Has anyone on the line ever placed a rotary 12 A in an opel GT? if so you can email me at lonesomebob@comcast.net Should make a neat little car and a sleeper too. Bob

 

I am In the process right now, 12a in 1969 opel gt roadster. so far only problem was shifter location. It had to be moved foward 4 inches. Should be fun in a 1300 lb car.
Zoomie

 

i've heard of people putting small blocks in those, death machine.

 

So, I'm curious: does the reliability go up or down when you put a wankel in an Opel?

All I know is my dad absolutely hated the GT my mom had, and he's owned a lot of shitty cars (including a fleet of Brit cars).

 

I just thought those cars were so cool when I was a teenager. You had your choice between an 1100cc engine that had absolutely no HP but made it up by being one of the least reliable motors of all time, or the "big block" 1900 that made almost enough grunt to allow the car to get out of it's own way. They looked good though - I think a rotary would be just the thing to make one fun. Oh, and I never saw a single example for sale used that the pistol grip, rotating hidden headlight thingie wasn't broken in some way.

(edit) And come to think of it, I had trouble fitting in one when I was a six foot, 168 pound 18 year old stick-figure. I'd probably need one bucket seat for each *** cheek now, and some serious headliner remodeling.)

 

yea theres a guy here in town with a blown 454 in an opel gt here

 

What's an Opel GT look like?

 

I kinda liked 'em in the 70's......I had a '70 Triumph GT6 at the time

The Opel was similar......hard top fastback touring style.

 

it somewhat lookst like the old corvettes. you can google it in the images, i personally think that its a hot car, then again i pretty much think anything thats within 50% of the rx7 style is sexy lol

 

When I was a kid we called them baby "corvettes." Looked a lot like a mini-Vette of 1968-70 vintage...

 

There is a member named 'opelbits'. He has a number of Opels.. You may wish to PM him.

 

http://images.google.com/images?q=Op...r=&sa=N&tab=wi

 

The Opel GT is one of the coolest looking cars ever! Damn, dude where did you find one? I LOVE THAT CAR!!! Can't wait for photos.

 

The GT's are all over the place, you cant give them away

 

Probably the only decent Opel of that vintage too. It always amazed me how well those held up when every other Opel I've seen was a rusted out beater that ran about as reliably as a Yugo with blown rings.

 

I followed the link above to the German site, and that silver GT with the monster rear fender flares was DEAD SEXY (rubbing nipples now). For those who are getting excited about seeing them for the first time - take whatever picture you have in your head and shrink it to about 65 percent of what you imagine. In spite of looking like Corvettes, these are REALLY TINY cars.

 

There was a SCCA guy in Indiana by the name of Don Kline that had an Opel GT with a Mazda rotary in it. I can't remember if it was a 12a or 13b, or what part of Indiana he was from. It has been 10 years since I have seen him.

You might want to check some of the SCCA websites for regions in Indiana, and put a a post on their forums. Go to:

http://www.scca.com/Inside/Index.asp...gionalwebsites

 

(after Tom's timely reference to my name,sound the trumpets as I arrive.....)

So much misinformation here...

Opels are actually one of the most reliable old cars you can have. Once you chuck the Solex carb into the dumpster. I had a 74 Opel Manta (same 1900, trans and diff as in the GT) that was over 220k when it got totalled. The drivetrain did another 6k or so in a GT before I bought a euro 2.0 for it. The trans has yet another 7k or so on it. (Plus, I drive the car hard. Lots of downshifting, high revs, hard braking. Every trip to work was a rally race.....) This kind of mileage is not all that uncommon for a cared for car. Most of the bad reputation came about the same way it did for many cars, you can't drive cars of this nature like they are a '62 Chevy. They are not maintenance heavy, but you do have do some of it. Unsympathetic, blockhead americans are to fault, not poor engineering.
A swap to a rotary will reduce reliability only to the extent of the natural reliability of the rotary. If you mod the rotary, all bets are off. Plus, my experience has shown me that as soon you start messing with stuff in any car, you start having issues because everything was happy where it was and now you've disturbed it. Ask anyone who has dealt with RX7 engine wiring harnesses. No problems before the harness was touched, little things start cropping up after it has been moved, pushed, pulled, etc.

Other than that, the cars are just about bulletproof. The later Opel Mantas and 1900's (Ascona) are much better handling cars than the GT.

The headlight mechanism is usually out of adjustment, rusted in the cable, or the front of the car was hit and it was set right. Not a big deal. Never had problems with my drivers.

There are a couple of threads here on the forum about Opels and rotarys, including a recent one by Rob.


"If you would like to know more about Opels, you can visit your local library, or you go here: www.opelgt.com ."