Wheels Australia — June 2017

@wheelsaustralia 133

Barrels of fun
Remember how the marketers of the Leyland P76 touted its
ability to tote a 44-gallon drum in its boot with ease? Timely
and relevant consumer information, I know, but some (quite
likely very few) of you will be interested to learn that the

humble Holden Astra hatch can achieve the same feat.

Yes, you’ll need to sacrifice the ability to carry any

passengers in your back seats, but who needs

friends when you have 200 litres of lubricant?

WEEK 4

44444

333

005751

URBAN COUNTRY SPORTS FAMILY MOTORWAY

HOLDEN ASTRA RS

Date acquired:March 2017

Price as tested:$26,490

This month: 661km @ 8.1L/100km

Overall: 1220km @ 8.4L/100km

Suburban schlepping and the morning commute sees Astra gain points

Maybe now we’re getting warm

IT’S zero-dark-six-fifty, I’m bleary-eyed,

uncaffeinated and on my way to work.

Funnily enough this is one of the more

enjoyable moments in my day, and I have my

trusty moss-green steed to thank for that.

Though I’m yet to warm to the Astra’s

idiosyncratic interior, I’m definitely gelling

with its joyously flexible powertrain. Its

four cylinders may only displace 1.6 litres,

but thanks to some clever turbo trickery

this small-engined hatch has surprisingly

muscular legs.

Torque is abundant from 1500rpm and

up, and though my car is a theoretically

terrible-at-commuting manual gearbox

version, the flexibility endowed by this

twist-happy 1.6 means that’s not such a big

deal. Bear in mind, 300Nm of torque is huge

for a small hatchback.

Skipping second gear is possible if you

time it right, reducing the amount of times

your left hand needs to meet the shifter.

Fifth gear, meanwhile, covers a range

of speeds that stretches from suburban

cruising all the way up to 110km/h without

feeling strained – but sixth gear is a better

pick if you want to drop revs and conserve

fuel on the highway.

School zones? Whatever. Keep it in fifth,

it’ll happily deal with a forty-kay crawl

without complaint.

And if the road is flat, slipping it into

sixth at 50-60km/h is perfectly kosher. It

happily lugs along in the lower reaches of

its tachometer, sipping fuel with monk-like

restraint. In fifth, it’ll lug up surprisingly

steep hills at 60km/h thanks to the turbine’s

willingness to spool from just above idle.

And this engine is quiet. Unlike some

engines in the segment, especially naturally

aspirated contenders, the Astra’s 1.6 is quiet

and smooth throughout its rev range. It

feels relaxed and understressed, which is

precisely how cars in this segment should

feel – hot hatches being the sole exception.

But to drive, the Astra feels a lot more

substantial than your average hatch. Yes, it

fulfils the functions of commuter/grocery-

getter, but there’s a built-in sporty edge.

The Astra’s appeal is more multi-faceted

than I first thought. There’s no question

there’s proper warm-hatch performance

in here that’s begging to be unleashed, and

the Astra RS’s 147kW and 300Nm outputs

back up that notion. Remember: those stats

would have qualified it for entry to the fast-

hatch club ten years ago. Is the chassis of

the same calibre? Methinks it’s time to head

for the hills.

TONY O’KANE

ROWING

MACHINE

Shift workers need not

apply – the Astra does

the low-rev twist to

tackle the ’burbs

in fifth

HOLDEN ASTRA RS