Sitting in the same Opel room of the Visscher Classique car museum in the Netherlands, the Opel Rekord and Opel Commodore GS/E couldn’t be further apart. In their day, the oldest was always acting calm — it simply had to — whereas the younger one was more hot-tempered and had to perform under stressful conditions.
This is 1965 Opel Rekord A Coupé with a 60 DIN-hp, 1.7-liter (1,680 cc) four-cylinder. The car has spent its entire life in the Netherlands.
Feeling stressed out? Sit down and unwind.
Displayed on the opposite side of the room was this replica of a Commodore B Coupé 2800 GS/E racing car. The Opel competed in a 1975 Touring Car Championship in Europe, following the FIA ‘Group 1½’ regulations. It participated under the flag of the Dutch National Racing Team.
Many parts and components of the original racing car were used in the whole re-creation process, the job was completed around 2008.
Some identical Commodores for the same championship were built by Vic Heylen, a renowned Opel tuner from Belgium. Plentiful information about the man and his machines can be found on the web. His tuning house is best known for the TE 2800, the most brutal Opel Manta A ever.
Opel’s 2.8 liter, CIH inline-six engine in these fast ‘n furious Commodores was good for 209 DIN-hp with a Bosch injection system and 216 DIN-hp with Kugelfischer Einspritzung.
A splendid action motion picture of the Commodore 12.
Step in and put the pedal to the metal grandpa!
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1965 Opel Rekord (A) – That European-American Feel (with links to other Rekord articles)
Car Show Outtake: 1976 Opel Commodore B Coupe GS/E – My CC Holy Grail From Rüsselsheim
That 65 is lovely in all its originality.
Plastic wood trim in a racing car…..a first time for everything!
The 1965 car (which is more of may bag, to be honest) has so many Vauxhall styling cues – it even looks like a giant Firenza coupe – it could only be a GM car. Or maybe the Vauxhall has Opel cues……your call!
‘Plastic wood trim in a racing car’
It’s a Commodore, Roger, an upgraded Rekord. I bet a contemporary Opel Rekord D racing car didn’t have it…