200 Mile Special Delivery

Another exciting week in the GTC with some added suprises.  I had a delivery arrive that should have been delivered to my sister (200 miles away).  Looking at the GTC and then the parcels my first reaction was “not a chance”, however not only did a flat pack sideboard and TV unit fit, there was room to spare. Amazing!

For the past two weekends the car has been on the M6 and M1 heading to and from the Olympic Park in Stratford, London.  I was some how selected to volunteer at the games so had to attend a training test event.  This happened to be the World Championship Diving Cup - result! The enclose picture shows me at 6:15am helping get the pool ready before the world class athletes arrive. My job was to call the boards  during training (tell the athletes when they can dive, so preventing them landing on top of one another). What a job!  The Olympic park is looking good and I have no doubt that London will be ready.

London 2012 - Aquatics Centre

The car handled brilliantly through central London and being bright red, meant that I was visible too.  My biggest concern was it being stolen from the hotel car park as again people were very interested in both its look and the journey sticker outlining my drive.  A few people did ask: "Aren’t you a bit off track?"

Next week: Centreparks in Nottingham.  I’ll try and put together another film showing some of the internal features of this amazing machine! 

Emma picks up her GTC from Vauxhall Motherwell

Handover day!
Emma dropped by our Motherwell dealership at lunchtime to collect her stunning white GTC before embarking on her ultimate journey(s) around the UK! For those of you who cant quite remember, Emma's journey includes a trip to Essex to create her own 'The Only Way is Essex' night out, a jaunt over to Blackpool, Alton Towers and a few places in between. It is sure to be an exciting few months and you can follow it all here.

Looking pretty pleased, unsurprisingly! 

Look out for #2 on her adventures around the UK!

Keep an eye out for Emma's blog posts over the coming weeks and months!

Getting to Grips with the Astra GTC

Late on Monday afternoon I found my way to Peter Vardy's Perth dealership to meet, for the first time, the new Vauxhall Astra GTC!

Despite having admired it in pictures for months, this was my first “live” encounter with the car, and my first impression was of how big it is.  Inside and out, it is a lot of car for a three door hatchback, and the great looking 19 inch alloys fill the wheel arches quite nicely.

After topping-up with petrol I took to the motorway and the GTC got into it's stride. I was worried the 1.4 Litre engine might be a little underpowered, but with the Turbo, and 6 forward gears, the car  doesn't hang around on it's way to a comfortable 70mph.  With both Cruise Control and Speed Limiter available, keeping within the limits of the law shouldn't be a problem, but the car doesn't feel in any way stretched at these speeds. It's quiet and comfortable, and has very good all round visibility.

First Test Run

The following few days have seen the Astra GTC take to a variety of roads. This car seems quite eager to move so care has to be taken to rein it in a little through town, but out of town is where she really starts to come alive.

It is taking a while for me to get used to the gearing, as 6^th gear is still an innovation to me. There's a little green light which appears at certain speeds or revs, to suggest the most economical time to change up, and that is helping me adjust to the unfamiliar gearing, but I expect that might become a bit annoying once I get more used to the car. Time will tell.

To get in some practice, before my journey begins, I took the GTC cross-country to Edinburgh, via the back roads from Coatbridge to Linlithgow.  If you ever get lost out that way, you'll discover some unbelievably great roads, linking together a jumble of near-identical villages, but one wrong move, even at low speeds, and you could easily find yourself buried in a hedge, or torpedoing into a loch. The Astra GTC, however, held the road superbly, and as far as the handling is concerned, I simply couldn't fault it on that run.

So from now on it's the real thing. The Ultimate Journey. The road ahead is about 2000 miles, and  crosses the 4 nations, taking on some legendary routes along the way. If first impressions are anything to go by, the Astra GTC will be more capable of rising to the challenge.

Jen's 1st Week

Valentines Day - Picked up the beautiful GTC from Peter Vardy and drove to Ben Nevis. First impressions: People can not take their eyes off the car! It is a pleasure to drive had a great sound system and handles corners superbly. It took a little bit of time to get used to the hand break, or rather lack of hand break. A small leaver takes the break off so hand break starts once worked out are so much easier.  The next 3 months are going to be fun!

15th Feb: Summated Ben Nevis and then began Part 1 of my drive: Fort Williams to Carlisle. Unfortunately the climb took longer than anticipated due to ice, snow and fog so the latter part of the drive was not filmed. Enjoy!

I am in love with this car.  It is sporty, smart and soooo much fun to drive. It is now parked safely on my drive before week 2 of the adventure next weekend where I will be taking the GCT to London for my Olympic training test event. We will then see how she can handle central London traffic!

Pretty cold up at Ben Nevis

An exciting morning picking up my GTC at Edinburgh!

Beautiful countryside

The Winners

Meet the lucky winners of the Ultimate Journey competition. We have some very inspirational and exciting people taking the GTC's to all four corners of the country.

Alasdair Campbell, Glasgow
Al is a 30 year old, professional driver from Glasgow. He is a huge formula 1 fan who loves to travel and explore new roads and unfamiliar places around the world.

Jen Whelan, Portsmouth
A self confessed 'crazy chic' who loves adventure, having fun and climbing mountains. Jen works as a teacher and will be climbing Kilimanjaro in May. She says the GTC will help her to get out exploring some of the most beautiful parts of the UK.

Emma Simpson, Dollar

A 21 year old Customer Service Executive from Dollar, Clackmannanshire. Admits shes obsessed with Las Vegas and is trying to save up enough money to travel around the world. Emma's dream is to move to surfers paradise on the golden coast of Australia. Her ultimate journey around the UK includes an 'Only Way is Essex' themed weekend!

Mark Cooper, Edinburgh
An inspirational man, Mark is an ultra runner, motivational speaker and charity fundraiser. His passion is sport and helping others to get healthy and fit. He says his best achievement to date is running 50 marathons in 56 days in 2010 - we cant disagree with that!

The winners have been announced!

It was an exciting time last week when the 5 winners of the Ultimate Drive competition were announced. The five lucky people who made it to the top of the public vote will be taking delivery of their brand new Astra GTC's in February.

The GTC will be put through its paces over the next few months on some ultimate drives around the UK. You can follow their journeys here or like us on Facebook for the latest!