Inspiring
PRINCE OF WALES
WORDS BY SIMON HACKER, IMAGES BY SIMON CHILDS
Take one extreme VXR8 in cool Heron White to the brooding Black Mountains of Wales and the result is positive energy. Simon Hacker finds the hero within and tackles some adrenaline-rush sports.
6.55 am and I have a pressing appointment in the brooding horizon that marks the Black Mountains, the eastern gateway to Wales’ Brecon Beacons National Park. I’m off to test my mettle doing some exciting sports – sliding down a massive zip line, horse riding through the hills and then flying above them in a glider – and I don’t want to be late.
Not that I lack the wheels to get me there in good time. If ever a Vauxhall was ready to take the road by storm, it’s the latest LS3 incarnation of the VXR8.
While its predecessor harboured 5,967cc of V8 hardcore rock, this V8’s Corvette-derived engine raises the bar to 6,162cc. Yet that’s just for starters. This subtle but purposeful reworking of the VXR mothership also heralds new high-flow cylinder heads, remodelled pistons that sing in closer harmony than ever and an enhanced valvetrain.
The result? The most powerful Vauxhall built for the road emerges stronger than ever, with performance increased from 417PS to 431PS, spelling a 0-60mph time of under five seconds and sufficient improvements in manual in-gear acceleration (80-100mph in four seconds, anyone?) to make this a superstar on the weekend track circuit.
And so, in the new Heron White paintwork option, I head for the brooding Black Mountains of Wales. There is no place in Britain that fires the imagination so much as Wales. Provoke any Tom, Dick or Dai into a cultural naming game and you’ll have the combined weight of such luminaries as Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton, Tom Jones, Roald Dahl, Henry Vaughan, Shirley Bassey and Bryn Terfel to counter (not to mention that most inspiring of history’s leaders, T E Lawrence, who hailed from Portmadog and on whose life the film Lawrence of Arabia was based). Now there’s man who would have enjoyed cruising around in the VXR8. My pressing appointment is with the Llangorse Multi Activity Centre, overlooking Llangorse Lake, where I intend to find the hero in me and live up to the extreme image of my VXR8.
I tease the throttle a little less gingerly and the bestial purr of the fastest-ever bearer of the Griffin badge is my soundtrack for confidence. And even at a barely awake 2,000rpm, the VXR’s infinite leverage makes light work of the climb ahead.