humbucker's Mk4 Astra Coupe Linea Rossa Edition

[humbucker]

My 3.0 V6 Omega Elite failed its MOT last week (check the car out here: the mothership). I’m not sure what will become of her just yet, after all, mechanically she is sound and the body isn’t in bad condition, but she is getting a little rough around the edges and the cost of continuing to run her 450 miles a week combined with the parts I need to fork out for to get her through an MOT mean she is taking an early retirement. Have no fear, she isn’t being scrapped, and may end up back on the road again, but for not for the time being. Going to SORN her for a while. Worst case scenario is that she becomes a donor car for the Cavalier project (humbucker’s cavalier v6 WIP (pic heavy)), but that is jumping ahead a bit.

Mrs ilovemyelite and I took a trip far and wide at the weekend to pick up the Omega’s replacement. Just like Morten Harket, we were ‘hunting high and low’ for something pokey, reliable and cost effective with fairly low mileage. I was interested in getting a Calibra and my good lady wanted a Mk5 Astra, so we decided to meet somewhere in the middle and look for a Mk4 Astra Coupe. After a scan of the usual motor e-rags we stumbled across a super low mileage Linea Rossa edition which we promptly arranged to go and see. We hopped in the Cavalier and off we went to check her out. After we arrived, we took the Astra out for an hour or so, violated it sufficiently to satisfy our curioisities and made an offer. A little while later we were driving home in the new addition to our Vauxhall family!

It’s an ‘03 plate 2.2 litre 16v Linea Rossa edition Astra coupe; Bertone styling and a stunning interior to match. They only made 200 of these so there aren't that many about (and most are cabriolets). The most impressive thing was a genuine 22k miles covered by one owner from new backed up with a full VX service history. Aside from a couple of scrapes on an alloy or two, and being in need of a deep polish to bring back the Flame Red finish, she’s immaculate. With such super low miles the interior looks barely sat in and there is no wear on the car to speak of. It seems almost a shame to start piling on the miles really, but hey ho it was bought to be an every day driver so that’s what it will end up being. For now at least though she has to be the lowest mileage Linea Rossa out there? Maybe...

We popped down to Woking on the way home to meet with Giles and pick up some Cavalier parts he had for me. I took a few snaps while we were there. She might not be as ‘rear wheel drive’ as the Omega but she’s still a stunner.























I need to give the car a good service and will be making some modifications in the coming weeks to improve the car slightly. I’m tempted by a new GSi front bumper but one thing at a time hehe!

So now I have a Z22SE Mk4 Astra Coupe Linea Rossa, a C25XE Mk3 Cavalier CDX, and a X30XE Omega Elite. Does that qualify as a ‘fleet’?!
(I still want a Nova and a Calibra but apparently we have quite enough Griffin's for now... haha! lmao)

[Kev_G]

cracking car for ideas look at this - click

[SRi_m00k]

awesome work... absolutely love it... somtiems wish the veccy was auto for the mile munching

fleets rock too till everything needs spending on at once!!!

think i've spent my bit for this year, cav and cali goin into hibernation!! veccy will do me

[humbucker]

cracking car for ideas look at this - click

yeah i'd seen that when i was checking out linea rossa spec lists. the gsi bumper makes a real difference. can't believe that guy paid £110 for two front floor mats though... he didn't even get the rear ones?! sheesh... glad i've got all four in tip top condition!

awesome work... absolutely love it... somtiems wish the veccy was auto for the mile munching. fleets rock too till everything needs spending on at once!!! think i've spent my bit for this year, cav and cali goin into hibernation!! veccy will do me

yeah the auto was a blessing really. the car might be super low miles now, but it's not going to stay that way for long *sniffle* and with all the motorway miles we do an auto box and cruise control is essential really. i didn't realise they did this in an auto, as most are manuals (and cabriolets, and 2.0 Turbos). not sure of the figures re how many auto coupe linea rossa's they made...

i hear you re them all needing attention at once... the cavalier needs some work doing, the astra needs a service and the omega... well the less said about that the better!

[humbucker]

When I picked the Astra up it only had a month’s MOT left on it (which meant I was able to knock £400 off of the asking price of the car). I had been over it pretty thoroughly before we bought it and was confident that it would sail through, but you never do know until you get that bit of green/red paper back from the tester! Anyway, I’m pleased to say that she passed without ANY advisories at all.



Great news as it gives me the green light to buy some of the bits I need for the Cavalier, although I’ve ordered a K&N Panel filter for the Astra with a view to deristricting the airbox and fitting a Vectra C air intake. A few other bits to follow too, but very pleased with the car so far!

[rick151081]

i want your interior nice motor mate

[MarkW]

Nice one chap! Another red coupe in the region eh?

The outside looks like mine did when I bought it!

I remember when mine had that mileage on it, I bought mine with 21k on the clock 2 and a half years ago, now has about 42k

Nice purchase though, auto is rare?

[humbucker]

yeah as i said to m00k above, i didnt even know they did an auto tbh, i hadnt seen any when we were looking; they were all manual. id be interested to know the figures re linea rossa coupe 2.2 autos that were produced, got to be low. i might get in touch with vx and see if i can track down some figures. i know what you mean re mileage too; we're likely to be putting on a lot of miles doing the 75 mile round trip to work every day so i'm tempted to leave the majority of the modifications until our situation changes and not so many miles are required (or when the car gets replaced as an every day driver).

[Steve!]

Auots aren't so good on fuel tbh, but the car looks the ****ing bomb dude. I love the seats

[humbucker]

Well I’d hoped to be able to put a more detailed update here on my Astra thread but to be honest other projects have commanded my attention lately, not least of all the acquisition of yet another project car (in the form of my 3.2 Irmscher Omega project (link: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher Omega 3.2 MV6 project )).

We’ve had the Astra a few weeks now, and have piled on the miles in that time. I think we’ve covered 4k miles in the last 6 weeks, which for a 22k mile motor is a bit of a shock! Fortunately, the car runs perfectly, never misses a beat and seems to love munching those motorway miles...

I popped over to see Serek and plug his Tech2 into the car, and was pleased to see everything as it should be, no fault codes or errors and the car passed all the diagnostic tests we performed.



Haven’t had a chance to fit the Vectra air intake yet, or give the car a full service, but I did find time for the obligatory Irmscher grille. These make such a difference to the appearance of a car:



Before:


After:

[alex38]

very nice