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German Triplets: 1970 Opel GT Project

In an attempt to spice up their image, Opel released their own sports car in 1968. With a 1.1 liter engine as standard, we are not sure how much it helped. The seller of this yellow 1970 Opel GT claims that the engine has been rebuilt, but still needs work. They are including the other two cars for parts and are only asking $1,000 for whole lot. Find it here on Portland’s craigslist.

The styling may be the best aspect of these cars. They do look suspiciously similar to the Corvette released the year before and we may not be far off since GM did own both. We like the kammback design with the four round taillights. The manually operated popup headlights were also a unique feature.

They may look faster than they really are, but we are sure that with some work this car could be made to go. Lets just hope that is the optional 1.9 liter engine in there and that it is attached to a four speed manual. It is rear wheel drive and it does have disc brakes up front. Since this is a 1970, it also avoided the extra emissions equipment added in 1971.

Opel decided to discontinue the GT in ’73 because they couldn’t keep up with all the competition from other sports car manufacturers. It may not be the quickest car ever built, but it does provide loads of character for little money. A special thanks goes out to Doug M for sending this one in. Anyone here with stories to share about these German built baby Corvettes?

Comments

  1. Avatar Rick Prokopchuk

    In my freshman year of college, fall 1970, the resident advisor had one in dark metal green. It was really, really nice. My first car was a Kadet anyway, so I naturally was in love with his.

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  2. Avatar WareWolf

    Always loved these little beauties.. it’s a shame that opel (here in the states) died long ago..

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  3. Avatar Chris

    Too bad these are out in Oregon. Hopefully someone is willing to make one GT out of these three. Bring three trailers. No money to be made on these, but they are nice drivers.The 1100 is the Opel Kadett engine and the GT had a lot of Kadett content, especially the suspension. Too bad GM never put the Opel 1900 Manta series suspension under these along with the 1900 engine and the European 5 speed. An after market firm named More Opel supplied performance parts and items like spoilers for the GTs and the Opel Mantas. I converted the ignition on mine to electronic using one of their kits. There was even a Weber carb conversion kit. The GT were/are rusters so you don’t see that many any more. The GT doesn’t have a true trunk and lid, you have to put in luggage through the cabin.

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  4. Avatar paul

    Not not not!

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  5. Avatar Marc Robertson

    A steal @$1k!

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  6. Avatar Søren Schmidt Hansen

    @Warewolf: In fact, you have Opel models in the States. Take a look at the Saturn Astra 2008 and compare it with the Opel Astra same model year.
    Voila! There you have your Opel! In the States the model came as Saturn, in the UK market Opel is marketed as Vauxhall. But it is true that Opel is not sold in the U.S. under its own brand.

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    • Avatar Connor

      Here in the uk vauxhall and Opel are two different brands because we mainly get things like the vauxhall corsa which are then sometimes rebranded as the Opel corsa

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  7. Avatar Dolphin Member

    This is the absolute lowest price for an instant collection of pretty much any interesting car. They certainly do show signs of the Corvette DNA, but it’s all GM corporate, so OK I guess. The trunk access through the cabin reminds me of my first sports car, a first-series A-H Sprite.

    The C3 Corvette body shape never appealed to me very much, so these never did either. I have known people who like them but I never got it straight what exactly it was they liked so much. Maybe it was that C3 body shape without the high gas consumption. My take on Opel generally is that the build quality was good, so maybe these were good too.

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  8. Avatar Horse Radish

    In this package form these may just be appealing enough and the total price tag helps.
    Luckily they are 800 miles ++ away from me.

    Actually, these originally came with a 1.9 ! liter motor as well as the 1.1 (only 1968-1970)
    There were over 100,000 made (’68-73)of which the majority supposedly went to the US.

    Where did they all go ?
    Makes you consider……..

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  9. Avatar scot c

    ~ i’m more than a bit crazy, but i do recall looking a GT over thoroughly at the local Buick showroom while still a kid. i thought then, and still do now, that the Manta or Kadett were more interesting to me.
    . still, i wonder how any of the Opel models would have acted with the aluminum 215″ engine from the ’63 Skylark. different history altogether. in an effort to be as politically and socially offensive as possible my buddies referred to me as ‘queer for Buicks’.

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  10. Avatar Doug M

    I have always been slightly intrigued by these… for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Then the other day in Salem I pulled up to one at a stoplight and it was so nicely restored and had orange paint, minilights, and just plain sat nice. I rolled my window down and commented that his was the nicest one I have ever seen. He just smiled at me and yelled back “why don’t you get one!?” …kinda got me dreaming a bit, and considering the possibilities?. …But then I came to my senses…what was I thinking?? It’s an Opel GT! …and off I drove. ( 3 for $1,000 !!…hmmm?)

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  11. Avatar Steve

    I had a 1970 in college in the 1980s. Very fun w 1.9 liter. Electrical and carb were sore spots. And the headlight mechanism was not as crisp or easy to use as you’d expect.

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  12. Avatar Rancho Bella

    queer for Buicks………..thats funny

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  13. Avatar Chris

    Selling Opel GT and Manta/Rallye cars through the Buick dealerships doomed them. Buick didn’t sell them, you went in and bought it after the salesman pointed to it in the corner. I had a blue Manta Luxus that was a nice driver and good handling car, especially after I upgraded the tires. I always wished I’d switched out the clock for the Rallye tach. But the upholstery sun rotted and had to be replaced under warranty. Per Steve, the carb was a touchy emissions tuned POS. It held up wel land I sold it with over 100K miles of upstate NY salt driving over 8 years.In the spring of 1973, 3 of us at work bought new Opels, 2 Mantas and 1 GT. The GT had noticable rust damage within a year. If the GT series rusted easily, hat would explain why we don’t see many except in three for $1K sales.

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  14. Avatar Mark W

    Would love to get my hands on these. Always wanted to consider a VW VR6 swap. These things are narrow between the fenders, but I bet that narrow angle motor would fit the bill nice.

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  15. Avatar Mark Massey

    My uncle bought 1 of these the summer of 1968 and we had a ball in that thing,,his was a RALLY pack car that came with a 1.9 motor with sidedraft carbs and Buddy it flat-ass moved out. Now here these are,,[and in my back yard] I happen to be looking for a project for my grandsons and I…My #1 son just kicked his wife to the curb so I now have some young boys that want to learn about cars with their Grandpa,,I’ve been forced into retirement and living on 1100 bucks a month..Good ole social Security,,we won’t talk about the 70 grand they cheated me out of,,,any-Hoo lets see what I can come up with..MM

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  16. Avatar rustylink

    unique styling doomed by crappy Kadett underpinnings it sat on. Make sure you know how to replace motor mounts.

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  17. Avatar Wim Bos

    These cars are in Europe still ‘wanted items’, the total production was just over 100.000 items, about 90% of them was sold to the US and now we re-import them.
    Only a very little number (about 3.000) were made with the 1100 engine the rest is 1900.
    The topspeed was over 115M/H and 0-60 was done in about 11 sec.
    Opel has stopped the production due to the increased safety standards in the US.
    Biggest problem with these cars is rust but in general the Californian ones are good, mechanical parts are not a problem.

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