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Opel GT

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glemon

glemon

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Was just watching what I think is a fairly recent episode of Wheeler Dealers featuring an Opel GT. Nice looking car in the period green. Anyway Mike says they are hot in the market now and bring anywhere from $6k to over $15k or something like that. True? I thought these were one of the last cheap sports cars, like GT6s, but I guess GT6s aren't super cheap anymore either, so that makes sense.
 
I wanted one while growing up. What's not to like about the baby Corvette body style? Then I found out that the sexy rear lines of the car were permanently in place without provisions for an opening rear hatch. I lost my interest at that point. I had a similar experience when I learned the same thing about Bugeyes.
 
Doug, I always thought they were kind of cool too. I get the lack of hatch/boot concern. I was interested in the Scion FR/S Subaru BRZ twins when they came out. Most everybody griped they wanted more power. I wanted it a few hundred pounds lighter (as had been hinted in the early press on the car), and mostly wanted a hatch. As a relatively budget price two seater I assume many will buy it as their only car. The lack of a hatch makes it so much less useful as a grocery getter, etc. Had an MGB/GT at one time and an RX7 later. They were great cars, and surprisingly practical with the hatch.
 
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I just learned that neither the Opel GT nor the Bugeye have a trunk! Thanks! (Funny how good looks can cause you to miss important details :smile: )
 
I owned one in college, it was a fun car. Sadly it had come from up north and was a rust bucket, so I only had it for two years.
 
glemon said:
... from $6k to over $15k or something like that. True? I thought these were one of the last cheap sports cars, ....
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Look around. By today's standards that is cheap.

A bit of irony on the trunk thing, when GM decided to to re-release the Opel GT moniker in the mid 2k's they utilized their extensive R&D capabilities in the technology of badge engineering. The new Opel GT presented to the European market was a Saturn Sky Redline/Pontiac Solstice GXP. And while the GT/Sky/Solstice did theoretically have a trunk, it was completely useless. In reality it was just a place to store the convertible top. And even with the top up it couldn't hold anything taller than a loaf of bread. The original GT had a pretty large package shelf behind the seats and could store quite a bit of stuff (I put humans back there before seatbelt laws hit California).
 
"I put humans back there before"

Me too, I once managed to fit five into mine after a party.
 
We put an extra body in the hatch of the B-GT and I think in the RX too, but hard to imagine 5 in an Opel GT, looks smaller than B GT, at least from the outside looking in. Too bad we all didn't carry around camera phones back when we were young and adventurous--on second thought actually just as well....
 
I'm happy that we didn't have camera phones when I was doing stupid things. We stuffed two in the back of my Opel and three in the front, it looked like a clown car unloading when we got back to the dorm.
 
Wish I had pix of the time in college when five of us drove around in one guy's MGA.

I was in the passenger seat with a very cute co-ed in my lap. Good times.
 
Sounds similar to how we stuffed five in my Opel, with the exception that I was the one driving.
 
In the late 70's Dave Bean Engineering, operating across from the Santa Barbara Airport, had all sorts of phased modified high performance Opel GTs and Mantas. All, including my own, were lowered with the widest tires (60 series) that could be stuffed into the wheel wells. Some had reversed rims and were equipped with fender flares etc. They all looked great hunkered down - putting 5+ people in the car likely had the same effect.

The 1.9L 4 was a good base engine for modification, but the bodies were rust prone. I learned handbrake turns in this car, whipping it into 180s. Very manageable. Datsun Zs were much better though. And Mazda. And Fiat. And Porsche. And BMW
 
I did five in a TR3. Would drive thru campus with three girls across the back doing the homecoming wave to everybody. Yep, fun days.
Marv
 
While the Opel GT was quite the looker, the Manta was actually a better handling car. I have an affinity for the later Opel 1900s (or Ascona A's), but they are nearly impossible to find in any condition.

GM pulled the plug on Opel in America a couple of years too early. If you look at how BMW and Audi started to take off in the late 1970s, Opel could have easily been in that mix if GM had been patient.
 
My mom owned a 1900 station wagon when I was young. I'll ask her if she has any pictures of it.

I agree that GM pulled the plug too soon and that Opel could have been a direct competitor to BMW and Audi.
 
gonzo said:
In the late 70's Dave Bean Engineering, operating across from the Santa Barbara Airport, had all sorts of phased modified high performance Opel GTs and Mantas....
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Wow. I never knew Dave Bean did Opels.

I suspect they bailed out of Opels by the time I started dealing with them, in the mid eighties when I got my Jensen Healey. Which was intended to be my daily driver while working on my Manta. How's that for brilliant practicality?

When I had my Manta I seem to recall the aftermarket sources I talked to were MantaPart and More Opel.


waltesefalcon said:
...I agree that GM pulled the plug too soon and that Opel could have been ....
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Sadly, GM never knew what to do with Opel, or much of anything/anybody other than their Detroit home brands. Look what they did to SAAB. :(
 
PC said:
Sadly, GM never knew what to do with Opel, or much of anything/anybody other than their Detroit home brands. Look what they did to SAAB. :(
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For that matter, GM eventually didn't know what to do with their own home brands, hence the decline and fall of Oldsmobile and Pontiac. Sad thing was that Pontiac did establish itself as a "Euro-performance" division, and their later products were quite good. Oldsmobile just got lost in the shuffle, with their ill-fated "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" promo...well, most buyers remembered their father's Oldsmobile fondly.

One could probably say the same thing about BMC and the way they managed some of their brands...right into the ground.
 
I had an Opel GT back in the early 80s. Another rustbucket like previously mentioned, but holy crap it was fun to drive. I patched and Bondoed it up and made a 20 footer out of it with spray cans (yes, I've gotten a lot better with my body work over the years).

PC (being a fellow Jensen owner) here's a neat little six degrees of separation: the Opel GT was very closely related to the Manta, which was related to the Kadett, which was mechanically more or less identical to the Vauxhall Viva. And guess where the front suspension in your Jensen came from? That's right, from the Vauxhall Viva parts bin.
 
And other Viva parts are interchangeable.

changing the subject slightly. Michael I suggest you name
your Alvis -
Presley

Or if that is too corny, Colonel Parker
 
JPSmit said:
changing the subject slightly. Michael I suggest you name
your Alvis -
Presley

Or if that is too corny, Colonel Parker
Click to expand...
I like it, I do, but I think I've decided on "Hedley". Not "Hedy"... it's "Hedley".
 
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