The Opel Manta, and its 1900 (Ascona) siblings, was a deceptively good car, despite not being really exceptional in any blatant way. It was the sum of its parts, as a well-engineered German car, and its single greatest asset was its handling, which was universally praised. On the other hand, its straight-line performance was always just adequate, but these Opels proved an important point: When everything else works well, and the car is a pleasure to drive, power is not the be-all. But in 1975, the Opels got Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection, which upped power a tad, and improved driveability.
It didn’t make the Manta any much faster, but in the face of increasing emission regulations, it showed that there was an alternative to engines being strangled and enfeebled, like so many American ones at the time.
Here’s my CC on a Manta that’s really resolved any performance issues.
The Chevette, as Buick builds it. ?
The Vega that should have been.
I was playing with the Kadett T-Car heritage, I’m not sure how much of that platform is in the Manta’s DNA, But the windshield and steering wheel are familiar. I won’t deny that this car mechanically is superior to the Vega, But Dammit, The Vega was IMHO purttier!? YMMV!
Very nice car for the times and something of a competitor to Ford’s Capri. Unfortunately the appreciation of the D-mark would make the Opel less competitive price-wise in the North American market in the coming years.
And now GM wants to sell Opel to PSA…kinda sad.
Bitchin’ Manta!
Bitchin’ Manta!
Just doesn’t have the same ring to it…
+1?
I just came to the realization that only on C.C. can I make a reference to a 1931 Buick ad campaign,, Then see a reference to “The Dead Milkmen” all in a thread about a mid ’70s German car. Man, Is this the coolest car site! ?
The last gasp of an era when German cars were still an option here for regular folks, instead of just a status symbol for the rich. And now GM is getting rid of Opel!
Happy Motoring, Mark
So the Gen 1 VW rabbit and all of its water cooled brethren and subsequent generations somehow don’t count as German cars for regular folks?
VW quality plummeted during the ’70s, and then some became ‘American’ cars for awhile after the exchange-rate forced them to build in the US.
Happy Motoring, Mark
The Bosch L-Jetronic Manta is one of the few highlights of the dark automotive days of the seventies, sort of a poor man’s BMW 2002. Unfortunately, it came at a price, and the strong Deutsche Mark meant 1975 would also be the final year for the sporty German Opel in the US. R&T only mentions the $450 price increase over the 1974 version in passing, but it wasn’t an inconsequential sum at the time and almost certainly had an impact on withdrawing the car from the US market. It’s also amusing how R&T says the ‘only’ options are sunroof, A/C, tinted windshield, rear window defroster, vinyl roof, and radio. To put the price of the ’75 Manta into perspective, the same year V8 Camaro could be had for $26 less, probably much less as I would guess Chevy dealers would be much more willing to haggle on the selling price of a domestic versus an imported German marque.
It’s a real shame because, even with some odd decontenting (no tachometer?!), it was the best version of the sporty Manta.
Had an older Manta Rallye I got off a Nashville lot in the mid-’70s, flaming orange with that flat-black hood … and an automatic! That was my first autobox, and I had no idea how to take care of one, so the car’s tendency to die at idle after a run in cold weather probably had something to do with low fluid … The car’s dry-road handling was not the best of my experience but good enough to be enjoyable, and to invite long drives over country roads. In the wet it was a little tricky. On ice it was too damn scary to be lethal, because I was afraid to go fast enough to hurt anything. A slight change in the road’s camber, for instance, caused the back end to make a sudden swoop that turned us clear around, at maybe 35 mph. I think only my brother’s Gremlin was worse on ice and snow, and that only because it was a lot heavier.
Aside from that, the only handling oddness it displayed was a bit of rear-wheel steering on the occasionally lumpy Tennessee blacktop roads, mostly frost-heaves, and that was due to the rather quirky rear suspension setup. The Volvo 122 I traded it in on had similar waywardness in the rear, but little of the same tricky behavior on slippery stuff. But then you’d expect a Swedish car to be okay on winter roads, wouldn’t you?
An interesting thought, what if the US manufacturers had correctly used their European arm to supply what came to be known as captive imports, and done so sooner? We had the Ford and GM products coming into the USA from the 50s, albeit with very few takers. Chrysler owned Simca/Talbot/Rootes, and would have had a chance as well. If the big 3 had swallowed their collective pride and instead of trying to engineer and build small versions of American cars, they could have just brought over the successful, proven small models from Europe. They could have brought over tooling when the currency made direct importing cost prohibitive. This may have slowed the Asians down in getting such a toehold into the American market when the first gas crunch hit. Oddly, the european market may have seen more Detroit iron, as they would have been incented to use the boats going back to Europe after delivering instead of deadheading them back empty. Cheaper American cars may have tempted a German or English or French person to try that large Chevy, Ford, or Dodge. Cadillac and Lincoln may have got an owner who went with a Jag or Mercedes instead. Who knows? It would have made trade more interesting, no matter what.
Well, most of the american cars made in the 50s and 60s was way better than the European in many ways. They where way more reliable, more equipped, way quieter, way more comfortable and just better built. In the 70s that may changed some, especially with the small cars from Detroit who was badly built. Even so, the big american cars still reliable and comfortable, but with European gas prices, the norm for an european car buyer and driver was a little car with about 50 hp, when the smallest engine in your Chevelle was a I6, that was pretty much extreme luxury in Europe in the 50/60/70s and not for the average working class.
So even if we wanted these american cars, we couldn’t afford to run them at the time.
I read someplace that GM had looked at the Opal to copy but the machinery in the US couldn’t match the tolerances needed to produce it. Good ole USA car manufacturing creed in the 50’s – 80’s, build the parts loose enough and we can fit anything together. Many of the restored cars today are fitted together way better than they came off the assembly line new.
That was especially the case with the Admiral and Diplomat B. They just couldn’t build them conform the high standards of their former (we can safely say that now) German division.
Various US cars were actually assembled in Copenhagen up untill the late 1960’s early 1970’s. The interest for these cars here was severely cooled by the 180% import tax, which has to be paid regardless where the car is assembled.
Other than that, I agree with you. I had my present car shipped over on a roll-on/ roll-off ferry returning from Jacksonville, after having brought European cars to the US.
I had two 1974’s: a Manta and the Sport Wagon. Loved them both. They really were a less expensive version of the BMW 2002. I replaced the standard Solex carb with a Weber 32/36 DGV and took off the EGR system. That really woke up the engine which was stragled by the poorly designed emission system. A friend had a later 1995 Opel 1900 coupe with the Bosch fuel injection system. That Bosch system was light years better. It was just what these cars needed. The power delivery was much smoother and they ran great when cold. The only problem was that these were sold by Buick dealers who did not care for them and did not know how to maintain or repair them.
Interesting that the fuel injection resulted in a drop in fuel mileage. A quirk with the car they tested I wonder?
Road testers fault, it went better so they drove it harder getting worse fuel mileage.
Fuel injection wasn’t the only change- The final drive lengthened (which also should have increased fuel economy), weight increased and it appears the tires are larger.
Since nothing happens in a vacuum, it’s hard to determine if adding fuel injection led to a fuel economy drop.
22 MPG on a long road trip in a 1.9 stick shift sub 2400 lb car, and 19.5 average is incredibly low, unless that road trip was 80-90 MPH and around town driving was pedal to the floor most of the time.
Maybe the fuel injection and/or timing was not working properly.
It just shows how far we have come in, granted, several decades of development of the basic normally aspirated I-4 OHC gasoline piston engine, along with aerodynamics of car bodies.
Emissions standards were tightened, and with the exhaust gas recirculation, fuel consumption probably increased due to that.
This is my suspicion as well. L-Jetronic was fairly sophisticated, but this far back, I don’t think it yet had a lambda sensor for mixture control. Before feedback control, it was common to set the mixture fairly rich to bring down combustion temperatures and reduce NOx formation, which hurt fuel economy. Add to that the additional back pressure of an early catalytic converter and the extra weight and the decline in mileage becomes easier to understand.
Cars, like the Manta/Ascona and Cortina/Capri were mainstream in Europe. But here they were just ‘small’ cars. To US car makers, small cars were supposed to be cheap.
Many weren’t enthusiastic, or were unsure of how to sell cars like the Manta or Capri.
I think there was a lot of attitude that if you came into an American car dealer, and wanted one of the captive imports, you weren’t ‘someone who mattered’.
In the late ’70s, I owned an Opel Kadett.
I remember occasionally calling my local Buick dealer parts department, and the parts guys acted rude and surly, as if my call had ruined their day.
Happy Motoring, Mark
Buick dealers were the same way with Skyhawks and 61-63 Skylarks too. They looked at them as ‘junk’. Meant as ‘bait and switch’ items.
Parents had a ’75 Hawk and aunt/uncle got a ’61 senior compact Special. Uncle traded in for ’65 Fury. Though my dad just got bigger Buicks.
Opels were restyled and repowered with Holden engines for our market so very few arrived and none with fuel injection, GMH didnt invent fuel injection untill the mid 80s out this way.
Classic Opels from the seventies have a big following throughout northwestern Europe. A sporty Opel, the (young) working class hero & darling back then. Whether a Kadett, Ascona or Manta. (Photo courtesy of Opel Manta Club Nederland)
Along with the 1965-66 Kapitän/Admiral/Diplomat, these first generation Manta cars are the most well designed cars from the European GM Opel factory.
I had a 1974 Opel Manta Luxus, was even better with a Weber carburetor in place of the stock Solex. Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection could be a bit finicky.
The Manta A was a pretty car. But look at the noise numbers. 71 db at 50 mph. The luxury Lincoln Continental Town Car had 56 db in 50 mph in “road test”. Even a cheap Chevrolet was way quieter. The European never understood or paid attention to NVH, not until way passed the year of 2000.
So in 1975, the only way to get a tach option is to get the wagon?
I liked the looks of the Opel Manta back in the day and I still do. As a young guy, back in those days, any new car was out of the question. Saw a few around back then, but they never were great sellers.
I had a yellow ’74, beautiful styling in the tin and a fantastic driver. Did the Weber conversion and never looked back. They were very low geared and with 13″ tires they were spinning some rpm on the freeway. Probably why the low fuel mpg. Great cars.
In Germany back in the 1970’s a Manta driver was a concept.
“Why does a Manta driver wear a magnetic bracelet around his left wrist?”
“Because he wants to drive 110 miles/h with his left arm out of the open window.”
You could also recognize a Manta driver by the dead insects on his left elbow.
I tried out a Manta at the Detroit show. I remember the plush interior. I also remember my head hard against the roof.
TV ads for the Manta made me laff as the guy they showed driving it looked to have about 6″ of headroom. Thinking back, the guy in the Manta ad looked a bit like Ron Carey. Carey starred in the “Barney Miller” TV series in the late 70s…Carey stood 5’4″, which would have been the size the guy in the Manta ad would have had to be to have the headroom the ad showed.
Any word on the Opel history article?
Timely piece — just recently I saw a Manta parked at a gas station near here in Virginia. It’s been sitting there for a while, so my guess is that it’s waiting for some parts. I’ve never thought about what my favorite small car of the 1970s would be, but I think the Manta may be it.
Can you please post what issue of Road and Track this article was from?
July 1975
Thank you.
My first car was a 3-year-old Manta Luxus. It was a svelte 1973 model (USA 1974 models bore the clunky 5-MPH bumpers). I owned it for 5½ years, replaced the worn timing chain myself and all the other fun maintaining a points-type distributor engine required for proper running.
Reading the test review, no wonder it seemed kinda slow, slower than it looked with 80 HP or less. Also, without a tach I was afraid of overrevving it so probably short-shifted it a bit. I loved the steering feel, but not the body roll. All-in-all, I was proud of it and never got tired of its sporty Bertone-styled body. In fact, a Road & Track compendium of notable cars of each decade cited the “A” Manta as one of the best styling designs of the 1970s.
My best friend was impressed enough with it (and probably how I drove it) that he got a Rallye version as did my mother. Hers was orange. For a short time, all three of us had one which I found gratifying.
I still dream about that car. Someone’s found it in a barn/garage in good running condition and I get to drive it again. Actually, I sold it to my brother as a beater in the early 80s. He drove it a few months, then sold it to a friend who relegated it to a junkyard in St. Louis. I’d love to have it back.