I’ve never liked it when people say that they want a car that will “make them look good.” It seems like such a narcissistic thing to utter, but ultimately, I guess they’re being honest, and car companies certainly know that’s what people secretly desire from their car.
The image above certainly caters to such feelings in a buyer’s mind. No matter how “good” you look now, just imagine how irresistible you’ll be when you own a car that you can be parked on a pool full of … butterscotch, apparently? … without sinking in the slightest. The ladies appear to be in awe, likely saying things like “he’s holding a copy of Playboy, but based on his vehicle choice I can assume he is not a misogonyst and just reads the articles.” The dude on the edge of the pool can’t even bear to look. He could never be that cool.
Such powers are unlikely to be possessed by a vehicle, and even if they were I’ve never imagined that car to be an Opel GT. That’s not to say that this 1968-73 sports car isn’t cool, because it certainly is. If you ever wondered what a C3 Corvette would look like after going into the dryer, this would be it.
Also, if you were curious how an old Corvette would look if it were made of steel instead of fiberglass, here you go:
Yikes. There are a lot of odd quirks to this little German sports car, from the strange placement of the master cylinder to the odd looking air conditioning units that could be specified, yet the most intriguing to me was always the operation of the hidden headlights.
That’s right; these are not “pop up” lamps as much as they are “flip around” lights. What’s even more odd is that they are not operated by electric motors or engine vacuum lines. The driver simply muscles them into position by yanking a lever.
There’s the headlight lever below, looking very much like it could be a parking brake. When I was around ten years old, a neighbor owned an Opel GT and he let me sit in the car to operate the headlights; this moment still ranks somewhere above my marriage and barely below the birth of my kids as one of the greatest events of my life.
The e-brake lever is farther back. Yanking on one will cause you to go into an uncontrolled skid, while tugging the other will plunge you into total darkness. Best to leave each alone if you’re uncertain which is which while driving, please.
Who are we to criticize, though? What difference do ergonomics make if you can drive on butterscotch, right?
Or in much simpler turns, what can be done with a 1.3 liter in Europe, requires a 5+ liter V8 in the US.
Simply much less need to compensate over here.
‘This is the way the world ends’, T. S. Eliot tells us at the end of his 1925 poem, ‘The Hollow Men’: ‘not with a bang but a whimper.
These men clearly ended their photo shoot, not with a bang but a cacophonous lady giggle.
No matter how similar they look and how much that photo is trying, “GT gets ’em wet” just does not have the same ring to it.
I was influenced by these ads at the time. The polka dot bikini was the word.
Guy on the right looks like he’s wearing one of William Shatner’s old toupees. Guy on the left obviously feels like he doesn’t measure up, either involving what’s in the swimsuit and/or his perm. Hasselhoff would have been perfect for this.
He’s waiting for his sister to get out of the pool and unlock the door so he can get in and she can drive him back to mom’s in her chick vette.
The pool ladder looks like a walker, which really makes the pic far more amusing to me. He’s really clutching that thing and watching his step. Me, I’d have my eyes elsewhere for sure. 😀
Even stock they overheated badly, but I do know the LS will fit, much like a lot of cars. However, I have seen far more of them with early Miata drivetrain swaps, so I guess they can be made to be a bit more reliable.
I dunno, I guess it would depend on your defintion of “fit”. I knew an older guy back in the 80’s who put a Buick V6 in one, did a very clean job, and even that didn’t really fit well – seems that the Opel GT combination of a transverse-leaf front suspension and a very low hoodline makes almost any larger engine sit up so far that much of it hangs out of the hood.
I know the stock CIH 1.9L motor isn’t even a true OHC motor, the cam sits next to the valves in a unique configuration that gives you low engine height, and even then that hood blister is needed for everything to clear. I suppose you could build a whole different front suspension and drop an LS way down with a custom oiling setup, but holy shit would that be a lot of work.
The Blister was because of a carb sitting on a standard manifold. I think they could have done away with it if they had used side draft carbs. And although quite a few of the old v8 swapped Opels were goodguy fodder and sported uselessly gawdy blowers and no hood, the low profile LT1 LS motor fits without a lot of fuss, though I admit I am not 100 Percent if they massage the fire wall much or have to relocate some of the unique accessories like the brake booster and what not.
What’s under that cyst on the hood?
the carburetor
Seems like a missed opportunity to have the headlights turn different directions.
Meh, that would require less simplistic engineering.