Take a humdrum family saloon, re-skin it with a curvaceous and beautiful body that could have straight from an Italian styling house and you have the Vauxhall Calibra. It was based on the Cavalier and designed in-house, not by Italians, but by Wayne Cherry, the American-born design boss at General Motors.
This is not an uncommon approach to building coupes: start with an ordinary saloon or hatchback and then jazz it up. Volkswagen did it with the Scirocco and Audi TT, both to great effect. The key is to start off with well-engineered building blocks, something both Volkswagen and Vauxhall/Opel had to their advantage.
So, what we have here is a three-door, four-seat coupe, its wide-opening tailgate neatly disguised within the flowing lines down to the rear bumper. Launched in 1989, the Calibra was sold in the UK for the best part of a decade, although it’s rare to see one now. Especially anything as nice as this extremely low-miler from Vauxhall’s heritage fleet.
Let’s talk about six
Power came originally from a couple of 2.0-litre petrol engines: either eight valves and 115hp, or 16 valves and 150hp. Then a four-wheel-drive 2.0 turbocharged Calibra arrived in 1992. Its power output of 200hp was punchy for the time, but the Turbo didn’t sell well and now has the shadow of expensive gearbox problems hanging over it.
The car we have here is the last proper iteration of the Calibra, the 2.5-litre V6. With 168hp, it wasn’t as swift as the Turbo, but a silky six-cylinder engine brought a whole new level of sophistication. It arguably made this humble Vauxhall more of a grand tourer than it had any right to be.
How does the Calibra V6 stand up today? Never ones to do things by halves, we drove it to Normandy for a four-day classic car event – enough miles to really stretch its legs.
Calibra to the continent
We took the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe and then headed down to Forges-les-Eaux, along winding D-roads through quiet villages and dense forests, scenes to be repeated over the following three days. What you notice immediately about this Vauxhall is how civilised it is. That V6 engine is a gem: not powerful by today’s standards, but decently quick and genuinely refined.
The leather interior provides a low, sporty seating position and some real comfort, while there’s room for a couple of adults in the rear – as long as they’re not too tall.
Luggage space is impressive, and there’s masses of volume available with the rear seat folded. I know this from experience, by the way. Nearly 30 years ago, when the Calibra was still new, I carried four garden chairs all the way back from Switzerland in one.
Taking it easy
There’s no escaping the Calibra’s origins, although most today will have forgotten what a Vauxhall Cavalier dashboard looked like. Today, with its sporty white dials, the Calibra V6 simply feels like a classic car.
Its ride and handling are far from sporty, however, which means you’d be better off enjoying the easy power steering and decent air-con than chasing old Golf GTIs across the countryside.
Take that on board, and you’ll revel in a long journey in a Calibra V6. It may be 25 years old, but this classic Vauxhall only gets more desirable with age.
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Without being picky, Calibra Turbo’s had robust and still sought-after gearboxes. The transfer box was the fragile component.