Opel Corsa OPC 1.6 (M) Review
Germanic chuckles

Story & pictures by Azfar Hashim
10 Mar 2009

A turbocharged lump in a 3-door hatchback - what else can you ask for?

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Introduction

A class currently dominated by the French, this new German kid could pose a real threat.

Another day, another hot-hatch. Or so it seems.

Since the arrival of the last three-door hot-hatch, the Audi S3, manual-cogging, adrenalin-loving, gut-punching hot-hatch fans haven’t had anything else to look forward to. Especially those who are in the market for one, but well, just unwilling to pay that much premium.

Tightening their belts and sticking to a down-to-earth budget, there are not many choices available for this bunch of Puritans. On the bright side, the good thing is that it makes choosing one a very easy task – either (a) the turbocharged Peugeot 207 GTi, or (b) the rev-happy Renault Clio R27.

But with the arrival of the new Opel Corsa OPC, this could all possibly change. A class currently dominated by the French, this new German kid could pose a real threat. After all, Opel’s hot-hatch has been highly rated.

By the way in case you’re wondering, OPC actually stands for Opel Performance Centre – think of it as Opel’s version of the famed BMW M division.

Visuals

Exterior wise, the OPC is one heck of a visual car. The front sports a very detailed front bumper which comes with integrated air-vents, large foglamps, sportier grill and smoked headlamps. The side profile is where it stands out from the rest of the hot-hatch crowd though - you can see how the angular lines blend with the triangular windows at the C-pillars, and then sloping downwards to the A-pillars to give it a fast-forward stance…going well with the whole “go-fast” theme of the car.

The OPC also gets a set of large side-skirts, and shod with 17-inch alloys wrapped in 215/45 R-17 Continental ContiSportContact3 rubbers, readily shouts “get the hell out of my way, mates!”

Ah…the rear. Another work of modern art from the Germans, it’s adorned by smoked tail-lamps and a nicely-shaped roof-mounted spoiler (but on a separate note, is it just me, or does it uncannily resemble the Nissan Latio Sport?). Also check out the bumper air-vents, diffuser and that central-mounted triangular exhaust pipe – now that’s what I call “attention to details”.

Oh, let us not forget the wing-mirrors – odd to some, but cool, ain’t it?

Next Page - The inside story

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