On looking back through the ViaRETRO archives it was a surprise to me that we had never previously featured an Opel GT as one of our Prime Finds. It’s a popular car with the team, and we know of at least one of our readers who runs one. They don’t come up for sale very often in this country, but there’s usually one or two available at any given time, and of course more in Opel’s home market, and even more in the US, for reasons that will become apparent.
The background to the Opel GT – a car completely unlike the company’s generally staid, sensible products – can be found in the Opel Experimental GT concept car (there was some discussion on this in the comments section a few weeks back here), which was shown to the public at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1965 to an enthusiastic reception, enough to get the project greenlit to production, and the Opel GT went on sale in September 1967.
The mechanical foundations of the GT were from the Opel Kadett B, while the dramatic two-door steel unibody – designed in-house by Erhard Schell – was built by French company Brissonneau and Lotz. The engine was located quite far back behind the front axle, allowing better weight distribution but also enabling the long, low nose. There was no external access to the rear luggage area, which could only be reached by tilting the seats forward.
Another distinguishing feature of the GT was the concealed headlamps, which were manually operated via a lever situated next to the gear-lever and both rotated counter-clockwise. Operation was quick and smooth, but for flashing, the sidelights built in underneath the bumper were used.
Aside from being somewhat impractical – but who buys a sports coupé for its practicality? – the Opel GT’s weakness was in its engines, taken from the Kadett, especially the anaemic 67bp 1.1-litre. Of the 103,463 GT’s sold over its half-decade production run, only 3,573 had this engine, making it paradoxically the most collectible variant, despite being the slowest and arguably worst.
Much better – though still not exactly providing the GT with the performance to match its looks – was the 102bhp 1.9-litre which was powerful enough to take the car to a maximum speed of 182kmh/113mph and to cover the 0-60mph sprint in just under 11 seconds. The emissions-regulation strangled US version pushed out a mere 83bhp, however, limiting top speed to just 98mph/157kmh. A fuel-injected version would have been quite something, a shame the factory never saw fit to offer one.
Two versions of the 1.9 were made, the second being the GT/J, a lower-cost, lower-spec version, externally differentiated by its lack of chrome. 10,760 of these were sold, including one in black to one of my cousin’s friends – it boosted his cool rating quite considerably.
Perhaps the nearest UK equivalents were the Triumph GT6 and MGB GT, both fairly traditionally-styled but handsome fastback sports cars built on fairly mundane underpinnings, although both were also more practical – and less dramatically styled – than the Opel.
The German car’s eye-catching looks certainly made it stand out, which was just as well as its engines were less well-received by the motoring press. Car&Driver said in September 1969 that the 1.1-litre couldn’t be taken seriously, and the 1.9, while much better in terms of outright performance, rated it a “big fat zero as a source of pleasure for enthusiastic drivers”.
Despite this, 70,000 GT’s found their way across the Atlantic, sold via Buick dealerships, and some of those remaining are now finding their way back – while only 51 remain on UK roads, this is an increase of 21 since 2017.
The Opel GT has flown largely under the radar for quite a while, but is now recognised as a desirable classic, and while driveable cars can still be bought for less than £10,000, you have to pay up to twice that for a really good one. Our Prime Find this week sits somewhere in the middle.
It’s one of those that was originally sold in the US in 1970 but was brought to the UK 47 years later, where it was subjected to a full nut-and-bolt restoration including a bare metal respray in a fabulous bright orange. It was given a full mechanical overhaul, including an upgrade of the standard four-speed ‘box to a 5-speed, and as a US car, it has the strangled engine to meet emissions regulations; I’m a bit surprised that the engine wasn’t restored to European spec as part of the overhaul – I’d have that fixed immediately. It is also fitted with aircon. The interior gained new carpets, door cards and seat facings, all in black, and based on the auctioneer’s photographs – some of which we have borrowed – this GT looks terrific. Had it been available when I was looking to renew my classic car interest that resulted in my buying die Zitrone, I may well have bought it. I did see a couple of examples but they were in need of more work than I was prepared for, which in the event proved to be somewhat ironic…
Anyway, this great-looking GT comes up for auction on December 11th with Classic Car Auctions in Stoneleigh and carries an estimate of £12,000 to £15,000, which on the face of it seems very reasonable, not least when you see that there are two – admittedly fully-restored (but then so is this one) examples for sale in The Netherlands for over £25,000. There are not so many about, and in this colour, it will definitely stand out from the crowd.
If this bright little sports car has piqued your interest, you can see the full lot entry here and as usual, we recommend you arrange prior inspection before you start waving your bidding number.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk