Regarding Chris's "Girly Car" comments about the Opel GT, one has to consider the car at the time that it was new. Opels had gone from primitive little beepers ( I owned a 1965 Kadet), to much improved sedans and had their own showroom stock series (the Mantas, except for a really loose shift linkage, were quite good for the time). The Opel GT was a no-doubt-about-it, blatant attempt at copy/converting a Corvette into an English sportscar, but with a fixed roof and live rear axle. Think not? It had a transverse front leaf spring, very Corvette-like interior appointments (actually quite nice, as I recall), was tiny like an MG, got reasonably good MPG considering the little four cylinder engine, and looked like a Coca-Cola bottle with rockets strapped under it. It was actually quite an interesting car, AT THE TIME. I remember the White with Red Interior model and the Silver with Red interior model looking rather debonaire, at least compared to the boxy English and Italian cars of the time. There was a performance company called Steinmetz that had all kinds of goodies available for Opels. The neat thing about memory is that one can "return" to places or events in deep, HD TV color... I can close my eyes and put myself back in that long gone Buick-Opel showroom, walk over to an Opel GT, open the door and slip inside. Yeah.. not too bad! A neat car at the time. Dig the rich smell of vinyl! However, if we step out of that year and move the calendar forward only a few, we find ourselves in a Fiat showroom admiring an X/19. Now THAT was not just a neat little car, THAT was a handler! ...and if you wanted to make go quicker, Fiat/Abarth had about the largest supply of performance parts anywhere. Jerry aka LGO **************Check all of your email inboxes from anywhere on the web. Try the new Email Toolbar now! (http://toolbar.aol.com/mail/download.html?ncid=txtlnkusdown00000027)
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