STYLISH
Know Parking
The New Corsa is a breath of fresh air - funky and fun, with a huge helping of practicality and user-friendliness thrown in. Brighton has a certain sense of style and fun, too, so that's where we went. Words by Ben Whitworth pictures by Stuart Collins
We're gap chasing. Brighton's morning gridlock is relentless, and finding just the right space in the correct lane is crucial. But our New Corsa SXi three-door, with its punchy 1.4-litre engine is proving to be a scalpel-sharp tool for scything our way through this mayhem.
We've discovered an ally. The compact New Corsa seems unflustered by this early morning automotive assault course. Its back-pocket dimensions, sharp performance and urban-rollerskate agility might yet get us through the car-soup to the Royal Pavilion, standing a stone's throw from the seafront like some grand and intricate sand castle.
This fantastic piece of architecture with its echoes of the Taj Mahal actually started life on the site of a simple farmhouse, not long after Brighton had begun its own transformation from village to trendy spa town where the rich and famous came to drink and bathe in the waters. In fact it was under the patronage of the then Prince of Wales, (later King George IV) that it was developed first as a classical house with 'Chinese-style' interiors, then into the neo-classical Royal Pavilion as we know it now by royal architect John Nash.
In the late summer sun, the Pavilion's goldclad domes and spiky minarets look completely at odds with its mundane surroundings. Yet it's the kind of contradiction that underpins today's Brighton.
Its seafront may be all tilefloored chippies and gift stalls, but head deeper and you find the other Brighton - where every slinky boutique, organic juice bar and art gallery is at the hard edge of cool.
So if the New Corsa can look good here, Barcelona, Budapest and Berlin will be a doddle.
Edgy, taut and athletic, it injects real dynamism into an often conservative market sector. That slash of chrome over the vee grille is flanked by amazing, jewel-like light clusters; the steep rake of the windscreen shortens the nose and flows into a coupe-like roofline and pert rear end, highlighted by the chrome-trimmed sports exhaust.
In fact it shouts chic with every line, and its wheel-at-each-corner stance lends just the right degree of attitude. It's a neatly resolved look that underlines Vauxhall's bold new design direction. Brighton falls for it too. The New Corsa turns heads, points fingers and ups thumbs - even among the streams of fashionistas who parade the pedestrian areas.
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