Sporty diesels have always been the most classic automotive oxymoron. Sure, diesels offer up a nice whack of low down torque, but more often than not that USP comes at the price of linear power delivery, a heavy front end and having enough revs to play with. This sporty diesel thing is beginning to become a much more common occurrence however as economy minded buyers want their cake
Opel / Vauxhall are the latest on the bandwagon after BMW and its M550d blunderbuss reignited the sporty diesel trend. The GM run company has recently announced that it will fit a 140 kW and 400 Nm, 2.0 litre bi-turbo diesel motor into all its Astra models. This should be good for 0 – 100 km/h dash in 7-something-seconds and a top speed of 220 km/h plus.
The standard start-stop system will keep the CO2 figure at 134g/km and the combined / claimed economy figure at 5.2L / 100km. The extra poke comes from two, sequential, turbochargers. A small turbo at low revs and a larger one to provide more boost at higher revs – which should hopefully provide smooth, fuss free torque of 320 Nm from as low as 1 250 rpm, all the way to the redline.
We know the British in particular love their diesels, which is why up until now the Astra GTC over there was the only model fitted with this particular CDTi engine, while our only Astra GTC options are the breathless 1.4T and 1.6T petrol engines. But now all UK Astra models, including the five-door hatch, will be offered with the new bi-turbo motor. GMSA have neither confirmed nor denied that the bi-turbo CDTi engine will be making it down south to us. But based on their reluctance to offer any diesel powered Opel’s of late, we seriously doubt it.
