40.9

Warranty DirectReliability Index 130
How Many Left (2xTypes) 77

Can I get it in brown?

Vauxhall once had a lovely colour brown called Persia, however it seems it was not offered on the Vectra C, a shame, although it seems an unlikely choice for a police force in any case.