During a few glamorous years as a London creative ad honcho (think Mad Men) one of my colleagues had an Opel GT coupe. If they were relatively scarce in America, Opel GTs were all but invisible in the UK, thus his car attracted attention wherever it went. Curiously, I never thought it looked like a downsized Corvette, as contemporary reviews suggest, because the GTs production years, 1968-1973, coincided with my time overseas. During that period I never saw a Corvette nor, for that matter, did I think of it.
Though designed and manufactured in Germany (except the bodies, which were made in France) the Opel GT was largely aimed at the North American market. It was sold by Buick dealers who, at the time, were merchandising Opels in order to have an economy car on their showroom floors. That was like asking your maiden aunt to monitor a room full of rambunctious 5-year-olds; confused and distraught, after a while she simply gave up.
Which was too bad, for Opels were generally good cars and in the right hands might have created a permanent niche in North America. The GT was an excellent "halo" car, being attractive and affordable, and it qualified as a genuine sports car. It was suitable for road racing, as well, and could have been developed into a small-class contender.
Underneath that pretty skin, the GT had the bones of an Opel Kadett sedan but hey, many a fine sports car made use of parts from the bins of family automobiles. A 67 hp 1.1-liter unit was standard and performed well considering the car's low weight. But most buyers went for the overhead-cam 102 hp 1.9-liter engine, partly because it could better cope with the optional 3-speed auto. The 4-speed manual, of course, offered the best performance.
More than 100,000 were sold worldwide and amazingly those US Buick dealers accounted for 70% of the total. Thus the Opel GT can rightly be considered a success story. Too bad its life was so short, for who knows what might have happened next? An Opel GT convertible, perhaps? For more on the Opel GT, you might want to see this article in Automobile magazine.
I remember the Opal GT, and I thought I remembered it from my time in Europe, but that was 62-64 so my old mind must be playing tricks on me. In the 68-73 period I was only in the states (Los Angeles) for a couple of weeks in the summer of 68.
I wonder what i was thinking about?
May 20, 2010 @ 9:14 pm