The brandnew Opel Insignia OPC

The OPC in Opel's spanking-new sporty range stands for Opel Performance Centre.

The facelifted Opel Insignia OPC has been revealed, sporting a slight redesign and several chassis revisions aimed at keeping the mid-size performance car competitive.

The redesigned Opel Insignia OPC offers up a few subtle styling tweaks over the previous car. Most obvious is a new front grille, which now features a single chrome bar instead of its predecessor’s two-bar design, as well as new headlights. The car’s rear reveals a chrome bar that now extends into redesigned tail-lights.

The Insignia OPC retains the same ‘sabre-tooth’ front-end detailing, integrated rear exhausts and the same wheel design as the old car.

Opel says styling of the facelifted model “evokes visions of high-speed laps around the Nurburgring” and “dazzles with radiance”.

Inside, the OPC presents the same, redesigned interior as the rest of the facelifted Insignia range. The all-new fascia reduces the number of buttons found in the cabin compared with the first Insignia, and the car also presents a new instrument cluster.

Optional leather-trimmed Recaro sports seats are available, and the car has a new steering wheel, which also comes with shift levers for cars equipped with the optional automatic transmission.

Opel claims greater changes can be found beneath the car’s lightly-retouched skin.

Things don’t seem all that different to start with; the car’s 239kW/435Nm, 2.8-litre turbocharged V6 hasn’t changed at all from the previous car.

However, Opel says its engineers have modified around 60 per cent of Insignia OPC’s rear axle componentry. The car’s noise and vibration levels have also been improved, and new ESP software is said to improve the car’s tendency to understeer.

OPC has also reworked the car’s damper software, to ensure the adjustable shock absorbers deliver optimum roadholding. All-wheel drive and a limited-slip differential further assist with on-road traction.

When equipped with a six-speed manual transmission, the Insignia OPC sedan can run from 0-100km/h in 6.0 seconds (Sports Tourer: 6.3sec). There is also a six-speed automatic transmission available and currently Opel is working on a 8-speed automatic transmission for the Insignia. The car features Brembo brakes to help bring it to a stop.

Impressions:

The engine is powerfull, it has 239kW(325hp) and 435Nm. It accelerates pretty well from about 2.500rpm, but you can also cruise till 3.000rpm. Over 3.000rpm the engine is crying for more…

The chassis works well, even when you drive 270km/h on a road which is in bad conditions you feel save and it´s easy to drive. The breaks are well dimensioned, they feel very strong especially with the 20 inches rims and sporty tires, but also when it´s cold outside and you have snow tires they have good responding qualities. They do a good job, for example when you have to slow down from 240km/h to 120km/h because of someone right in front of you is changing the line without any sign, then you are very happy to have breaks like this.

The four-wheel drive is such an advantage, associated with the chassis you can accelerate early at the exit of a bend. Because of the distribution from 0 to 100% of the power to front or the rear tires it´s also possible to dirft, if you want to.

The manual gearbox is pretty sporty. The automatic transmission is also fun and it has a safty adventage, because of the shift paddles you can always leave both hands on the steering wheel.

The sound is great, so you can turn oft he radio and open the windows. On lower rpm the ist a deep tone and from 3.000rpm it´s yelling for more. What we really loved was the sound of the turbo charge especailly the hiss when you change the gear, which you can hear if the windows are opened.

The OPC mode is for the sporty enjoiment on the street and race track. But if you want to drive smoothly in the city and don´t want to change the gears by hand, if you have an automatic transmission of course, you shouldn´t press the OPC button. Because the it will change gears late so you are driveing with high rpm and thats not very smooth…

All in all we think because of the different modes, on one hand it´s a comfortable car, which you can use to go on holydays with the family. But on the other hand you can can leave the family at the hotel, drive to the next race track and have some fun there.

The Numbers:

2792cc, 6cyl, AWD, 239kW(325hp), 435Nm, 10.6L/100km, 249g/km CO2, 0-100km/h in 6.0secs, 250km/h (270km/h with unlimited package) V_max, 1809kg

The Price:

ca. $85.500 ~ 63.000€ (for this configuration)

Sources:

www.caradvice.com

www.opel.de

Our impressions

The brandnew Opel Insignia OPC

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