OPEL FACTS

Once upon a time in Germany, a company had a dream. They would build a sports car. What to name it, what to name it? hmmm... Opel GT.

They did not care about fame or fortune, they just wanted to build a fast (140mph), sporty, fun car for their new test track. They worked and tweeked and dreamed and built..... time passed.

Yes, this is an Opel.

At the 1965 Frankfurt Auto Show, the GT prototype was unveiled. A little car, with a lot of really neat features: flip-up headlamps, posi-traction, really cool exterior, 2 litre overhead cam engine fed by four carburettors. (At the time that the GT prototype was built, the overhead cam engine was still in the experimental stage and Opel was one of the very first to use it in a production car, the 1968 Opel GT.)

Serious car enthusiasts could not believe that Opel was capable of building a "sports" car. The following is the initial response from one such person and is an excerpt from GM's Gee Whizzer in Car Life magazine, December 1967.

When the GT coupe was first decanted at the (1965) Frankfurt Show's loading dock, a well known designer spotted it and hastened to the Porsche stand: "There's a new Opel sports car here, and it's pretty nice. You'd better come and have a look." The Porsche reply was unequivocal and final: "Don't be silly; that's impossible. Opel can't build a sports car." But they had.

After the GT prototype was unveiled, General Motors asked the main designer (at this time I can't remember his name) to come to America and work on the design change slated for the 1968 Corvette. He agreed

When the new Corvette was unveiled, there were the typical responses from the diehard Corvette people. Why change a good thing? This new car doesn't handle as well. It doesn't look the same. They've ruined it, or What is that? ewww yuck.

But the die had been cast and this style of Corvette moved past those responses to become one of the longest running body styles for any car(15 years). The people at GM kept working on the flaws, and for the 1972 Corvette, they finally decided to use Opel's suspension and braking system (it seems that the old suspension just didn't work as well on the new body style.)

The modern Corvette was born, one very mean machine.

So, the next time you see a Corvette, remember, it sure does look like an Opel GT, doesn't it? We all had to start somewhere.

This is a true story and none of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

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