Never saw a Japanese car badged as an Opel. All that I ever looked at were from Germany. Was told by a German foreign exchange student in high-school that, "the Opel is considered a quality sedan in Germany, not like the POS you have here.." I had a 59 Rekord sedan; it was the first car I ever rolled. A year before I got my drivers license :error: . 3 on-the-tree. Had dreams of putting a v-6 or 215 into it till I wrecked it. I knew of only one other for parts even in 1983. Never saw one of that vintage on the road. That thing had body-roll like nothing else I've ever driven.
The reputation of Opel changed dramatically over the decades. In the 50ies and 60ies Opel was considered top-luxury (called Kapitaen, Admiral, Diplomat). The first ones after WWII looked like Cadillacs and later on showed some resemblances of Chevy and BOP. American style, enough hp but more affordable compared to American brands. Back then Opel was competing against Mercedes! BMW was more into small cars and there was no real Audi around as we know them today. By the (late) 70ies the Opel line-up degraded as much as the GM mother company's brands did. Uninspired design, poor engeneering, old techniques and too slow to keep up with the emerging rivals from Japan and/or other German brands. By todays standard a Volkswagen is considered as much higher quality in all aspects than Opel. As Eric put it, they are considered old-people cars now. The Opel Adam is one effort to turn this around. While the Opel GT made some sense in the German/European market I don't see a point in exporting them to the US where you can have the original for reasonable money. As every late 60ies grocery getter would be able to outrun you I trust it wasn't very succesful. Patrick
In 1970 I bought a complete 327 engine for $25.00 from a friend and it came with the double hump heads but was not fuel injected. As far as I could tell the engine was all original. The local guys referred to heads marked that way as fuelie heads and they were what everyone looked to get if they were going to start a rebuild. Maybe we were wrong but they were commonly referred to as "fuelie head" by a lot of people.
I still haven't ever seen one Diego. Only a bad copy of an old advertisement for one. (Just being as literal as you are about the "fuelie" head issue. I agree that while inaccurate from a literal standpoint, "fuelie" is/was a common misnomer applied to the double-hump head. )
I remember these cars well, but the rate of attrition hasn't been kind to these. Probably for good reason. I think when Isuzu started importing cars in the US, its I-Mark was an improved version of this. And then we got Chevy Spectrums and others for awhile till they pulled out of the US market.
The Isuzu Opel was a '76-'79 product marketed by Buick, made in Japan, at that time GM owned ~38% of Isuzu, was basically a Chevette built in Japan imported to the US and got 30MPG easily with the stick version. How do I know, cause I owned one! The '76 version did not say Buick on it, but the later models did. 2 door Stick out the door with no radio was $3106 cash, in mom's name, I paid for half of it, the other half I had in the bank went to tuition and room and board for my last semester in college. Brought it to Michigan as NY winters had already taken it toll on it, accidents both fenders had to be fixed, etc. Could have traded it in on a new Riv and got most of my $$ back but the Riv was going to be as much as my apartment rent, so declined that and sold it outright, but the rest of the story is 30+ yrs long so I'll spare you that story for another day. But while waiting for parts from Japan, a '68 GS350 4 speed became the replacement that I still have!!
Thank you! They first came out with the double hump heads in 57 or 58 mainly with the fuel injected (283ci/283hp) Vettes in mind which is why most people refer to them as fuelie heads. They also used them on the 2X4 245 and 270 hp engines. In the 60s they used them on just about every engine that was 300 hp or more. No doubt that 98% of them went onto non fuel injected engines. I have a 70 Vette that is a number matching NCRS show winning car, 350hp 350 that has 2.02 double hump (fuelie) heads and it has a quadrajet on it. The end!!!
Are you guy's arguing about Camel Hump heads? Heard of them referred to as Camel humps,camel backs,double humps,2.02 camel humps,etc. but NEVER as fuelie heads. The only way they would be called that is if they were on an engine stamped as a F.I. engine, with a matching Fuel Injection unit:Smarty: I've never seen or heard a person point to a pair sitting somewhere and say.."Look, Fuelie heads!"
Well this is an interesting thread to read since I own 5 Opels. I also own a 69 Skylark and enjoy them all. :grin:
X2 I've only called and heard them called double camel hump heads or double hump heads. It must be because we're from MI and we know better.:Brow::laugh: Derek
Perhaps you all think we are insane, but we bought a Buick Opel Coup 1976 and shipped it to the Netherlands
In 1972 I wanted a GSX but couldn't afford one so bought the next closest looking thing. ou: 255K miles later I still have it..... Opels were at Buick dealers to sell if someone couldn't afford a real Buick. Dealers didn't really want to sell them but a sale is a sale.
Impressive that you got that much out of a Manta! I've got relatives who had them and weren't so lucky!
Opel is GM in Europe. They made a full line of cars including Diplomats and Presidents that were luxury cars with V8 (327 Chevys with 202 heads). Unfortunately, they only exported the small cars to the US to compete with VW in the US market. I had a 1975 1900 sedan after I got back to the US that was a nice car. It was on the same platform as the Manta the was the only year they came with Bosch Fuel Injection. The weak point was the differential, it kept eating pinion bearings.
