You may have heard of the Nürburgring. Not the modern racetrack, but the old Nürburgring next door, incontestably the greatest, most challenging and frightening stretch of tarmac on earth.

If you did 10 laps of the Brands Hatch club circuit you’d travel less distance than you do during one at the Nürburgring. While most good racetracks have about 10 corners, the Ring has more than 170.

When Jackie Stewart left home to race at the Nürburgring, he’d always turn and look at his front door, not sure if he’d ever see it again. As Niki Lauda — who suffered terrible injuries when he crashed during the 1976 German Grand Prix — will attest, it is about the last place you’d want to have a really big accident. And if ever there was a place not to launch a family hatchback this, then, surely was it.

Then again, this new Vauxhall Astra VXR is no ordinary hatch dressed up with the requisite skirts and spoilers to promise a level of performance that the hardware beneath has no chance of keeping. In fact, given what I now know it can do, I think it’s rather discreet.

I have been going to the Nürburgring for more than a decade and know that very few road cars feel anything less than absurd there. You need, at the least, something of the calibre of a Lotus Elise, Caterham Seven or a Porsche 911 for the journey even to be worthwhile. And yet this little Astra, this shopping car for heaven’s sake, felt as at home on the Nürburgring as most Astras do on the M25. Its rat-like agility turned what I’d presumed would be a fool’s errand into perhaps the most entertaining time I’d spent in a front-wheel-drive car since I sold my Golf GTI 20 years ago.

Back then my Golf had 112bhp and I could only imagine how fast my then dream car, the Ferrari 308 GTB, would have been with its 240bhp. And now I know the answer is about as fast as this Astra, whose 2 litre four-cylinder engine produces as much power now as the Ferrari’s 3 litre V8 did then. Vauxhall says the Astra will hit 60mph from rest in 6.2sec and reach 152mph all out, numbers that the 308 would struggle to match.

Real proof of how track-hardened this Astra is comes only when you drive it on the public road. The ride is firm, though on smooth German roads not uncomfortable, but if you turn out of a junction with just a smidgeon too much gusto, you’ll hear a chirrup of protesting tyre and a sharp tug at the wheel before the electronics come rushing to your assistance and dampen the engine’s all too evident ardour. The problem arises because, like almost all hatchbacks, the Astra is front-wheel drive and there is a practical limit to how much power you can direct through wheels that must also steer the car.

That said, had you given a front-drive car this much power and torque even 10 years ago the result would almost certainly have been undriveable, while the Astra simply requires a modicum of restraint to contain.

But there is another power-related problem that is more serious. To liberate so much power from such a small engine, the Astra’s unit has been turbocharged, so it would be natural to expect a small pause between your right foot hitting the accelerator and the engine responding. But in the Astra there’s often a big pause, during which a technically slower but more responsive car would already be surging past whatever you were trying to overtake. And then, just occasionally, when you take your foot off the throttle there’s another, shorter, pause before the engine cuts the power.

Don’t misunderstand me, this is not even close to being a safety issue but the fact that you’re never quite sure how the engine will react when you open or close the throttle will infuriate those keen on swift, smooth progress from one point to the next.

Otherwise, however, the Astra barely puts a foot wrong. The six-speed gearbox is excellent, while the huge, specially developed brakes are good enough to withstand the hammering offered up by the Nürburgring, so there are no conditions on the public road with which they will not cope with ease.

But by far the best thing about the Astra VXR is its £18,995 price, deliberately pitched £1,000 lower than the considerably less powerful (197bhp) and slower VW Golf GTI.

Two decades ago my choice came down to a Golf GTI or the the VXR’s equivalent ancestor, the Astra GTE, and I plumped for the VW because the Golf was easier to live with, even though I knew the Vauxhall was the better car to drive. Four generations of Golfs and Astras on, those differences remain as distinct today and, not being able to persuade my wife to move to the delightful village of Nürburg, I’d probably make the same decision again.

That probably says as much about me and my domestic circumstances as it does the Astra. Later this year Ford will launch its Focus ST220 — the XR3i’s spiritual successor — and the three pioneers of the hot hatch art will be once more at each other’s throats. Personally, I can’t wait.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model Vauxhall Astra VXR
Engine type Four cylinders in line, 1998cc
Power/Torque 240bhp @ 5600rpm/ 236 lb ft @ 2400rpm
Transmission Six-speed manual
Fuel/CO2 30.4mpg (combined)/ 223g/km
Performance 0-60mph: 6.2sec/ Top speed: 152mph
Price £18,995
Verdict Better to drive than a Golf GTI
Rating 4/5

THE OPPOSITION

Model Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0T £19,995
For Great handling, image, comfortable and practical
Against A little slow compared with the Astra

Model Honda Civic 2.0i-VTEC Type-R £16,680
For Astonishing engine, great fun, beautifully built
Against Soon to be replaced, uncompromising ride