Tight back seat, thanks to the rakish roof. As a kid, I took note of it’s relatively good quarter mile performance–under 19 seconds in C/D, and R&T confirms. You summarized the Car & Driver Road test conclusion: not a bad car, but not quite an Opel either.Ĭ/D did take note of the “Jaws” grille. Hey, I was waiting for this car to appear here! The coupes get quite good money now, and for once, I get it.īuick (a tank), Isuzu (you did what?) and Opel (cheap jewellery). I’ll add that this particular two-door bodyshell is not photographed in these pics to show it as the pretty thing it actually was, especially without the doorstop bumpers. My sister owned just this car, in two door form, in about ’84-’86 or so, and it really was rather nice. Why wasn’t this unstellar, but decent and fully existing car enough, rebadged appropriately? One of the GM mysteries to me is why it needed such faffing and fluffing and re-seating and dashing to become the (what’s been reported often enough here as) execrable and ill-timed Chevette. Certainly, the Golf was a better car, but a scientific 93% more fragile. Really not at all a bad car in it’s time, with such attributes, it’s understandable it sold thus. That body, dashboard, level of performance and nimble handling is what we got here in ’75, and it became the best seller of small cars for some years (sold as a Holden Gemini). I last shot it in 2015 (above), but I saw it again just a week or so ago, looking even worse for wear, but still clattering along and trailing a small cloud of black smoke. And although it looks like hell now, almost ten years later I still see it once in a while. I first shot and wrote up the Isuzu version, the I-Mark, way back in the early days (2009), a diesel. But there’s no denying that it was well built, like all Japanese cars of the time. So yes, the Opel by Isuzu is not quite as competent and refined in some of the details. The Opel 1900 (Ascona) and Manta were in a class above the Kadett, so to start with, it’s a bit of apples and Japanese plums. R&T’s conclusion is foregone: it’s not a bad car, but it’s not quite it’s predecessor either. The Isuzu Gemini was of course essentially an Opel Kadett C, although with a totally different drive train and a number of other changes. It tried selling badge-engineered Isuzu models starting in 1976 and left America in 1979.When the weakening dollar made the German Opel 1900/Manta too expensive to import anymore, GM looked to its affiliate in Japan for the replacement. In the United States, sales of German-made Opel models ended after the 1975 model year due partly to exchange rate-related issues. Annual sales peaked at 93,520 units in 1969, so Opel was never big enough here to create annoying internal competition for other General Motors brands or to keep European rivals up at night. Models like the Rekord, the Kadett, the GT, and of course the Manta were sold and serviced through participating Buick dealers across the nation. Opel is normally lumped into the forbidden fruit basket, but it began distributing cars in America in the late 1950s. The two semifinal rounds are scheduled to take place on October 28 and November 4, and the grand finale will be held on November 13. To earn this honor, it will need to outscore a wide selection of cars including a custom-built roadster named Lulu the Speedster, a 1941 GMC Baja truck, a 740-horsepower 1969 Dodge Charger, and a chopped Ford Model A. The Manta will compete against previous 2021 Legends Tour winners for a spot in the Hot Wheels catalog - and for the right to end up on book shelves, on office desks, and in toy boxes around the world. Unmodified, the four-cylinder sent about 81 horsepower and 96 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels. Hot Wheels notes the Manta is still powered by the factory 1.9-liter four-cylinder engine, so you won't find a Godzilla V8 under the hood, but there's no word on whether it's stock. They also removed the rear bumper and the side-marker lights and installed newer sport seats upholstered with leather as well as Bosch gauges. Liem and Currie added 15-inch wheels, a lowered suspension system, a front splitter, and an ATL fuel cell, among other aftermarket parts.
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