(first posted 12/18/2013) Opel had a long tradition of publishing annual calendars from the 1940s through the 1970s. Martin van Dujin continues to scan and post his extensive collection of them at his Flickr site, and one can easily get lot in them; awesome photography and great scenery. A quick sampler is here for you perusal if you don’t have a couple of hours at your disposal.
In addition to the scenery and other distractions, Opels through the years are fun to look from an American perspective because they evoke so many of GM’s American products. Although Opel had a reasonable degree of autonomy, its clear that there were a lot of ideas flowing from Detroit. And Germans loved their Ami-esque Opels, which was once the second biggest automobile firm in all of Europe, before the VW Beetle spoiled it for them.
This late fifties Rekord was a popular export to the US, sold by Buick dealers.
There weren’t pretty girls in all the pictures, but I do like nice scenery like this shot on the Riviera, so…
One of my childhood obsessions, the Riesenrad ferris wheel in Vienna. Ah, to have driven there in that Kapitan…
This one has made the rounds on the internet. I don’t see any actual water at this pool, do you?
There’s a number of GT shots in the series, but I couldn’t resist this one.
Opel made trucks and buses too, of course. I have a thing about these old sightseeing buses with their panoramic windows and sunroofs. Memories of slowly crawling up an Alpine road in one…
Around 1966-1968, the Opel Kadett was the number two import car in the US. Hard to believe how quickly that evaporated. The Corolla stole that position in its second year, 1969. Finding a Kadett Rallye 1900 just like this one in Eugene has been one of the highlights of my CC career.
Can’t leave out the famous ice skaters shot.
What we knew as the Chevette was the Kadett City over there.
The big Opel Kapitan, Admiral and Kapitan of this era were particularly handsome, and the top versions packed a sweet 327 Chevy V8.
I’ll quit with this shot that is a sentimental favorite, because my Dad had the exact same car (Kadett A). But the setting is all wrong; he wouldn’t touch a fishing pole with a ten-foot pole. Back to reality…
Very few Opels out here but all of the Kadetts were here but as Vauxhall Vivas or later as Holden Toranas with 6cyl engines. The Chevette came here as a Vauxhall Chevette Holden/Isuzu Gemini. Australian Holdens from 64 -70 HD-HG were based on Opels including the legendary Monaro which was a 63 Opel commodore widened 6 inches and a Chev 327 installed no doubt cribbed from the bigger model Opel. GM has been badge engineering for decades but untill the internet has been able to hide it from most people.
I spent the whole evening looking at pix of ancient Opels. What really surprised me is that I recognized some of the Bavarian locations from the photo shoots! That was a great link!
Never knew the Chevette was a Opel. Had a baby blue two door in 75. Scrounged flee markets and never had a problem bring stuff home. Lots of room with the back seat down. Sold it my sister, she took over payments kinda, our older brother co-signed. The Chevette was trashed by the time my brother took it back. He drove it to work at Pontiac Motors. He got notes on the windshield “buy a Pontiac”. I’ve seen Pontiac Chevettes, maybe a Canadian model?
“Ponti-ettes” were Canada only at first, then in 1981, USA got them as the ‘T-1000’, whoo hoo! 😛
The hatchback Chevette was apparently a Vauxhall invention, a nice twist to differ the Vauxhall version from the existing Kadett.
The Brazilian hatch is very seemed to the Vauxhall version, here it was released in 1980. Although it was a gorgeous car, it never could reach the same success of the sedan version, but was made until 1986!
That’s his nose until 1983
And the latest one
If you look under the bumper the pressing has provision for a British size numberplate. On Opels the plates were placed above the bumper between the lights as per the calender photo.
That would be the Pontiac Acadian here in Canada. My mother considered buying one back in the day but bought a Dodge (Mitsubishi) Colt instead. I liked that Colt.
I love that “poolside” shot of the Opel GT. For some reason it makes me think of cocaine. I have the whole scene explained:
Guy to the left: “Do you want some coke?”
Blonde sitting down: “Nah, I had some for breakfast.”
Girl in the middle: “I wonder if that guy has some coke?”
Girl to the right: “Hey man, do you have some coke?”
Guy at the car: “Of course I have some coke. Right here in the back of my Opel GT.”
The Kadett ‘A’ looks like a near twin of the Vauxhall Viva (63-67?) I had a ’66 Envoy Epic which was a Canadian variant. It had the mini-Impala tail lights of the British Viva GT, whereas the Viva had the”lozenge style” of the standard British Viva.
You might like these CC posts:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1966-vauxhall-envoy-epic-an-epic-find-and-an-epic-beginning/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/the-corporation-the-story-of-my-father-a-gm-executive-part-3-viva-russelsheim/
I like the photo by the Riviera with the pretty ladies and the color scheme seems to be mostly tan. That Opel looks like a 48 Chevy Sedan and these days resting on body panels will dent them.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Opel-11.png
I have done the same thing as those three people and the Green Opel several times. However, the scenery was not as nice.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Opel-15.png
Is that person holding a Playboy?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Opel-12.png
Nice Toboggan photo, I also like the chains on the rear tires, one would think Opel Corporate would have wanted them removed since when was the last time you saw car advertising with chains involved?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Opel-7.png
I did not realize ladies shaved their legs back then. The car looks like a Chipmunk with its cheeks full of nuts.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Opel-13.png
How does one get a ten foot fishing pole into the Opel anyway? Seeing that car makes me want to watch a TGUK Africa Special.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Opel-Kadett-A.png
I love that 2nd picture! A serene Bavarian countryside. It’s similar to how I picture the village where my relatives came from. It’s a shame I don’t know of the actual name of it, as the only record I have is on an early 1900s census where the handwriting is impossible to make out.
That’s actually Heiligenblut, in Corinthia, Austria, with the Grossglockner in the background. But there are similar scenes in Bavaria, although it’s generally not quite as steeply Alpine there.
How impossible. Do you have a photo of it?
If you mean the village, I don’t have any pictures of it. My great-grandparents emigrated from Germany in the 1880s, so sadly no. The photo copy of the census I have no idea where it is, haven’t seen it in years.
What happened was when asked where they were born, they wrote the village they were born in, then crossed it out, as the census taker wanted the country of origin, not specific place. From what I could make, it looked something along the lines of “Biddenhausen”, “Bindenhausen”, “Buddenhausen”. I’ve researched many iterations of that, changing letters countless times but have had no luck. It’s probably some obscure village, maybe even a part of a larger town.
If you have anything to show, maybe I can help. I’ve been doing some ancestry research myself as well, plus I live in Bavaria. Maybe I could identify the locality somehow.
I’ll try to find it if I can. If I still have it, I have an idea of where it is (moved 2 years ago, so a lot of papers were thrown out).
There could be an additional problem, Brendan. Back in the 70’s there was a reform that conglomerated many small villages into new entities in order to shrink the number of local governments. This eliminated many names of small villages as they became secondary. It is conceivable that you already used the correct name of the village but Google may be ignorant of it.
Great pictures. I remember those late 60s Kadetts. That picture with the ice skaters makes it look like Opel is german for Oldsmobile.
Nice cars,the most common Opels seen in the UK were the 70s Manta twin of the Cavalier.I really like the Kapitan
Perhaps the author of the infamous Opel Kadett assassination for Car and Driver was just jealous of the guy in your lead photo!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/the-opel-kadett-asassination-by-car-and-driver/
That’s not the same Ferris wheel that was in “The Third Man” is it?
Alistair
Wikipedia (link) says Yes it is!
One of my all-time favorite movies. The music is great, for one thing; nothing but somebody playing the Zither.
Zither music by Anton Karas. A bit of personal trivia relating to the movie, Callahan’s driver, played by Bernard Lee (who went on to play “M” in the Bond movies) wore a leather jerkin in much of the movie. I was given such a jerkin earlier this year. Now I need a jeep.
Alistair
Wow, what great time-warp pics/ads… the cars and the people.
I don’t know about anyone else, but on my quick first glance… the front-end of that black or navy Kapitan? above (below the orange Kadett), hit me with shades of a 1967 Cadillac.
Anyone else see it, or I am just ‘Cadillac on the brain’?
Interesting that you in particular would pick up on that car. Did you know that GM gave very serious thought to using it as the basis for the ’75 Seville? Seriously.
But one of the reasons they decided not to was because its body gaps and other tolerances were so tight, the GM-Fisher Body execs said that they would never be able to build it (properly). Yes, that might have been the Seville, with a deDion rear axle, and very European feel and quality.
No, I did not know that, but it was very interesting to find this out. I’m gonna do some online searches, and dust off a couple of my old car/Cadillac history books to see what I can find. I would enjoy reading more about that time, and learning more about the big Opels.
I had only known of ‘talk’ of possibly using an Opel car as a basis, and years back, I remember seeing the (rather odd-looking to me at the time), LaScala and LaSalle prototypes for Seville. Those were said in the Hendry Cadillac History, to have intentional ‘Hooper-Daimler’ styling overtones.
After seeing that car in the photo above, there is now yet another added to my list of ‘want’, but most likely will never ‘have’.
Here’s more detail on the subject: http://ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/cadillac-seville/
Thanks, I think I ran across this article a while ago, but it will no doubt be very enjoyable for me to read all the way through it this time. I know I have been on his site before because I loved the very detailed story he did on the Oldsmobile Toronado.
So Paul, the dark car I mentioned that I like above, is it an Admiral, a Kapitan or a Diplomat? The article you linked to shows another one and says it is a Diplomat. It’s a bit confusing to someone like me who, until now, knew nothing about these particular cars.
It’s a Diplomat, by virtue of its vertical headlights. The lesser Kapitan and Admirals had horizontal headlights, and only sixes (see attached pic). I will eventually do a full CC on these very interesting cars.
Here’s the interior of a 1976 Diplomat V8, the top model Opel of the seventies.
I can see the ’67 Cadillac, but initially I saw my dark blue ’65 Riviera – with the clamshells stuck open, just like mine. The parking lights in the lower bumper are very Riviera. The Riv was another almost Cadillac, so it all makes some sense.
Those were European Gangsta’cars avant la lettre.
A lot of bad boys drove these, before they turned to the BMW 2500 series.
These were cheap to buy used and cheap to maintain thanks to their US powertrain.
And very very fast.
I was thinkign it looked more like a Super Nova.
This reminded me that I had taken some pictures last week of a rare Opel I saw recently, at least rare for Seattle. It’s a Rekord 1700 shooting brake.
Great find! I’ve never seen a Rekord that vintage in the US, even back when they were new. Do you have some more shots? Could you send them to me? I’d like to do a CC on it.
If so, end them to me here: curbsideclassic(at)gmail.com
Wonderful comments, but please see this for appropriate music!
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWd6oyQx7Fg
Pic. # 2 ~ I love it and wish I had that car .
Pic. # 8 ~ Paul, you’re a bucky lugger for sure .
-Nate
I owned a 1972 Opel GT for a short time during a quite annoying winter in Springfield Mass. in 1974. Bought a new Toyota Corolla in its place just for some better traction; more room in the trunk for cinderblocks. (One hasn’t lived until one has tried driving a GT up, or – worse – DOWN Springfield streets in the dead of winter.)
Don’t get me wrong, the Opel was a great car. Good for dates! (Bad for making out on said dates. 🙂 ) The Corolla turned out to be a big improvement, even though I traded sensuous styling and a 1.9L engine for a stodgy little 2DR sedan with a 1.2L powerplant and a 4spd…and reclining seats, and surround-sound stereo I installed shortly after purchase! (I wasn’t COMPLETELY bereft when it came to the creature comforts LOL). TBH, my social life improved immensely once word got around about my little slug. 😀 (Its social amenities didn’t depend upon its assets while in motion, but while at rest. 🙂 )
I guess the guys at Opel thought GM had gone too far with the 59- 60 Chevy , or they never got a chance to catch up.
Miss my 1974 Manta Rallye that I bought cheap after they stopped importing Opel from Europe. I think GM made a mistake to sell after not using Opel based designs as much as they might have lately. Heard they lost 20 billion in recent years. That Manta was the most trouble free car I ever owned. Handled great too! Rust killed it though. Lived on city streets in the snow belt its entire life. Why didn’t they build more of the Opel models here, like they did with the Chevette?
The car in the ice skaters pic seems to have a surprised look on its face, as if it didn’t expect to see so much leg !!!
Love those Opels. Too bad they lost their way and ended up being sold to the French.
Great shots! Lederhosen and Dirndl, how idyllic!
You wrote: “The big Opel Kapitan, Admiral and Kapitan ” I believe one of the Kapitans should be a Diplomat.
Great to see these again, and what wonderful shots and artwork!
I don’t imagine I’m the first one to do this photochop. The Opel’s eyes say it all, but it just needed that one little addition…
This pair of GTs showed up at the German show at the Gilmore this year. Sounds like they were pathfinders for a midwest Opel owner’s group as the organizers of the show promised that if they bring more Opels, they will open an Opel class for judging, rather than putting them in “Other” with the occasional Trabant or Amphicar.
Equal time for red GTs.
Rode in a GT once, back when the earth was young. As I recall it was cozy in there.
Back in my college, “buy-’em-cheap-‘n’-wear’em-out” years, my two extravagant purchases were a 1955 Packard Patrician (400 Series) 4DR sedan built like a Mosler bank vault…and a 1971 Opel GT. I spent the princely sum of $200 for each of them. The Packard actually got me a year’s worth of service, and I HAD to have been the ninth or tenth owner by 1974. The Opel, that was almost as much fun to drive as the Packard at first. It started out as being way more enjoyable, but daily-driveritis reared its ugly head. I wear size 14 shoes and have since I was 16…and wearing winter boots in that car’s cramped little footwell was quite able to overcome the hole in the Packard’s floorpan in terms of being a royal screaming pain in the drain. (Surprised the Opel didn’t have one, as it was already five years old and had body rot around both rear wheel wells.)
Don’t get me wrong, I liked the Opel a lot. It was a chick magnet, to use an over-used term. The Packard was the real magnet, though. That back seat was almost as wide as a bed was long, and more comfortable to boot. Best dates I ever had, at the Riverdale Drive-In! Besides, that front bench seat invited a cutie to slide over nice and snug. The Opel…meh. The console wasn’t conducive to close-order drill, if you get my drift. 🙁
My first car was a Patrcian, too. In 1970. When I think back on it, driving it should have required wearing a ship captain’s uniform.