The 1970s and 1980s were good times for European tuning companies. Alpina were coupled to BMW and AMG were integral to the Mercedes-Benz performance range, but another name that was riding high has all but disappeared from the public conscience. Founded in 1968, Irmscher spent the 70s and 80s being synonymous with go-faster Opels, but although the company still exists you need to look at the history books to recall its true glory days.
Back in the mid-1960s, Günther Irmscher was working for an oil company during the week but spending his weekends going racing. As a trained engineer, he built an NSU Prinz TT and competed against the clock at every opportunity, achieving some notable results in hillclimbing, racing and rallying. By all accounts he took his hobby seriously and dedicated his spare time to developing and improving his cars, ensuring they were not only highly effective but immaculately prepared too. I get the impression that he wouldn’t have entrusted his car to anyone else, but other competitors with less mechanical aptitude were in need of competent motorsport preparation services. There was a gap in the market that Günther realised he was qualified to fill, so in 1968 he set up Irmscher Tuning, based in a double garage in Winnenden near Stuttgart. He must have been a good salesman too because his fledgling firm rapidly forged a relationship with Adam Opel AG to concentrate on tuning for competition activities. This must have been quite a coup for Günther and his handful of employees and a leap of faith for General Motors, being one of the largest motor manufacturers in the world.
The relationship with Opel blossomed and the agreement led to the development of the Kadett B and Commodore in guises ranging from showroom standard Group 1 cars up to highly tuned GT Group 4 machines. Irmscher became the heart of Opel’s Dealer Team and success on track inevitably led to healthy demand from private entrants seeking competition parts, both at home and internationally. It wasn’t long before Irmscher was selling a wide range of mechanical and body parts to Opel’s customers. Although there was serious engineering on offer, there was also a growing demand for the sports look amongst drivers who didn’t necessarily want a high lift cam, race bred suspension or uprated brakes. The aftermarket was growing, but Opel saw an opportunity to market a car with more show than go, straight from the showroom. Developed in collaboration with their tame tuner, the result was the Irmscher Kadett City, a brightly striped variant of an otherwise standard hatchback. It may not have been a ball of fire but it certainly looked the part.
Although Irmscher was a highly capable motorsport engineering company with an enviable pedigree, it was their subsequent range of specially tuned road cars that broadened public awareness of the firm. Their badge was applied to variants of nearly every car in the Opel range and such was the success of the new marketing venture, the company edged away from competition preparation towards car production, involving a move to larger premises in order to deal with 35,000 orders annually by 1986. The firm had a booming export operation and agents worldwide, and it is here that I turn to the English edition of the Irmscher Catalogue No.39, published in January 1987.
For fans of 1980s bodykits, styling and tuning parts, Catalogue No.39 is a 128 page wonderland of nostalgia, a safe-space in this uncertain world. Irmscher still produce aftermarket body styling to the present day but there is a boldness and confidence about the 1980s range that is much more intoxicating than anything in the modern era. GM’s good looking but often conservative designs were the perfect blank canvas for a bit of fibreglass artistry. Other firms such as Dimma, Rieger and Kamei may have ploughed furrows elsewhere but for Vauxhalls and Opels, Irmscher was the one-stop shop. You either like this stuff or you don’t, but as you’ve read this far I’ll assume you’re at least curious. If you’re sitting there with your arms folded, refusing to take any pleasure from the tempting Irmscher world of January 1987 and considering it all to be in poor taste or simply unattractive, I suggest you are simply kidding yourself. Let go of your prejudice and just drink it in for a moment…
See the neat little Corsa Sprint, a fine example of a sheep in wolf’s clothing with its flared arches and racing stripes. Or how about the dramatic arch extensions and dual headlamps for the Kadett E? Clearly influenced by the fire breathing rally cars of Group B, it’s actually more aggressive looking than the terminated four wheel drive Kadett 4S that would have taken on the world’s best, if only Group B hadn’t been cancelled. If that’s a bit too boy-racer for you, the Ascona C Sprint might be more your style. The Sprint was also found in UK showrooms as the Vauxhall Cavalier Calibre, designed to shift a few last units before the next generation Cavalier made its debut. It may be more restrained than the wide arched Kadett kit but there’s no missing that bold shovel nose. Maybe you’ve got eyes for the smart new Omega, or perhaps you’re looking to update your old Rekord instead? Either way, there are pages of body and interior accoutrements to pore over so you’re sure to find something, and don’t forget to look under the bonnet too for any number of camshaft, manifold and air filter options. Irmscher could oblige with fitting all of this lovely stuff, or the dealer network could assist. Alternatively, you could do the job yourself and the catalogue describes how the front wings of the Kadett E simply bolt on but the rear extensions require some enlarging of the rear wheel arch, a job they assert would be “well within the scope of most home workshops”. Well, maybe. But if all that wasn’t enough you could even wear the look yourself, with a range of stylish rally jackets. What more could you possibly want?
As intoxicating as the Opel era was, a change was brewing behind the scenes. In 1988 the company revealed the Irmscher GT, a proposal for a specialist car which Claus wrote about on these pages a couple of years ago. The GT had Opel underpinnings and a GM straight-6 bored out to 3.6-litres but it never made series production, even in the low volumes expected. Whether it was a serious attempt on the GT market is debatable but it’s perhaps telling that the next production car to emerge from Irmscher’s workshop was an Opel powered Lotus Seven replica named the Roadster. Elsewhere, the GM relationship opened doors at Isuzu whilst the fall of the Berlin Wall even gave birth to a restyled Wartburg. Although their links to Opel remained strong, the decline in the market for OEM approved tuning parts in the 1990s saw Irmscher branch out into further agreements with Daewoo, Renault and Saab. You can still but a range of styling parts for current models but the aspiration to be a car manufacturer didn’t entirely disappear, and their most recent creation was an electric powered version of their Lotus Seven style Roadster.
Times have changed and although the world has moved on, it’s good to find that Irmscher are still in business. However, in my mind they will always be synonymous with a generation of Opel cars wearing spoilers, skirts and stripes with a hot engine and some wide alloy wheels. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia when it looks this good.
