This is going to take a bit of explaining, but I wasn't looking forward to driving the latest Vauxhall VXR8 as much as you might have thought I would.The reason was that I drove another VXR8 GTS three years ago and thought very little of it. Oh, it was fast alright, as how could it not be with 425bhp from its 6.2-litre V8 engine, and I could imagine it being an absolute gas on American or Australian roads with gaps the size of Wales between corners, but on roads requiring frequent changes of direction it was a clumsy oaf, considerably worse than the mechanically very similar Maloo pickup.It was also moderately inexpensive, as 425bhp V8s go, costing £49,500 back in 2011. But, frankly, I thought it needed to be.Last year, Vauxhall announced that the next - now current - VXR8 GTS was going to be different. The same engine was being uprated to Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spec, which meant fitting a supercharger and raising the power output to 576bhp. And I must admit I was dubious about this, because there was nothing about the car that made me feel an extra 151bhp was going to make it any better.Well, obviously a lot more has been going on than just boosting the power, because this GTS is better than the last one to an almost unbelievable extent. Trivially, it's much faster (the 0-62mph time having dropped by seven tenths to 4.2 seconds) and when you're revving it anywhere near, and especially beyond, 6000rpm it sounds absolutely brilliant - with, interestingly enough, almost complete silence from the supercharger. In the catastrophically inferior Monaro of ten years ago, you could hardly hear anything else.Much more important than this, though, is the improvement in handling. The old GTS lumbered. This one dances. It feels much smaller than it is, as all bulky but well set-up performance cars do. It turns into corners with admirable precision and will accept a lot of throttle before it even begins to think about losing traction at the rear.If you are sufficiently dull-witted to create understeer by applying power too early, there's a system called Brake Torque Vectoring which will help get you out of trouble. I think this is just a back-up plan, though. There's a strong sense that the GTS is relying on an excellent mechanical configuration, rather than any electronic fanciness, to handle as well as it does.I had thought that this car would have an excess of power over everything else. Instead, it feels like it could take even more, certainly up to 600bhp, without any other adjustment - not even to the brakes, which are much beefier than on the unsupercharged car and entirely adequate for the job.At £54,499 (or £56,199 if you specify automatic transmission, but don't do that) it's still not extravagantly expensive for a car of this type. Best to budget for heavy fuel bills, though. Combined economy is a rather horrifying 18.9mpg, and if you exploit the performance you'll start using fuel at about the same rate as a cruise liner.The list of standard equipment, which includes more or less everything you would expect in an expensive modern car such as dual-zone climate control air-conditioning, leather upholstery, a nice audio system, Bluetooth connectivity and all that jazz, also features four driving modes called Touring, Sport, Performance and Track. Nice to talk about with your mates down the pub, I suppose, but in the real world I don't think the car would lose anything by having just one setting.You also get the Enhanced Driver Interface, which tells you things like how much power and torque the engine is producing, the g forces being produced, how much the car is sliding and yadda yadda. Waste of time. If you can spare enough attention to read it, you're not going quickly enough for this information to matter, and when the figures become interesting you're too busy for them to be useful.Such silliness apart, this VXR8 GTS is a magnificent piece of work, and a fine example of the way a rear-wheel drive muscle car should be. Engine 6162cc, 8 cylinders Power 576bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 18.9mpg / 363g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 4.2 seconds Top speed 155mph Price £54,499 Details correct at publication date
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