Astra GTC gets twin-turbo diesel

Believe it or not, but here at Top Gear's not-so-top-secret base, we're constantly hunting down superlatives we can etch onto the walls. Seems Vauxhall wants to play too, and has thus announced the most-powerful-non-VXR Astra GTC available.

OK, so it's reaching slightly, but bear with us. Vauxhall has opted to facelift its rather delectable Astra GTC, and to sweeten the soup has ladled in the twin-turbo diesel engine used for the Insignia BiTurbo.

Gallery: the new Astra GTC BiTurbo and sports tourer

That 2.0-litre four-pot engine produces 190bhp and 295lb ft of torque that uses a sequential turbocharging system: a tiny turbo spools up from 1,500rpm with 258 torques, followed by the second turbo that kicks in the midrange to provide all 295.

Those figures comfortably eclipse the current 2.0-litre CDTI available, and thus help the the BiTurbo GTC hatch sprint from 0-62mph in 7.8 seconds and hit a top speed of 139mph. Vauxhall reckons it will also return 53.3mpg and emit 139g/km of CO2.

You'll notice both the Astra hatch and estate - or Sports Tourer - feature a new front grille, a repositioned logo bar in the upper section, a restyled lower section and new front indicator lamps. The tail end of both models benefit from new rear-panel styling complemented by a chrome lower moulding. Well, it is a minor facelift.

Prices for the most-powerful-non-VXR Astra GTC start at £23,925. Should your online pedantry fail to compute this, the most-powerful-actual-VXR - which we drove earlier this week - costs £26,995. Could you save three grand and plump for the diesel, or would the resultant guilt be too much to bear?