Now there's a new Vectra, hefty and chiselled-looking, a quality product by most modern standards. It's as able as the old one was half-hearted, and a decent base for sharpened-up versions. And that, wearing those famous suffixes, is what we now have. Are they credible cars for real enthusiasts this time? Could you, an evo reader, live with one? Or are they, once again, merely a badge of office in the company car park hierarchy?

Like the previous GSi, the new GSi and SRi are UK-only creations developed on UK roads. Unlike the previous GSi, they have been developed in-house apart from some suspension tuning by Lotus. Both have a quicker steering rack, a ride height 20mm lower, stiffer front springs (by 20 per cent in the SRi, 25 per cent in the heavier, V6-powered GSi), and a ten per cent rise in rear-spring stiffness. It sounds like a recipe for understeer, but a thicker rear anti-roll bar restores the balance and gives keener turn-in. Firmer dampers and harder front suspension bushes complete the chassis makeover.

Key engines are the existing 2.2-litre, 147bhp unit already seen in other Vectras and the VX220, driving through standard gearing, and a 3.2-litre version of the V6 which is the biggest engine yet to power a Vectra. It delivers 211bhp, enough for a claimed 155mph top speed.

You can also have a 122bhp 1.8, with shorter-legged gearing but tepid pace, or a 125bhp, 2.2-litre turbodiesel. Two more engines arrive in early '03; a 2-litre turbo as used in Astras, and a 3-litre V6 diesel.

The visuals reflect the sharper sinews, but you won't find outlandish boot spoilers and square-section exhausts this time (too 1990s). All that sets the harder Vectras apart from their comfort cousins is a flaring out and downward extension of valances and sills, a lip spoiler on the tailgate, a honeycomb-ish grille and some five-spoke alloy wheels: solid-spoked for the GSi (which also has two oval tailpipes), skeletal for the SRi.

Note the tailgate mention. These sporty Vectras come only as (UK-built) hatchbacks with a Calibra-like rear window line. Here - alone in Europe - hatch Vectras far outsell saloons, and buyers of sporty examples are more likely to live lives that a hatchback could enhance. It's a curious counterpoint to Saab's choice of a saloon shape for the new, Vectra-related 9-3, based on the notion that premium sporty cars should have boots, not hatches.

Inside, metal-effect inserts replace photowood, instruments are chrome-outlined, the steering wheel is leather-rimmed and the seats beefily bolstered. It's all obvious stuff. But the SRi does have a unique advantage over rivals. Which is that there aren't any, directly.

No other mainstream two-or-so-litre comes in a proper sporty version. Ford's Mondeo Zetec is just a wheels-and-trim job, other 'sport' derivatives are similarly cosmetic. So, is the SRi different enough to make the difference? Straight away it feels handier, more connected than the regular Vectra, itself already an adhesive handler with a massively more together feel than the old clunker. The steering is quick, keen and accurate, understeer stays away even before ESP and Corner Brake Control are invoked. But there's a remoteness to the steering wheel's responses, as though digitally processed instead of directly connected. More, and more variable, weighting is required.

Cornering is both flat and sharp, with taut body control but a ride approaching the bounds of comfort tolerance: keen drivers only need apply. The engine is a good surprise, though; at the mainstream Vectra launch this unit seemed rowdy and short of puff, but in the SRi, after production fine-tuning, it proves smooth, torquey and eager to respond. You'll enjoy a Vectra SRi more than a Mondeo Zetec, I suspect, even though the brake pedal is too high for easy heeling-and-toeing and the manual gearchange is long-winded.

Would you enjoy a GSi even more? I doubt it, despite the elastic extra thrust. The engine sounds creamily powerful, but the throttle is hard to modulate finely for smooth 'shifts and the nose-heaviness compromises both the ride (firmer again) and the agility (more understeer). A Mondeo ST220 offers a much more rousing drive. In Vectraland, then, the optimum initials are SRi. It's a convincing sporty Vectra. Whatever next?