Opel’s 1975 GT-2 concept was a very sleek affair. Displayed at the Frankfurt IAA auto show, the GT2 was designed to be as aerodynamic as possible, and it showed what the possible successor for the Opel GT could have looked like, had one been produced.
Based on the contemporary Manta and Ascona, and powered by the 1900cc four-cylinder unit from Opel’s portfolio, the 105-horsepower car could reach 200 kilometres per hour. Fuel consumption was mentioned to range from 7 to 7,5 litres per 100km, which is very good for the time period, post-oil crisis.
An eye-catching feature of the GT2 were its sliding doors. No gullwing doors for this one, even if the window glass only had small opening portions like the latter DeLorean DMC-12.
The interior was all suede, decorated with body colour accents and what appears to be a Blaupunkt pod stereo.
The GT2 was very slippery for its time, achieving a 0.326 drag coefficient.
By Antti Kautonen
The resident Finn of Hooniverse. Owns old Peugeots and whatnot, writes long thinkpieces on unloved cars. These two facts might be related.
Bradley Brownell
If you like, you can wade through the rest of the brochure in The Carchive.
Despite a typical Chrysler minivan that lost it’s door on a family vacation (*thunk*, Hi! We’re the relatives from West Virginia…) I, for one, welcome our sliding door overlords.
This is so 70’s, it makes my chest (more) hairy.
or
I can totally see Luke selling this to get a lift on that junk “Falcon”.
Pretty nice, even though it doesn’t seem to have retained any of the swoopy, mini-Corvette, dramatic styling cues of the original.The doors are kind of cool, kind of make sense, and were probably feasible and not immensely expensive. They’d probably have been value engineered out. And the tiny operable window would have been a deal killer at the drive thru window. The console and door panels look like the team ran out of time, budget or ideas, but aren’t offensive. But the GT’s original dash was really attractive and interesting.
When I was a young Hoon, someone described the windows on a Countach as, “barely big enough to slide a cheeseburger through” and forever after I have called them ‘cheeseburger windows’ in my own mind.
Forward sliding doors have better ergonomics, but I imagine this had some trick mechanical actuator to close them for you.
There was another European GM based sports car with siding doors, ( though they slid the other, more correct(?) way ).
The Bertone Ramarro based on the C4 Corvette. The design brief seemingly being something like “Turn this Citroen BX into a Corvette” With it’s front engine and rear radiators.
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studio/large/1984_Bertone_Chevrolet_Ramarro_Concept_03.jpg
http://www.supercars.net/gallery/119513/2903/1051327.jpg
http://hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1984_Bertone_Chevrolet_Ramarro_Concept_07.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1djSz4NgWoo/TlZFEEP0q1I/AAAAAAAAEP4/tjrPehssNog/s640/ramarro3.jpg
http://img00.deviantart.net/98df/i/2014/221/3/3/chevrolet_ramarro_bertone__84_concept_by_franco_roccia-d4g6q4t.jpg