The next-generation Vauxhall Corsa has been previewed by the Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo, a 789bhp, 1170kg electric concept car built to show the future capability of the GSE performance brand.

While billed as a technical exercise for the PlayStation’s Gran Turismo racing game, it features “real-world” elements that will inform the design of the Mk7 Corsa, due next year, Vauxhall design boss Mark Adams told Autocar.

The concept, which nods to past Vauxhall/Opel motorsport models such as the Manta 400 rally car, also highlights its plans for hot GSE models. Adams called it Vauxhall’s “Type R moment”.

He said the aim is to make “truly attainable poster cars” with “proper performance” that will “make people look at the brand differently” while also appealing to a younger audience.

First look at next Corsa

The concept sits on Vauxhall parent company Stellantis’s forthcoming STLA Small platform, which could be first used by the seventh-generation Corsa.

Basing the concept on this future platform and giving it the Corsa name were “very deliberate” moves, said Adams.

He explained: “When you do a concept, so many of them are one metre high, five metres long. It’s a great fantasy, but is it meaningful for people? As soon as you badge it ‘Corsa’, you make something that all of a sudden becomes something you can see [that is] more real, while having a much more compact footprint.”

Compared with the current, CMP-based Mk6 Corsa, the concept is 130mm longer and 105mm wider, suggesting the model won’t grow too much in size.

Notably, the concept draws power from the same 82kWh battery as the larger Grandland, while the biggest battery available in the current Corsa is 52kWh.

Despite the radical exterior, elements with a production focus can be found. This includes the “more technical” interpretation of Vauxhall’s ‘Compass’ signature, which informs the concept’s front and rear lighting designs.

The brand’s ‘Vizor’ fascia has also been redesigned. While current models feature a gloss black panel, on the concept it’s transparent with daytime-running lights behind. The griffin motif now also lights up.

Adams said this is an element that Vauxhall is exploring for production: “We’ve got a clear philosophy, but you want to find fresh new ways to refresh it, revive it, but that is still anchored in good core DNA. So we’re not throwing everything away every time we want to refresh it. And that’s just an example where we’re exploring.”

While the interior is a stripped-out affair, it still houses potential production elements, said Adams.

The bucket seats, for example, are split in two, with the backrest hung from the roll-cage and the seat attached to the floor. This makes “one of the heaviest parts of the car much lighter” than in today’s EVs – “a fundamental rethink”.

In an effort to reduce the driver’s mental load, the concept doesn’t contain any screens. Only a handful of physical buttons are present for key functions.

Future of GSE

In July, Vauxhall relaunched the GSE sub-brand as a badge for performance-honed EVs with the 276bhp Mokka GSE.

This Corsa concept, however, moves the dial even further and shows where Vauxhall wants to take GSE, said Adams.

It gets 789bhp and 590lb ft of torque from a dual-motor powertrain, weighs just 1170kg and is claimed to hit 62mph in 2.0sec – faster than a Bugatti Chiron. Top speed is capped at 199mph.

These figures are hypothetical, however, given that the car can be driven only in the Gran Turismo video game.

However, Adams argued that the figures are “realistic” and could “in theory” make it to a production model, saying: “If you were going to get a max but be on the realistic end of max, then they are believable figures.”

As well as performance, Vauxhall also pushed the concept’s design “to the max”, said Adams, adding that it hasn’t “just been made to look cool”.

The active spoiler notably epitomises this: it can extend far beyond the rear of the car to reduce drag and increase stability at high speed and also pivot upwards to act as an airbrake while cornering.

The concept also features wide tracks, a ‘floating’ front end, an active diffuser and a raft of cooling vents. Plus it utilises a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) for overtaking and features a squared steering wheel.

Adams wants to take elements of the concept’s radical design into production – and claimed that having a design concept like the Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo potentially allows that.

“I’d love to be able to do some of this really expressive stuff again,” he said. “There are always wonderful things called constraints that you have to be within. But at the same time, when you have a clear vision, you have a much clearer sight of what you can and can’t do much earlier, rather than waiting too late in the process.”

The overall goal for GSE is to emulate what Honda has done with Type R – creating a performance badge that is known in isolation.

“That’s what we would love to take it to,” said Adams. “The concept shows the over-the-horizon vision and what we always wanted GSE to be, and now it can finally be there. This concept is a signal of intent.”