Info on the VX220 from a new owner, cross posted from a trackday forum:

Could've bought the turbo had I wanted to but the NA's a better balanced car for both road and track IMO (not that ours will see the track much, it's a road car, although I am taking it to Anglesey in September). Turbo's a bit heavier, so feels planted on the road if a little soft and it's mightily impressive through the gears, very torquey engine as you'd expect. I just found the NA to be a better handling car, the suspension's better, makes it easier to drive cross country without constantly working at it (roads are in crap condition where I live) and safer for the wife to use if she wants to. That's not to say that if you want to drive like Damon Hill you can't, it's very rewarding to drive quickly.

They seem better screwed together than the Elise and as you say, it's got a much stronger engine that's pretty unstressed in standard form (140bhp). Certainly modified up to 180bhp they don't seem to suffer either. My car's only a year old but I do plan to modify it slightly to about 170bhp, which is relatively inexpensive and Vauxhall will still honour the warranty.

If you wanted a challenging track car I'd say buy the turbo, but if you just want something to have fun in, buy the NA.

Have a look on www.vx220.org.uk there's quite a few cheapish early VX's on there as long as you don't mind it being silver