Corgi 1/43 VA13207A Vauxhall Astra Mk2 GTE 16V, Arctic White, 'Vauxhall Heritage Centre', RHD (UK)

Vauxhall's Mk2 Astra was launched in 1984 and a GTE version followed shortly after. However, to counter competition from Peugeot, Ford and VW in the hot-hatch market, the GTE 16V was revealed in 1988. It featured a fire-breathing Cosworth-developed XE20 'red-top' twin-cam engine which sang above 4000rpm and made it, by some margin, the fastest hot-hatch of its era in a straight line; no surprise for a 150bhp car which weighed around a tonne and had class leading aerodynamics. Its torque-steer was almost as legendary as its straight-line performance although the later addition of ABS brakes helped tame the handling and the GTE 16V is now seen as one of the great cars of its era.

The GTE 16V modelled belongs to Vauxhall's heritage centre in Luton and has never been modified. Its first and only previous owner was a Mr Richards of York who purchased the car from Easingwold Motors (then a Vauxhall and Ford dealer!) on August 2nd 1990. It was bought by Vauxhall for their heritage collection on December 23rd 2003 with less than 25,000 miles on the clock and required absolutely no work because it was in perfect original condition, a credit to Mr Richards who had looked after it fastidiously. It has been used for media and display duties regularly and was also the car that Corgi Vanguards 'plotted' in three dimensions when creating the tooling for our detailed model of GM's 'T-car'.

Engine: 1998cc 4IL DOHC
Power: 150bhp@6000rpm
Torque: 150lb.ft@4800rpm
0-60mph: 7 seconds
Maximum speed: 135mph