Years before General Motors treated the American public to such branding exercises as “The Buick Opel by Isuzu,” an effort famous just for the sheer scale of summoning so many different brand names at once to sell an Isuzu Gemini, GM’s Buick division marketed a very fun sports coupe that we often forget about when talking about the sports cars of the 1960s. While our best scientists struggle to ascertain just how a Gemini came to be called “The Buick Opel by Isuzu” (a preliminary report was promised by the early summer of 2014) let’s take a look at a car that was unequivocally an Opel by Opel, and a very popular one at that.
Introduced in 1968, the GT essentially broke new ground for Opel. It’s easy to forget now, but for many years post-war Europe was not a booming market for sporty coupes, British cars included. The GT was first presented as a styling exercise in 1965, and was well received at a number of auto shows. Penned by Erhard Schnell at Opel, the GT was designed to be a small fastback, and featured a number of popular design cues of sports cars of the day. The GT was available with a 1.1 liter straight-4 engine making 67bhp, as well as a 1.9 liter which was good for 102bhp. Sharing many parts with the Opel Kadett B, the GT came with a choice of two transmissions, a 4-speed manual and a 3-speed automatic. Owned by Gary Farias, this 1969 Opel GT was been in his stable since 1977, and has just over sixty-four thousand miles on the clock. Gary owns five other Opels, including a 1984 Opel Senator 3.0 CD we drove a couple months ago, and an early Opel Olympia.
As we settle in and roll out of his driveway, I ask him about how much these sold for back when they were available through Buick dealerships in the states.
“It was about 3,500 dollars, and they had a 1.1 engine which was the same one as in the Kadett” Gary says.
“But most people bought the 1.9 engine, right?”
“Right, cause it was only 60 dollars more and you got disc brakes, and a bigger engine.”
One thing that people often forget about the GT is that it’s not truly a hatchback, as there is no access to the trunk area. Rather, there is only a parcel shelf which can be reached through the interior. While this may have seemed like a drawback at the time, the GT tends to look much larger in photographs than it is in real life, so an opening rear hatch would not have helped the versatility of a car that is shorter and smaller than a Corvette. And speaking of this car’s competitors, I ask Gary what sports cars of the time the GT was supposed to go up against.
“I think they were aiming for the MG and Triumph” Gary says. “And then when the Datsun 240Z came out it really put a dent in [GT sales], cause it had a bigger engine and an independent suspension in the back. They originally designed the GT on a wider platform and used the same suspension that ended up being in the Manta, but when they designed to produce it, the beancounters got involved and chose the Kadett platform.”
It’s hard to talk about the GT without mentioning the pop-up headlights. Those are flipped by a lever on the transmission tunnel, a somewhat rare setup where the lights themselves rotate lengthwise on their axis, doing a barrel roll to snap into place. That’s perhaps what surprises people who are new to the car the most, according to Gary, and a lot of people expect the lights to tilt upward like on many other cars of the time, including the Corvette.
Speaking of the Corvette, just a few years ago Gary took a trip to Germany for the biggest Opel meet on the continent, a trip on which he got to meet the GT’s designer, Erhard Schnell, when he was invited to his house for dinner.
“And he pulled out all the drawings and started showing us the sketches. On one he showed us, it had T-top on a GT, and he said he showed it to Chuck Jordan, and Chuck Jordan said Nooo, you will not do that and Erhard didn’t even question him, he said OK. And then the ’68 Corvette came out with the T-top, so that was already in the works for them.”
“Did they ever have plans to replace it with a newer model” I ask Gary.
“Yeah, when we were at the factory we got a VIP tour of the museum. We not only got to see the cars that were on display, but we got to go to the floor below where they showed us a concept which was designed to be a Wankel-powered GT, and of course that never made it to production.”
And speaking of the business side of the, ahem, car business, General Motors made the decision to sell the GT through Buick dealerships, given the dealers’ capacity at the time, and the lack of a sporty car in their offerings. Opels have been paired through Buick dealerships before, so this was not anything new. Obviously, selling the GT through Chevrolet dealers just wouldn’t have worked, for those same reasons. A little over 103 thousand Opel GTs were built from 1968 till 1973, with the bodies themselves subcontracted out to coachbuilder Brissoneau & Lotz in France.
“So what was the most popular export market for the GT, the US?” I ask Gary.
“Yeah, I think eighty percent of them came to the US” Gary replies.
“Have you ever raced this one?”
“I ran it at autocross up at [Fort] Devens, must have been 10 years ago, along with a friend from Connecticut. He was the one who talked me into doing it” Gary says.
As we ride along in the GT, it really comes into focus just how much sporting potential this little coupe has, and just how agile it is. Even though the 1.9 engine provides plenty of power according to Gary, as with most sports cars of the 60s and 70s, owners have experimented with engine swaps, and the Opel GT was no exception.
“So some people actually manage to put V8s in these?” I ask Gary, somewhat surprised.
“Yeah, and I can’t count the times when they’ve started the project and ever finished it” Gary says, rolling his eyes.
“Is it mostly the Chevy V8s that people try to put in these?”
“Yeah, and a couple people put the 3.4 V6 in, which you don’t have to do as much cutting in order to put in” Gary replies.
The popularity of the GT in the states even created a situation that is somewhat rare for fans of the car in its native land. Since so many GTs sold in the states, it is the German GT owners that have to search for parts in America, not the other way around. And speaking of parts, I ask Gary till how long ago General Motors offered OEM parts support for the GT.
“It was about 1984 or 1985 I think” Gary replies. “A friend of mine who lived a couple towns over, his father owned a Buick dealer, and he had a bunch of parts. So when they were cleaning them out he called me, and I was like a kid in a candy store, pulling parts off the shelf. Of course I didn’t know what was going to be rare, so I just grabbed whatever I thought I was going to need.”
A we arrive back at Gary’s garage, I ask him if he’s thought about adding any more Opel to his collection as the 25-year rule keeps opening new cars for importation.
“Nah, I’ve got enough projects now!” Gary chuckles.
So when was the last time you’ve seen an Opel GT?
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