By: IOL Motoring Staff
Rüsselsheim, Germany - So sleek it’s almost a caricature, yet with old-school front mid-mounted engine and rear-wheel drive, this is Opel’s take on the sports-car of the future.
The Opel GT Concept, which will make its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, is a direct descendant of the Opel Experimental GT, the star of the 1965 Frankfurt Motor Show. Just one year after the the foundation of the first design studio run by a European carmaker, designer Erhard Schnell caused a sensation with his futuristic design statement, based on the proven platform of the Kadett B.
The reaction from the public was so positive that within three years the GT went into production almost unchanged and the rest, as they say, is history.
The GT Concept, like the 1965 Experimental GT, is a runner - in this case powered by a three-cylinder 1-litre direct-injection turbopetrol based on the engine used in the Adam, Corsa and Astra. Tweaked for this application to deliver 107kW and 205Nm, it drives the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox with paddle shift and an old-school mechanical limited-slip differential.
Given that the car weighs less than a ton in full street trim, it’ll hit 100km/h off a standing start in less than eight seconds and top out at 215km/h.
While the long bonnet and short rear deck, with no boot lid, over dual central tailpipes channel the 1960s original, the car’s detail work is pure New Millenium, with no door handles or external mirrors.
A rear-facing camera in each rear wheel-arch and and a monitor on either side of the cockpit provide wide-angled images with no blind spots, and you open the doors by pressing a touchpad integrated into the red signature line in the roof.
The doors, which extend all the way to the front wheel-arches, retract considerably into the space behind the front suspension as they open, so that even when opened wide, they don’t stick out very far - a major consideration in today’s crowded car parks - using a patented space-saving hinge design.
HOW ABOUT THOSE RED TYRES?
The side windows create a seamless transition from glass to the painted surfaces of the doors; Opel doesn’t say whether they can open or not, but it doesn’t look like it, while the windshield flows into a glass roof and on, over a brace bar that gives the appearance of a targa top, to the edge of the rear deck .
The adaptive headlights feature Opel’s IntelliLux matrix LED technology - already current on the new Astra - with integrated indicators.
The front tyres are a nod to the Opel Motoclub 500 motorcycle, which was considered very avant-garde when it was introduced in 1928, and which boasted a pair of bright red tyres .