Tag Archives: Opel

Hatched In Germany – Cadillac Catera

In 1994 Opel launched a new Omega ‘B’ model that replaced the Omega ‘A’ model that had served as the basis of the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton which I looked at on Saturday. The Omega B was still rear wheel drive but had a much smoother body that formed the basis on the Vauxhall Omega in the UK and was launched with the aid of Cindy Crawford in the USA as the Cadillac Catera.

Cadillac Catera, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Cadillac Cateras were powered by a 200hp V6 motor with pistons angled at an unusual 54 degrees, the motors gained a reputation for expensive cam belt tensioner bearing failures.

Cadillac Catera, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Sales of the Catera peaked at around 25,000 in 1997 and 1998 but tailed off thereafter and the model was discontinued from the Cadillac range in 2001

Cadillac Catera, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Today’s featured vehicle seen ar last summers “Summer Classics” gathering at Easter Compton is registered officially as a top of the range Vauxhall Omega Elite and has most likely had the Cadillac exterior identifications including the grill fitted post production.

Thanks for joining me on this “Hatched In Germany Edition” of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Imperial Green – Lotus T104 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton

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In 1990 Britain and Germany’s GM divisions launched a new Q car that could blow the contemporary Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4×4 performance model into the weeds. The new vehicle was known as the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton in the UK and Lotus Omega in the rest of Europe.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

Lotus project Type 104 was responsible for turning the 3 litre / 183 cui executive saloon, into a barnstormer which included a body kit that fed more air into the engine and two small louvered out lets on the bonnet hood.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The six cylinder motor was comprehensively revised; the swept volume was increased to 3.6 litres / 219 cui and twin Garret T25 turbochargers with a Behr water to air inter cooler were fitted to take the power up to 377 hp at 5200 rpm. Transmission came courtesy of the contemporary Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the limited slip differential from the Australian Holden Commodore.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The performance figures included rest to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds with 100 mph being reached in 11.1 seconds and a controversial top speed of 176 mph, which made the car the worlds fastest four door saloon. There had been, unheeded, calls for GM to follow the lead of BMW and others to restrict the top speed to 155 mph.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The suspension was also suitably modified for improved stability and handling to match the straight line performance of the car, standard Carlton / Omega Servotronic power assistance for the worm and roller steering was used as space and budgets precluded the development of rack and pinion steering.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

You could have your £48,000 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton or Lotus Omega any colour you liked so long as it was imperial green, which as can be seen looks black in any light other than direct sun light. Just 320 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton’s were built and 630 Lotus Omega’s.

Thanks for joining me on this “Imperial Green” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Coffee, Croissant & Cars #3 – Avenue Drivers Club

Last Sunday being the second Sunday of the month it was time to amble down St Micheal’s Hill towards Queen Square for another Avenue Drivers club meeting.

Where I was greeted Ted who brought along his DP Motorsports tuned Porsche 993 GT2 which came complete with matching yellow dash instruments. If your looking for photographs of old competition cars in action Ted’s Ferret Fotographics is a great place to start.

Keeping the Lanchester flag flying at the Avenue Drivers Club was this 3 liter / 183 cui 1925 Lanchester 21.

With signs of tyre rub on both sides to the bumper there was no doubt this Porsche Boxster prepared by Porscheshop and driven by novice driver Stuart Ings. You can see an in car video of Stuart in action at Oulton Park a couple of weeks ago on this link.

Flying the flag for Jaguar was this lush E-type.

This Austin 10 motor powers an Austin 10/24 Ripley sport that is a regular at Avenue Drivers Club meetings and was featured in GALPOT blog early last year.

I’ve been meaning to write a blog about this Triumph GT6 Mk II for some time, it was great to see and hear it last weekend.

BMW had originally intended their entry level 8 series cars to be powered by 3 liter motor’s however it would appear they decided better of it by allegedly chopping most of the 18 built up and introducing the 4 liter V8 powered 840 Ci instead. Above is one of the last built in 1999 with a 4398 cc / 268 cui V8 with 5 speed automatic transmission.

The Spirit of Starsky and Hutch is obviously alive and well in Bristol, for the second time in two days I saw a vehicle with a laser stripe ! Above on a humble Golf III.

Entering into the ranks of classics, 20 years old this year, is the immaculate Vauxhall Nova Spin above, a badge engineered Opel Corsa which like it’s German badged counterpart was built in Spain.

I first came across this wailing Ferrari F430 on my way to Sherborne Castle last month. The owner had just spent a considerable sum on a new exhaust, however the vacuum operated exhaust valve had been plumbed incorrectly and still needs sorting out, meantime the exhaust volume has been set permanently at volume 10 !

Representation of two wheeled transport was very thin last week, however these matching Suzuki RV 125 VanVan’s reminded me of my schooldays, an older lad had one imported from Japan in the mid 70’s when RV 125’s were powered by two stroke motors.

This 1997 TVR Cerbera powered by the larger 4578 cc / 279 cui TVR V8 motor turned up late in the morning just as I was leaving. The Cerebra name is derived from Cerberus the mythical Greek three headed beast that guarded Hades which is fitting for a car that is considered a three plus one thanks to it’s front passenger seat which moves further forward than the drivers seat to afford the rear passenger behind a little more leg room than on the drivers side.

Thanks for joining me on this Coffee, Croissant & Cars #3 edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Opel Manta i200

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With the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz almost over, closing date for entries is this Sunday, it’s time to return to shake off the cobwebs and return to blogging about all things motoring. To start the New Years blogs I am looking at a hot version of the Opel Manta B the i200.

The second incarnation of the Opel Manta known as the ‘Opel Manta B’ was launched in 1975, and like its predecessor was based on the current model Opel Ascona saloon / sedan, the ‘B’ version of which was also used as a platform for the British range of GM products the Vauxhall Cavalier.

Confusingly for the automotive historian the Opel Manta ‘B’ and first generation Vauxhall Cavallier all featured a droop snoot nose while the saloon / sedan Ascona ‘B’ featured a common to period blunt nose.

In 1979 Opel started a rally competition program for both the Ascona and Manta models with the ‘400’ suffix added to competition variants of both models. This competition program led to several limited production runs of hot versions of the road going Manta’s being produced including i200 seen here which was manufactured in 1984.

‘i’ was a common suffix at the time usually signifying a vehicle fitted with a then less than common fuel injection system, while the i200 certainly had a 1979 cc / 120.7 cui overhead cam four cylinder motor tuned to produce 125 hp, the ‘i’ in i200 stands for the German tuning firm Irmscher who along with Cosworth were responsible for producing the competition versions of the Manta. Irmscher are credited with producing the body kit comprising rear spoiler and side skirts of the i200 model.

Of the 700 Opel Manta i200’s manufactured just 25 are thought to have been made in right hand drive form for the UK market most like this one in Arctic White with racing stripes as used in period by the Rothman’s cigarette brand which sponsored Opel’s competition program.

The Manta which was available in notch back as seen here or hatchback bore a passing resemblance to the larger contemporary Chevrolet Monza.

Thanks for joining me on this Irmscher edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Fahr’n Fahr’n Fahr’n – Opel Manta S

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In 1982 I found myself studying at Paderborn University, Germany as part of an exchange programme from Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, England not far from where my cousins lived, one weekend I hitched over to visit them to find that one of them had bought a ten year old Opel Manta similar in colour to the ’73 model seen here at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, but with the bigger 90 hp motor and if I am not mistaken a vinyl roof.

On the Sunday my 19 year old cousin kindly offered to spare me the hitchhike back and gave me a lift in his car, not only that but he pulled in at a service station on the A44 Autobahn and let me drive the car the rest of the way back to college.

It was an unforgettable drive, the first time I had driven on the wrong side of the road, the first time I had driven a car with a gear stick on the wrong side and perhaps most importantly the first time I had legally driven at an indicated 165 kph ! Just over 100 mph.

The experience was terrifying, thrilling, liberating and mesmerising in equal measure, I did not want the journey to end, not unlike the early techno pop song Kraftwerk song Autobahn.

Opel’s fastback Manta was based on the more mundane saloon / sedan Opel Ascona though it was actually launched in 1970 some months before the bread and butter Ascona model.

Manta’s and their drivers are popular objects of fun in German culture with drivers being characterised as wearing shades, that why Manta’s need 8 head lights, gold chains the only thing that remains when a Manta burns and having red rally stripes on the walls of their garages because Manta drivers forget to pull their arms in when driving into said garages.

The first series Manta was in production up until 1975 with examples being sold in the United States through Buick Dealers. I don’t think you need to understand too much German to understand how the Manta was marketed in this link.

Thanks for joining me on this Manta edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Get Smart – Opel GT

Opel is the German brand name used by GM since it acquired the Opel manufacturing operation in 1931. The Opel GT owes it’s origins to the 1965 Opel Experimental GT concept car that predates the similar British GM Vauxhall XVR I looked at last week by a full year.

The GT show’s some styling influence from the ’68 Corvette thanks to the work of GM Styist Clare MacKichan. The GT had pop up lights that were hinged on a longitudinal axis so that they opened out from the centre using a leaver in the cockpit. Allegedly this was a difficult manual task to perform.

A choice of either 67 hp or 102 hp motors was available with the GT most of the GT’s were sold with the larger motors which has made those with the smaller motors very much more collectible today.

The steel bodyshell for the GT was manufactured in by French locomotive manufacturer Brissonneau & Lotz, the motors and running gear came from more mundane Opel family models in particular the Kadet ‘B’, the round rear lights came from the Opel Record.

Opel GT’s were distributed by Buick in the USA and when Buick took over sponsorship of the series in 1969 and 1970 Maxwell Smart was issued with a Gold Opel GT to replace his earlier Sunbeam Tiger and Volkswagen Karmann Ghia transport.

Unusually for a company associated with producing family transport the Opel GT was an uncompromising fast back with not boot, the only space for luggage was on the parcel shelf that covered the spare wheel in the back and the only access to it was through the side doors. On the other hand the diminutive design could comfortably accommodate some one 6’ft tall.

This 1971 model seen at Goodwood revival is one of 99,863 models sold between 1968 and 1973 with the larger motor. An additional 3,573 Opel GT’s were sold with the smaller motor. A bargain basement GT/J version was available through the later years of production which had most of the bright work deleted.

Thanks for joining me on this Fastback edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !