Irmscher-Opel Insignia 2.0 Turbo in the test

' Driving an Opel is like fleeing ',' Life is hard - my Opel is harder ' or 'Better to play golf than drive golf'. It is the rear window slogans of the disco parking lots that have set themselves in the brain like a brand. Some poke at the other. And the tuning feud greets forever - Opel versus Volkswagen. Tuner Irmscher is now giving the Rüsselsheim fan base new ammunition with the revised Opel Insignia.

Opel Insignia transformation by tuner Irmscher

Classic tuning ingredients give the two-liter turbo gasoline engine of the Irmscher-Opel Insignia a spicier taste. In addition to interventions in the engine management, the Irmscher engineers turned the boost pressure screw properly: 0.9 became 1.5 bar. The inline four-cylinder now hisses with 300 horsepower instead of 220. Front spoiler lip, side skirts, wings and a rear apron attachment with four-flow rear silencer - the Irmscher-Opel Insignia plays the quick-change artist.

With tense muscles, the good representative hatchback of the Irmscher-Opel Insignia mutates into a robust middle-class lightning bolt. Lowering springs lower the vehicle's center of gravity by an additional 30 millimeters. Sporty footwear is of course also a matter of tuning a matter of honor: In summer, the Irmscher-Opel Insignia wears its own 20-inch Turbo Star wheels. Winter fashion is by no means unsportsmanlike either. With 20-inch Evo Star five-spoke wheels and grippy Pirelli Sottozero winter slippers, the Irmscher-Opel Insignia digs through the snow.

Weight under the 1.8 ton limit

But a jersey does not turn a fan into a professional athlete. The Irmscher-Opel Insignia is not a track and field athlete either. At 1,786 kg, however, unlike the OPC sedan, it remains below the 1.8 tonne limit. The lighter four-cylinder in the Irmscher-Opel Insignia ensures a better weight distribution compared to the 325-hp V6 of the Insignia spearhead (55.9 to 44.1 instead of 58.1 to 41.9 percent). So equipped, the trimmed Irmscher-Opel Insignia remains neutral for a long time before it goes benevolently into understeer. The Irmscher acknowledges swift turning maneuvers with agile tail swings. For the sporty suspension set-up, in addition to shorter springs with tighter spring characteristics, there is also the adaptive damper system CDC, which is already known from the seriesresponsible.

A light press on the sports button in the Irmscher-Opel Insignia - and not only the lighting of the instrument cluster changes from shy white to poisonous red in a flash. The dampers also take a stand and wag with noticeably harder tuning the curves. The motto “deep, wide, hard” is a thing of the tuning past. In the Irmscher-Opel Insignia, the passengers don't chatter their teeth, the setup is moderate and suitable for everyday use. For a better level of traction, the Opel specialist from the Swabian town of Remshalden relies on the two-liter turbo with all-wheel drive system including an electronically controlled Haldex clutch. When accelerating, the variable all-wheel drive technology distributes a large part of the torque to the rear axle of the Irmscher-Opel Insignia.

Faster than the production top model OPC

From a standing start, the tuned Irmscher-Opel Insignia sprints to country road speed in 6.5 seconds. The Irmscher-Opel Insignia turns the long tuner nose of the factory OPC. In the test, it was not faster despite 25 hp more power. While the 2.8-liter V6 of the OPC seems a bit subdued in the lower speed range, the hot two-liter turbo doesn't take long. The Irmscher-Opel Insignia spontaneously takes the gas and turns up from the cellar evenly and without a noticeable turbo moment of thought. The OPC only gains the upper hand again in higher speed ranges. In the 0-180 test, the Irmscher-Opel Insignia tuning version loses a second on the serial athlete.

Even if the 300 PS Blitz shows its sporty talent for the most part in the snow, it quickly becomes apparent that there is an interesting alternative to the Insignia OPC under the sills, wings, etc. of the Irmscher-Opel Insignia. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to follow in the footsteps of his works brother in Hockenheim without the Brembo braking system. As with the Wolf-Ford Focus RS 360, we also deliver the lap time on the small course in Hockenheim of the Irmscher-Opel Insignia.