THESE are the first official images of the new, British-built Vauxhall Astra, set to debut as a five-door hatchback at this September’s Frankfurt Show and appear in show-rooms at the end of the year.

Marking the sixth generation of Astra in 30 years, the new car’s design team was led by Mark Adams, the British designer responsible for last year’s European Car of the Year-winning Vauxhall Insignia.

With its strong, cab-forward silhouette, steeply-raked windscreen and sloping rear roofline, the new Astra makes ingenious use of many of the design features found in the Insignia, but in a fresh way.

Also like the Insignia, it has spent over 600 hours in the wind tunnel, benefiting performance, economy and overall refinement.

Mr Adams, vice-president of GM Europe Design, said: “We’re continuing with the same premium design cues as the Insignia, inside and out of the car.

“How-ever, the main design themes, like the wing-shaped light signatures and the blade, needed an individual execution to avoid ‘cloning’ the model ranges.

“This is why, for instance, you see twin wings in the rear lights and a reversed blade on its flanks.”

Underpinning the Astra’s rakish, 4.4 metre-length body, is an all-new chassis with a 71mm longer wheelbase, benefiting both passenger comfort and packaging.

Wider tracks front and rear feature, as does a new rear axle design, which not only improves stability and agility, but takes the Astra’s ride comfort into a different league.

Enhancing the Astra’s dynamic performance still further is the option of Vauxhall’s clever FlexRide system, a rarity in this sector which offers drivers three unique damper settings – standard, sport and tour – while being fully adaptive to changes in driving style and cornering speed.

Pictures of the new Astra’s interior will be released soon, but in the meantime expect similar strides in quality to those found in the Insignia, combined with big improvements in packaging, seat design and in-cabin storage.