By LongRoofian
I freaking don’t believe it! This lowly olelongrooffan stumped the band and all of my fellow Hoons! Even my fellow Floridian…tonyola…I didn’t think that was possible…
You guys can identify an Alfa Romero Mustang knock off and a March Hare but a simple Opel was beyond our reach.
And I’m not talking about the infamous Kadette that Bob Lutz proudly rolled back in the day….
This olelongrooffan was out Hooning around and heading east on Granada Boulevard, beachside the other day. Lo and behold this 1968 Opel GT pulled out in front of me as I was stopped at a red light.
Well if my fellow Hoons know me as I would suspect you do by now you know I stalked followed that little German creation until it had found its resting place that day. After all…I hadn’t seen one of these out in the wild and running in quite some time.
I parked my Comanche a few spaces away and approached the driver of this sports car…a 75 year old woman of German descent!
Hence the automatic transmission.
I struck up a conversation with her and she mentioned it is her daily driver and has been since she acquired it 25 years ago. “Yeah” she commented, “I think of it as my mini-Corvette.” I have to agree but the first thing that came to my mind when I first saw it was the split bumpers
and the fact my older brother’s first gen spitfire had them also.
However those taillights and dual exhaust pipes did remind me of a C-3 Corvette.
And that Mystery Car clue is the vents found on either side of the bulge possessing hood.
Now, I have been told that this GT was not one of the fastest cars around but there
no doubt it is a fastback. And a rare one at that.
More Here.
Antti Kautonen 
Joel Strickland 
Kamil Kaluski
Aaaaargh! I searched for the Opel GT while looking at Vauxhalls and European Fords but didn't see the tiny ass vents!
And I was drawn to contemporary Jaguars and the C2 Corvette after deciding it was probably a front-engined trick, but neglected to remember the GT's vents as well!
Well done, 'roofian!
Wow. When I was a kid, I built a model of an Opel GT. Always really liked them. But I never noticed those louvers.
Good work, because some random bolt would have lasted about fifteen seconds.
"Alfa Romero"? Didn't she star in several early Fellini films?
She had a sister named "Camero" who's often mentioned on car blogs.
Camero Romero? She must have been the fat sister.
I blame the Skye…I entered that text last night but waited until this morning to update the first part of that post. And she may have been the fat sister but Man, was it a great time!
Alfa Romero was the niece of Caesar Romero. She was was raised in Europe, curvaceous, and had walk on roles in action, exploitation and jiggle movies. Sadly, she dropped out of sight by the end of the Seventies, and seems to have been childless.
I went to sleep convinced the louvers were from the trapezoidal engine cover of some esoteric mid-engine Ferrari, and also that that was patently untrue, and my subconscious was lying to me. Tragically, I was right.
"…convinced the louvers were from the trapezoidal engine cover of some esoteric mid-engine…."
Nope, sorry, the KV only has five louvers per trapezoidal side.
<img src="http://image.automobilemag.com/f/25810645+w750+st0/0908_15_a+1980_kV_mini_1+wheel.jpg" width="350">
"…convinced the louvers were from the trapezoidal engine cover of some esoteric mid-engine…."
Nope, sorry, the KV only has five louvers per trapezoidal side.
<img src="http://image.automobilemag.com/f/25810645+w750+st0/0908_15_a+1980_kV_mini_1+wheel.jpg" width="350">
Thank goodness for those louvers on the KV, how would that space behind there ever get any ventilation without them?
The louvers on the left flank are plumbed into the intakes for the carburetor, engine cooling fan, and fuel tank supercharger. You're correct about the louvers on the right flank, shown above: they're purely aesthetic.
I love the idea of the engineers deciding to spruce up the nonfunctional aesthetic elements of the KV. It's like putting a tail fin on a CJ. Imagine the argument that took place around the drawing table.
Much as I hate to spoil that image, my understanding is that Joseph Spalek was the company's only engineer at that point; by then he was also the director. I've been told by the guy in France who's in possession of what's left of the original company files that there were three other employees, but they were involved in assembly, not design. I suppose the guy making the louvers could have refused, but for all I know that step was done by Spalek himself.
Wow, even better– the whole argument happened inside Spalek's wonky noggin. The mystery of the KV deepens.
So much minutiae. I absolutely love that you know so much about a car that runs on grindstones.
Those were needed to let the awesome out. Prior to that, there was a lot of spontaneous combustion.
Every time I see one of these I end up checking Craigslist. I just love the way they look – even more so than the C3 'vette.
wow, like Syrax I never even noticed those tiny vents. Always liked the Opel GT– if there was no such thing as a Z car, I might even have bought one by now, as they're like the early draft for finally pushing the rattle-box slow Brit and delicate Italian roadsters out of cheap sportscar rule. Not that I don't also want one of those crappy rattle boxes too. But the GT is so pretty!
Gratuitous Lemons pic.
<img src="http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/249118_229279053752926_192201637460668_1113166_4320042_n.jpg"> (ZomBee -vs- Tinyvette Opal GT, sometime around 2am. )
Nope, I don't believe it. You photoshopped those louvers.
Shit man, I don't even know how to photoshop…the real thing is always the best….
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-94bEjFL5A9A/TeAcLeRqkDI/AAAAAAAAPXU/JzI9eSQfY80/s1600/68opelgt+011.jpg" width = 600 end>
I can't unsee them now!
Great little car, and posessed of an excellent set of Pop-up headlamps.
Wish they'd make a comeback. Never gonna happen.
Now that I'm in my 30's, there are a couple of girls I knew in high school that I feel the same way about.
Happens to the best of us. When the hell did they suddenly get hot?!?
I wonder what the purpose of those small louvers is… Do they draw cool air up through the front brakes?
I see that little car at least once a week. Looks like she keeps it in great shape. I even did an ebay search just because. Then sanity kicked in. And finances. Damn it.
Not that I would have gotten today's mystery car right but the original clue had no scale reference… I was looking at aircooled boxes.