Vauxhall VXR8 GTS-R

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Vauxhall VXR8 GTS-R saloon of 2017, the 6.2L supercharged V8 petrol, rear-wheel drive, four-door car that Vauxhall sold in the United Kingdom as a run of just 15 cars. It is not a guide to the ordinary VXR8 GTS that came before it, to the earlier VXR8 cars with naturally aspirated engines, to the Holden Special Vehicles GTSR W1 sold in Australia and New Zealand, or to the Australian-market GTSR from which the Vauxhall was developed. Where those cars differ we say so below, because an advert that says only "VXR8" or "GTS-R" can describe several quite different machines.

We have not driven this model for this article. Everything here comes from three cited sources: Motor Sport magazine's December 2017 road test of the GTS-R, PistonHeads' used buying guide to the Vauxhall VXR8 (3 January 2021), and the government recall checker. We also read the launch coverage from evo, Car Buyer and New Car Net (all 5 June 2017), Go Auto's April 2017 report on the Holden Special Vehicles GTSR range, and the Vauxhall VXR8 page on Wikipedia, and we flag every point that rests on them. Where sources disagree we say so rather than pick a winner quietly. Prices are history, not valuations.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 6.2L supercharged V8 petrol, a General Motors LSA-type engine in a front-engine, rear-drive layout. Motor Sport's fact file calls it a 6.2-litre supercharged GM LSA engine. We store 6162 cc, the usual figure for that engine, but none of the pages we read printed it.
• Power: 587 bhp. Vauxhall's own figure at launch was 595 PS, and 595 x 0.9863 is about 587 bhp, so the two agree once converted. evo printed 586 bhp and Wikipedia prints 587 bhp (438 kW). Motor Sport gives 587 bhp at 6,100 rpm. We use bhp throughout, which is mechanical horsepower, and the PS and kW figures are metric.
• Torque: 740 Nm. Vauxhall's launch figure was 740 Nm and Motor Sport prints 546 lb ft, which converts to about 740 Nm (546 x 1.3558). PistonHeads prints 545 lb ft.
• 0-100 km/h: 4.2 seconds. PistonHeads quotes 4.2 seconds for 0-62 mph, which is the same thing as 100 km/h to within rounding. Motor Sport's fact file labels the same 4.2 seconds as 0-60 mph, while its text says 0-62 mph. It is a claim, and the magazine said the car felt faster than that.
• Top speed: 250 km/h, which is 155 mph, electronically limited. Motor Sport lists 155 mph, and the limiter is a catalogue assumption we could not confirm on a Vauxhall page, so treat it as a limit and not a measured maximum.
• Drive: rear-wheel drive through a six-speed manual gearbox on the car Motor Sport tested. PistonHeads says the 15 UK cars were allocated in manual and automatic form, so check which one you are looking at.
• Weight: 1,880 kg, from Motor Sport and from the GTS-R paragraph in PistonHeads. PistonHeads' own spec table gives 1,820 kg for the VXR8 generally, and Wikipedia gives 1,832 kg for the model overall.

What changed from the ordinary GTS

The GTS-R was a final-run special built on the VXR8 GTS, which was itself the British-badged version of the Holden Special Vehicles GTS. According to evo, Car Buyer and New Car Net, the engine is the GTS's supercharged 6.2 litre V8 with light changes to the engine management and a high-flow air filter, and the output goes from 576 PS to 595 PS. Torque stays at 740 Nm in the GTS-R, up by one lb ft on the GTS according to evo, which is to say essentially unchanged.

The other changes are mostly hardware. The launch reports list six-piston monoblock front calipers on 410 mm discs, new forged 20-inch wheels that are 9 inches wide at the front and 10 inches at the rear, a new front bumper with a splitter and carbon-fibre vents, a rear diffuser, and a rear spoiler with a carbon-fibre upper section. Inside, the seats are trimmed in diamond-pattern leather and Alcantara, with Alcantara on the steering wheel and gear lever. The car keeps the limited-slip rear differential and torque vectoring of the GTS. PistonHeads also lists magnetic ride control, brake torque vectoring and launch control.

The sources disagree about how big the power gain was. Motor Sport and evo put it at 10 or 11 bhp, which is the gap between 576 bhp and 587 bhp, while Car Buyer says 19 bhp. That looks like a mix of units: 576 PS is only about 568 bhp, so the real step from a GTS to a GTS-R is closer to 19 PS and 19 bhp than to 11 bhp. We could not settle this from the pages we read, so do not buy on a claim of exactly 11 bhp.

How it relates to the Holden cars

The GTS-R is often described as a rebadged Australian GTSR, and it is not the W1. The Go Auto report on the Holden Special Vehicles GTSR range describes a standard GTSR with 435 kW and 740 Nm from the LSA engine, and a separate 300-car W1 with a 474 kW, 815 Nm LS9 engine, a 4.2 second 0-100 km/h claim and the same 250 km/h limit. The W1 is not part of the Vauxhall story, and evo says the 635 bhp W1 was not sold in the UK. If a seller says a VXR8 GTS-R has 635 bhp or an LS9 engine, they are describing the wrong car.

The 435 kW figure is also not quite the same as 595 PS. 435 kW is about 591 PS or 583 bhp using the kW factor of 1.341, while 595 PS is about 438 kW. The gap suggests that Holden's and Vauxhall's numbers were rounded or measured differently, so we use Vauxhall's 595 PS conversion of 587 bhp as the catalogue figure and flag the difference.

How many were built

The count is clearer than for many rare cars, but it comes from reports and not from a registry. Every UK source we read says 15 cars, and Motor Sport calls it limited to just 15 cars. Wikipedia also says 15. PistonHeads says 15 were allocated to the UK. That makes this a very rare British-market car, and the production count is the part a buyer should verify most carefully: ask for the chassis number and the registration date, and confirm with a Vauxhall dealer or a marque club that the car is one of the 15 and not an ordinary GTS fitted with parts.

The cars were introduced on 5 June 2017 and shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that summer. PistonHeads says the GTS-R was built in 2017 before Holden's Australian factories closed, and Go Auto says GTSR production began in the week of 10 April 2017 and was due to continue to the end of that year. We therefore give 2017 as the model year. The stored catalogue end year of 2018 is not supported by anything we read, though some cars may have been registered in 2018.

How it drives, according to the press

We have not driven it, so this is secondhand. Motor Sport's December 2017 test calls it comically fast, says it feels like a 3.5 second car, and notes that it is traction limited. It also calls the engine unrefined but says the exhaust note around 4,500 rpm is highly entertaining. It describes the gear change as awkward and the ride and handling as only adequate, and says that with traction control off it is an old-fashioned oversteer car. It was critical of the cabin, and PistonHeads says the fake carbon-fibre trim was criticised. Those are the opinions of two writers, not measurements.

What to check before buying

• Confirm the car is a genuine GTS-R: ask for the chassis number, the registration document and a letter or dealer confirmation that it was one of the 15.
• Check the power and torque claims: 587 bhp and 740 Nm are the standard figures, and any larger number points to a tune or to the Holden W1.
• Ask whether the car is the manual or the automatic, and check the gearbox. PistonHeads warns that reverse can be hard to engage on a VXR8, and that a standard clutch is weak on tuned cars.
• Look for evidence of tuning. PistonHeads says tuned blown cars can wear the higher gears and differentials.
• Check the supercharger and cooling. PistonHeads says cooling is critical on the blown cars, so ask about the intercooler and coolant history.
• Inspect the brakes. PistonHeads says VXR8 brake discs wear quickly and some owners import parts from Australia, and the GTS-R's 410 mm front discs and six-piston calipers are unlikely to be cheap.
• Check for water in the pedal box, worn suspension mounts and control arms, a loose drive belt and the condition of the rear lights, all of which PistonHeads raises for the VXR8 generally. Those problems were described for the whole VXR8 range, not for the GTS-R alone, and we do not know how many apply to the final cars.
• Ask for the complete service history, any engine work and the mileage, and have a specialist who knows the LSA engine inspect the car.
• Run the registration through the recall check described below.

What it cost

At launch, evo, Car Buyer and New Car Net all gave 74,500 pounds on the road, and PistonHeads says just under 75,000 pounds. PistonHeads also says an ordinary GTS cost around 50,000 pounds at launch, and it quotes used VXR8 cars from about 13,000 pounds up to roughly 40,000 pounds for a low-mileage GTS. It gives no used price for a GTS-R, and we found none. Prices are history, not valuations. We found no source for servicing costs or parts prices for the GTS-R specifically, so anyone who quotes one is giving an estimate.

Recalls and the DVSA check

We checked the wording of the government page but did not run the checker, because it needs a registration number or the manufacturer, model and year, and we are not looking at a specific car. The page says a car with a registration number should be checked through the MOT service, which shows unfixed safety recalls, and that the vehicle recalls checker needs the make, model and year. It also says non-safety recalls are not shown and that the manufacturer contacts the owner directly. We found no recall notice for the GTS-R in any source, and absence from our sources is not a clean bill of health. Because the car was built in Australia and sold in very small numbers, also ask a Vauxhall dealer whether any bulletin or service action applies to the chassis number.

About the photograph

The picture at the top of this page shows a green 2017 VXR8 GTS-R on museum display, photographed by Tony Hisgett in February 2025 and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. We cropped it, resized it and blurred the number plate on the front bumper, because a display plate is still a plate. The car is shown as a genuine GTS-R, so it shows the correct bodywork, but it tells you nothing about the condition or history of any car for sale.

Verdict

The VXR8 GTS-R in this guide is a 587 bhp, 740 Nm supercharged 6.2L V8 petrol saloon, rear-wheel drive, with a claimed 4.2 seconds to 100 km/h and a limited top speed of 250 km/h, in a run of 15 UK cars. It is the most powerful Vauxhall ever sold and one of the rarest, but most of what it adds over the GTS is brakes, wheels, bodywork and a small engine tweak, and the figures in print vary by a few horsepower depending on whether the source uses PS or bhp. If you are shopping for one, confirm that the car really is one of the 15, check the VXR8 weak points listed above, treat every published number as a claim, and get a specialist inspection. We have not driven it, so use the sources and a proper inspection to decide.