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M&M sightings

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PC

PC

Obi Wan
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SWMBO was out with friends yesterday afternoon and called to tell me where to meet them for dinner.

As I headed that direction, I spotted the first M, a burgundy red Qvale Mangusta coming the other way.

Being cousin of my Jensen Healey, I thought that was a pretty cool sighting.


As I got closer to our dinner spot, I saw the second M, this one much nearer and dearer to my heart, in a parking lot on the side of the road.

It was an Opel Manta, yellow, like the one I drove in college. Man, I loved that car.

It took a lot of willpower to not pull over and check it out. But the gang was waiting for me and I didn't want to be rude. Besides, the businesses in that parking lot were all closed so I figured all the cars were put to bed for the night and should be there after dinner.

Over dinner, my wife even suggested I put a note on it asking if it was for sale. We were in separate cars so she headed home after dinner and I made a beeline for that parking lot.

It's been so long since I've seen one on the road. Getting up close to this one was a treat, even though it turned out to be in much rougher shape than I had originally thought. It brought back a lot of great memories.

I ended up not leaving a note. Not enough space, time or money for that project. Sigh.


pc
 
I never owned an Opel but always liked them. My college roommate owned an Opel GT and I thought it was a pretty neat car (despite the notion that it was a mini-Corvette).
The current crop of Cadillacs owe some debt to Opel engineers.

I remember when Car & Driver was an actual good magazine and they built "J. Edgar Opel" (a GT they gave away to a reader).

I also saw the C&D Opel SCCA showroom stock sedan they raced (#00) at Lime Rock several times (with Pat Bedard driving......he won).

There's a ton of neat Opel info ~HERE~
 
Opel's used to be pretty cool cars. My mom owned a Kadett Wagon when I was a kid, and I had a GT in college before I got my first Spitfire. In fact I liked the GT so much, that if mine hadn't been a rust bucket I might not have ever bought a LBC.
 
My cousins had a Kadett "woods car" We had a ball doing automotive motocross with that thing. With the abuse it took, I can't imagine it ever breaking down on the road!
 
Great article, thanks for posting it.

Don't know why the GT inspires it, but for a car that seems obscure to most people there have been a lot of very good, very detailed articles written about it's history over the years.

aeronca65t said:
".....I also saw the C&D Opel SCCA showroom stock sedan they raced (#00) at Lime Rock several times (with Pat Bedard driving......he won)....
Click to expand...
Way cool, wish I could have seen that. I only read about it. I also seem to remember reading that they won almost every race they entered it in. And they came in second in one race even after being t-boned by another car.
 
PC said:
SWMBO was out with friends yesterday afternoon and called to tell me where to meet them for dinner.

As I headed that direction, I spotted the first M, a burgundy red Qvale Mangusta coming the other way.

Being cousin of my Jensen Healey, I thought that was a pretty cool sighting.

pc
Click to expand...

That's a pretty rare sighting, they only made 284 of them. Frankly, I had never heard of them until I saw one on Bring a Trailer last month:
https://bringatrailer.com/2014/05/14/seller-submission-19k-mile-2001-qvale-mangusta/
 
Steve said:
Opels were a common sight in the UK growing up! I always liked them.
Click to expand...

Opels do have strong British following. I met a pleasant English chap named Paul who has a Rover V8 in his. (It wouldn't fit in his luggage when he visited the colonies so I didn't get to see it in person, only got to see the photo album. If I ever get back over there I'll definitely try to bum a ride!)

In a sense, Opels are still common in the UK. Current Vauxhalls are mostly GM badge engineered Opels.


pc
 
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