POWER PLAY

VAUXHALL'S NEW VXR8 IS A CAR FULL OF SURPRISES - A SALOON THAT THINKS IT'S A SUPERCAR, A CAR WITH PERFORMANCE WAY ABOVE ITS PRICE, A CAR WITH COMFORT AND PRACTICALITY AS WELL AS STUNNING DRIVING DYNAMICS. AND THE BEAUTIFUL ISLE OF ANGLESEY WAS ONCE THE ISLAND POWER-BASE OF WELSH KINGS...
Words by Brian Laban
Pictures by Simon Childs

Many times over millions of years, much of northern Europe, including most of Britain, was covered by the glacial ice sheets of the Ice Ages, and as the glaciers crept over the northwest corner of Wales, they carved deep scars. But as the last glaciers retreated, some 12,000 years ago, and the sea added its own ravages, one scar was so deep that the waters poured in and the British Isles had a new island – what would become known as Ynys Môn, or Anglesey.

Although the Menai Straits that separate Anglesey and the rest of Wales are little more than a hefty stone’s-throw across, and bridges restored Anglesey’s physical links to the mainland more than 180 years ago, it retains that feeling of a place apart – with the magic to draw us there with our new VXR8, to ponder more than one meaning of power.

It’s a beautiful place whose landscape was also shaped by the power of those glaciers – scoured to the point where Holyhead Mountain (the highest point on Anglesey) rises barely 720 feet, where nearby Snowdonia has any number of peaks over 3000 feet.