ASTRA 888 touring car rep

[jesse888]

thought id whack a thread up about my previous car.
it was a vauxhall astra 888 edition.
basically after vauxhall won the btcc with the astra coupe in 2001 they built 100 replica road going cars to celebrate.
general specs for a stock astra 888
2.0l turbo 190hp
bilstein dampers with eibach springs as standard!(very good)
upgraded 888 brake pads(ds2500 with 888 stamped on them)
888 touring car rep body kit
sparco seats
quick shifter
0-60 7seconds
top speed 152mph
some other things ive likely forgotten
this is number 83 when i first got it.

then i added abit of engine bling and some astra vxr injectors and airflow meter and had it remapped at red dot racing.

nice figures aye! or so i thought untill a month later i when back and the car only made 260hp! red dot were less than usless about this so i started saving for a proper build!

including some very nice parts not usually seen on an astra!

quaiffe atb differential! top peice of kit and really tranformed the car! could take a round about without braking it just made the car turn lol

 

[jesse888]

while collecting such parts i had the seat re-upholstered and painted the wheels

then came the day to install my collection!
befor

during with old turbo next to new garret gt2860rs turbo

intercooler

so all that went without a hicup!
then i find a breaker selling a forged engine so i thought why not!
old engine out!

OLD engine back in again!

basically the FORGED engine i was sold turned out to be a stock one! good job i checked it befor i put it in and whacked the boost up!! so that went back and i decided i wasnt going to mess about with forged engines for the sake of about 30hp.(max turbo will put out compared to the max the stock engine will take)
so got myself a boost controller and headed to courtney sport!( these guys are the best in the vauxhall scene and really know ther stuff!)

thats 330 hp and around 370ftlbs of torque! to say it shifted is an understatement!

car weighed about 1270kg so had a healthy power to weight!
so i went to santa pod to check out the speeeed! i managed a 1/4 mile of 13.5 seconds at 106mph.
getting it off the line was the hardest part! so did 15 runs on the strip and basically ripped 3 engine mounts off the gearbox!!

not fun, so had to fix that.
so added soem vibratechnics engine mounts, again top quality stuff for these cars

had some fun at brands hatch and drove it about for a while destroying basically anything!
the porsche drivers were my favourite! they'd give it the welly and see an astra come shooting past!
so evenually got bored of fixing it all the time and stripped all the parts from it, sold them and it and now have my s2000.

 

[Topher-EK9]

Wow man, great work. that is a very cool vauxhall.
I'd say removing the chrome from the front grille would make it look a bit nicer, I'm picking holes though i actually really like it.

 

[jesse888]

Thanks mate.
I think the rarity makes up for it being an Astra. I used to call it disastra

 

[si8pny]

nice build thread never seen one of these special edition coupes before

 

[D17KDB]

I have always liked the 888's. The car looks mint bud

 

[jesse888]

Yeah it was in fairly good condition. Used to worry about ripping the splitter off on curbs all the time because the splitters are rare as hens teeth. You just can't get them.
Was an animal from about 30mph al the way to 150+.

 

[Matt-EK9]

Dont forget to mention who helped you home when you broke your car at pod

 

[jesse888]

Haha yes Matt. The ek9 brought me home after countless runs up the strip running perfectly lol. Must have been a sign

 

[Matt-EK9]

Cold march morning with standard Pod headwind.
Stock EK9 full weight vs 330bhp 888 fully stripped.

First ever run for us both, I totally fluff everything miss shift and overrev I know and im bearly staged before the guy hits the go button because Jesse had been waiting while he checked my harness.

I think you get the idea though.

 

[jesse888]

Wow if you forget the time we both got that shows how fast that Astra was!

 

[saundz]

This is nice!
I never realised the spec of the 888 coupes, I thought it was just the body kit lol.
Some really nice figures there, how was the handling?

 

[jesse888]

Handling was pretty good for an Astra, the bilstein suspension is perfect for this car. With the quaife diff ( best mod I've ever made) it was actually nice to drive. I used to back the power off with the apex I and it would handle nicely. Just couldn't handle sustain periods of abuse.

 

[Jack24]

Cool car . I had a mk4 astra gsi turbo in sapphire black when i was younger. It had a vxr turbo, miltek exhaust and bilsteins. My mates used to call it the disastra to as it was always going into 'limp mode' haha

 

[jesse888]

haha good to know i didnt pick a bad one, they are all that way lol

 

[t3gav]

Nice, did you change that 90 degree into the turbo intake? Probably gain about 10bhp if it was a nice curve instead of cut and shut

 

[jesse888]

Nah I broke it soon after. 330 is pushing it on stock internals anyway so I wasnt massively bothered about gaining anymore.

 

[Rossco155]

i like the look of this plus with those figures i bet it shifts never actually seen one tho lol

 

[jesse888]

Less than 80 still on the road. Unless your into your astra's your not Likly to see one.

 

[NeilVtec]

Get some spacers on those wheels or wheels with a wider offset, would finish it nicely!