Insignia’s at home in the Country

There must be quite a bit of money to be made hosting classic car events at your own home – but these homes tend to be stately piles of Downton Abbey proportions rather than a two-up two-down terraced house in Middlesex. The latest toff to host a classic car event is the Duke of Argyll who will be throwing open the doors of his ancestral pile, Inveraray Castle, on June 2-3 next year for the inaugural Argyll Festival of Performance. Seriously though, it’s great to have a new event that’s not in the South East. It promises significant cars and drivers from all forms of motor sport, with F1 being the major theme for 2018. ONE of the best cars I’ve driven this year is the Vauxhall Insignia estate – or, as its maker describes it, the Sports Tourer.

It’s attractive, spacious, perfectly sound to drive and exceptionally good value for money.

It’s slightly wilder brother, the Country Tourer, is essentially the Sports on stilts with some off-road hero bits added such as wheel arch cladding and front and rear skid plates.

And last week we tested the new version of the Country that comes with a four-wheel drive system featuring GKN’S Twinster technology which is also used on the Range Rover Evoque and the Ford Focus RS.

Instead of a conventional differential, the rear axle contains two electronically controlled clutches that can increase or decrease torque to one side or the other.

Vauxhall included a sort of dried out pond on our test route that looked worryingly challenging for an estate car that has only 25mm more ride height than the regular Insignia wagon, even if the car does have 4wd. Vauxhall Insignia Country Tourer five-door estate

2.0-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel, 172bhp 0-62mph: 9.3sec Fuel consumption: 43.5mpg

And it came without fancy mud munching tyres too. But to my surprise, and relief, the Country Tourer happily dived down into the pond and climbed back out the other side. It was good on

damp grass, too, and that surface can catch out the best of them.

The car is bigger than the previous Insignia, both in length of wheelbase (by 92mm) and interior space too. It has a luggage