Synchronized Headlamps: 1971 Opel GT
The Opel GT is a perky little 2-seat sports car from the late 60s/early 70s that offers a huge amount of character for a small entry price. Performance won’t be much worse than a Porsche 912, but it will be about 1/50th of the cost to own. Find this 1971 Opel GT here on eBay bidding for $2,800 in Cincinnati, OH with 4 days to go.
The Opel GT was a compact sports car by GM’s European subsidiary Opel
from 1965 to 1973. The little “poor man’s Vette” (reference to its
styling
similarity with Chevrolet’s C3 Covette) was sold and maintained at Buick
dealers in North America, an odd place to find a European transplant
and undoubtedly part of the reason it was sales failure.
The Opel GT was available with two engine choices, a 1.9 liter
cam-in-head (CIH) upgrade engine putting out 102 horsepower, and a 1.1
liter OHV inline-4 putting out 67hp — I believe this car has the 1.9 liter engine based on the big finned aluminum valve cover.
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Finding 4-speeds that haven't been hacked up is getting to become very difficult with these. If I'm not mistaken, the 1.9 was the only engine available in the US for the GT. I don't know what that t-handled cable is just to the right and below the steering wheel (choke maybe).
Other than the driver's seat back release looking slightly rigged and the question mark of what's under those seat covers, this is a surprisingly well preserved GT.
These little rascals are surprisingly pretty numerous here in Porkopolis. Must have been a couple of local Buick dealers aggressively pushing them back in the day. Do watch very carefully for rust on anything of that vintage from around here, as we don't spare the salt come wintertime.
"Other than the driver's seat back release looking slightly rigged and the question mark of what's under those seat covers, this is a surprisingly well preserved GT."
Umm…seriously, did you take a close look at the body with the holes in the rockers and rust everywhere? I honestly can't believe that it has been bid to where it's at right now…and I like these cars.
The broken (apparently) seat back takes me back to the early eighties. A fairly porcine friend of mine…and im talking Humpty Dumpty round and weighing in at least two and a half bills, pulled up in front of my trailer in a Opel Yellow 71 or 72. As he existed the car somewhat laboriously I was amazed at how he was able to a) get in the car b) sit behind the wheel c) exist said vehicle. It was like a balloon being squeezed through a knothole in the wall. Just amazing.
Found these whilst doing "research"
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[image src=" s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/31/40/9d/31409d712f2b34366f18fb9d2ebf5377.jpg" width="400px"/]
Amazing how the hips and the coke bottle shape on the green one make it look like a z3M coupe from that angle.