Vauxhall Astra Quicksilver Concept

“A bold new Concept in car body colour design - based on the Vauxhall Astra GTE” was how Vauxhall described the 'Quicksilver' design exercise at its first and only major public showing at the 1987 British Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham. The reason behind the idea for the Concept was to celebrate the 25th silver anniversary of the opening of the Ellesmere Port factory, which had initially only made parts for various Vauxhall models and did not begin full Viva car production until sometime later.

At the time, 1987, the previous Vauxhalls Styling & Engineering Centre had been transferred to a different GM Division and was now the Bedford Overseas Design & Engineering Centre and as such part of the General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle Corporation. One of the many carry over employees was the Head of Design, John Taylor, who had worked for the styling team going right back to the 1960s but his responsibility in 1987 was solely Commercial vehicle design, and even this did not last much longer as the Bedford Division of GMOCVC would soon come to an end, a stupid and short sighted decision by GM forced on it by the even more ignorant Thatcher government at the time. John would then join the Vauxhall / Opel Design Centre in Russelsheim where he would again work for his old boss – Wayne Cherry.

The lack of commercial vehicle activity and the general winding down of the Design Studios at Luton John Taylor did have time to get involved in two car projects, one was the sensational design of the Vauxhall Carlton Thunder Saloon and the other was the Vauxhall Astra GTE Quicksilver Concept. Like Wayne Cherry, John Taylor was an expert in two key areas – DRG (Down the Road Graphics) which is how the car looks on the road coming towards you or moving away, the other was the use of colour to increase the visual effect of any design. What is less known is that John was also responsible for the design of the famous “V” grille design first seen in 1994 on the Vauxhall Omega.

The story of the Quicksilver Concept was a much fractured affair and not the normal coherent process for the building of design concepts and it also utilised another one of John Taylor’s talents - the ability to work very quickly. Amazingly, he drafted out the main highlights of the car in two days but because of his official Bedford duties a styling mock-up could not be built at the Luton Studio in the normal way. Instead the detailed drawings were given to a small but skilled team at the Ellesmere Port plant where the standard Vauxhall Astra was built in any case.

Taylor’s drafts were based on the standard Vauxhall Astra MK2 GTE and included modified Vauxhall “I Line” (in other words Irmscher) body panels which included new front & rear bumpers along with modified Irmscher front wings and rear quarter panels. The other key aspect of Taylor’s design draft was a somewhat controversial colour scheme which was planned to start at the front in a metallic “white” silver gradually fading to a metallic “black” at the rear, this would prove to be the most difficult part of the style to get right.
The same dramatic contrasting colour scheme was to be used for the interior which would be trimmed in Connolly leather for the seats, door panels and also the headlining. Larger and more aggressive wheels were included but were not specific in Taylor’s original drafts.

A standard Astra GTE was taken as the base vehicle and the bodywork was modified as per Taylor’s specifications. Even Vauxhalls new revamped production line paint shop could not cope with the colour scheme and although the Service Department had experienced sprayers it was decided to outsource the job to a specialized company in this area. The company chosen was a division of the BASF Group called Inmont. The process they used involved a clear base coat system called 'Diamont', this meant the blending of the colours could be adjusted until several times until just right before a top coat of clear lacquer was applied on top of the base coat metallic paint to produce a deep, lustrous and hardwearing finish. Today this is common and is extensively used by the custom car community.

Special wheels were chosen by the team from CD Design and were colour-keyed to contrast and blend in with the colour of the rest of the car, they were shod with Pirelli P600 tyres to complete the overall effect.
The interior was completed in two colours of contrasting leather by the trim shop at Ellesmere Port without any problem and augmented with Irmscher trim items to enhance the visual effect, the interior was truly stunning and even made the very good standard GTE interior seem bland.

The car took a total of three months to build and was displayed on the Vauxhall stand at the 1987 Motor Show where it received a mixed reaction from the motoring press with most of the controversy surrounding the colour scheme not the interior, but there was no doubting it was a talking point and as with any design concept opinions are subjective – think of Marmite, you either love it or hate it and everybody has a point of view about it!

For the next few years it made various appearances at Vauxhall dealer events but was not displayed at any other major events such as the Motor Show, after this it was displayed in the reception area at the Ellesmere Port plant for several years then moved to Vauxhalls Heritage Centre at Luton. Surprisingly it was then sold, it was given its first MOT on 02.03.11 with 57 miles recorded.

It is currently owned by Vauxhall enthusiast Colin Burton and is now a regular sight at Vauxhall enthusiast events where it still attracts lots of attention and the same controversy over the colour scheme – for what it’s worth I like it but then I absolutely detest Marmite!