Published:
12 January 2018The GTS-R’s dying-breed status is detectable in the weight and tactile feel of almost every one of its controls; in every delicious crack and flaw of its bleeding heart, blood and thunder motive character; and in so much of the wonderfully idiosyncratic way that it goes about flinging its 1.9 tonnes at the horizon when you really stretch its legs.
To observe that they really don’t make super-saloons like this any more is, of course, to recognise how much the fast four-door executive has changed over the past decade or so.
But it’s also to salute the supremely genuine, singularly analogue and wonderfully engaging driving experience of the VXR8 GTS-R.
In an era of four-wheel-drive, paddle-shift-equipped performance saloons crammed to the roof with advanced chassis technology intended to make ever increasing speeds ever more easy to achieve, the GTS-R asks you simply to clock on and play your part – to give in order that you might receive – before returning on your investment incredibly vividly.
Anyone minded to write this car off as some irrelevant throwback, though, should first experience how good its electronic traction and stability controls are.
Finding launch control here feels a bit like finding a laser gunsight on an Edwardian battlefield catapult, and it’s not a system you can get the best from at your first attempt.
