![]() ![]() was a welcome improvement, and the old Solex 2 barrel was junk. It didn’t feel like a small car, like the Asian “roller skates”,my old man called them. I liked the ones I had, and several friends had Mantas, with good results. Like the Capri, it was sold at dealers we trusted, and the Manta was a quality German car. To be clear, Asian cars were just coming on the scene, and peoples initial response was they were cheap, tinny death traps, that threatened our very way of life. You know, for a car you rarely see today, a lot of people sure have enough stories about them, and I’m no exception. So much for the Mexican genius´s performance, Opel finally being completely drained of reserves and the once proud esprit de corps of its work force having been thrashed, was sold, much like scrap metal, to Peugeot, which turned it into a joke of its former self. The beautuiful Opel Omega turned into a poor quality disaster. His first act was to prohibilt the German language in the board room (in a German company, in Germany)! This outrage was followed by his pressuring the supply companies to deliver at cut-rate prices, ringinig in a decline in quality, which in turn resulted in Opel losing its leading position in Europe and in fact resulting in inferior quality vehicles in the 21st.Century. The Opel bank account was regularly drained to benefit GM operations. After the war, GM abused them as a cash cow. Despite that, they built a great truck, the Opel Blitz and a line of very attractive, American inbspired cars. They were reduced to just another car company by GM. They also originated the 24.hours races on their own track, especially built for the purpose of testing their products for reliability. At that time, Opel was THE powerhouse of innovation, what with producing a rocket-engined airplanes and a gorgeous rocket powered motorcycle, THE technical marvel of the 2-wheeled world at the time. It looks like a nice one if the rust isn’t any worse than the left quarter panel. A 2,300-pound car doesn’t need 500 hp but a manual transmission would help this one scoot around a little better than the automatic would. The injectors have recently been replaced as well as a few other items and although there isn’t one word on how it functions, I’m assuming that everything works as it should. The engine is Opel’s 1.9L inline-four cam-in-head engine which had fuel injection and around 80 horsepower. Some of the simulated wood grain on the instrument panel appears to be fading or wearing off which brings me to a question: how do you redo that? I have a vehicle with similar fading wood grain on the dash that I’d like to redo. A 4-speed manual would be much nicer for driving pleasure. One thing I would change if I could: the GM THM180 three-speed automatic with a console shifter. I don’t know if I would change a thing, they’re beautiful whether they’re an exact match or not. The seats have been reupholstered and look great but I’m guessing they should be the color of the door panels. This particular car looks outstanding in most of the photos but there is a spot with rust showing on the bottom of the left quarter panel and the seller doesn’t mention rust in the listing. German imports were unusual partners for Buick dealerships but the company needed small and fuel-efficient vehicles and GM already was a player with Opel in Europe. The “Manta A” came out in the fall of 1970 for the 1971 model year and in the US they were known as the Opel 1900 for their 1.9L engines.īy 1973, the Opel 1900 Manta evolved into Opel Manta until they went away in 1975. And I thought that a 52,524-mile Manta was unusual to see. Russ showed us a similar car last summer here on Barn Finds, very similar, but with only 20,000 miles on it. Here is the original listing.īumpers notwithstanding, the Manta from this era was a knockout. ![]() This 1975 Open Manta is a beautiful design and the seller has it posted here on craigslist in Orlando, Florida. If I were to mention that we’re going to show a rear-wheel-drive German coupe from the mid-1970s, what’s the first thing that would come to your mind? Other than, “Why didn’t I buy a BMW 2002 when they were $2,000?” That’s the first one I would have thought about, too. ![]()
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