Story by Johan Dillen • Photography by Dirk De Jager
Unless you’re driving a Porsche, beating a Porsche is the common yardstick in motor racing. In 1971, that’s exactly what the Opel GT did on its first Targa Florio outing thanks to Autotecnica Conrero, a name long associated…
The Opel GT has always looked better than it ran. I used to race against one in the 1970s. Inferior handling kept it from being a threat. The styling is pretty easy on the eyes, though.
Footnote - the modern Opel GT (Kappa GM platform sold in Europe) is an exclusively convertible model. When did the buying public get so stupid that the manufacturers could apply whatever inapt name they wanted. Apparently the lure of using the familiarity of 'Opel GT' trumped the fact that GT cars are coupes.
I guess the new Porsche 'Turbo' name applied to their electric car (nothing to turbocharge there) is a continuation of this. Guess it is all about money, not logic and consistency.
Great story. Thanks. I didn't know that they were ever anything more than a poseur.
They ARE fun cars!
In reply to wspohn :
GT. Grand Touring. It has nothing to do with being a coupe.
When did the buying public get so stupid ...
So when did the original Pontiac GTO (Gran Tourismo Omologato) get homologated for anything? The first Pontiac GTO was an option package for the 1964 Le Mans available with the two-door sedan, hardtop coupe, and convertible body styles.
Well, duh!
Almost a year, so it's time to post...
Gee whiz, whspon, next thing you'll be telling us is that coupes have only two doors!
I'd agree, but BMW has more lawyers than I do.
I always like these cars and Opel's in general. Some friends had one in the late 70's that they modified for autoX racing. They had intended to go road racing but their budget wouldn't allow it. About 10 years ago I had another friend contact me to help build a Lemons race car which turned out to be an Opel GT. They added a "kamm" back and called it the "Bread Van". I built the engine and trans for it, a Ford 2.3L Lima & T-5 trans. It used an Alfa rear end because that's what they had. While not successful at first the car did end up winning Class "B" twice, afterwards the judges moved the car up to Class "A" where it lacked the HP to compete.
i raced an 1100 gt in scca h production; a veryvery few suspension mods made it corner with the best of them. i just couldn't get it down to minimum weight by 90 pounds--i guess we never cut enough stuff out! conrero built a single-cylinder engine for us with variable valve timing, which bryan crow and i patented in '64 for internal combustion engines. he told us he lost the alfa tuning job because of family relations between alfa and autodelta. we had some conrero cams we put in the sprint speciale we raced in the '69 daytona 24hr
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