THE Opel Astra GTC becomes the halo car of the European marque’s debut range in Australia, at least until Opel’s mysterious new convertible comes along.

Endowed with slinky sheetmetal that would make Pininfarina jealous, the GTC sets the three-door Astra well apart from its five-door sibling.

The GTC also rides lower to the ground and on a bigger footprint than the standard Astra, giving it a larger grip on the road.

But with no hot OPC version in the Australian launch line-up and only a pair of middling turbo four-cylinder petrol engines in the armoury, is the GTC the car to take up the cudgels with the benchmark Volkswagen Golf, or just a pretty new thing?