Split Personality

Ryan Davies’ 424bhp Mk2 Astra GTE is half show car, half race car, and it’s heading for the tens…

- Dan Furr

It’s been almost thirty years since superstar racing driver, John Cleland, won the British Touring Car Championship from behind the wheel of a Mk2 Astra GTE. A duo of GSis and two generations of VXR-badged Astras followed the disappearance of the last GTE from main dealer showrooms not long after Cleland was presented with the Mk3 Cavalier to do battle with at the track, yet the sixteen-valve GTE’s popularity has remained constant among Vauxhall fans and tuners right up to the present day.

A quick look at Ryan Davies’ Black Starmist example is all that’s required to see why so many modifiers love playing with Vauxhall’s classic hot hatch. Complete with its Irmscher lights, Zender splitters, Superboss front bumper grilles and striking Image three-piece split rims, his is a truly fantastic-looking machine.

“The wheels were custom made to my specification,” explains the 34-yearold automotive bodywork specialist. “I ordered them in the style of Ferrari F40 rims, but with centres painted Renault Clio Williams Gold.”

The twin-tone custom-offset five-spokes replaced classic Speedlines, a wheel design that Ryan had thrown at each corner of his first Mk2 many moons ago. “I bought a Bordeaux Red GTE which I was unable to get insured on for a year due to the fact that I’d only just passed my driving test,” he sighs. Looking forward to the day that he could hit the road in his sporty hot hatch, he spent the first twelve months of ownership fitting a range of styling parts, including an oh-so-nineties Kingdom Developments fibreglass body kit.

SEVENTH HEAVEN