Opel GT Europe bars

Text and photos: Geert Huylebroeck

At the beginning of the 70 years I was sitting at the table with my father as a teenage teenager. Our old Opel record was due for replacement and the decision had to be made soon. What would it be, a Toyota Celica, a Ford Taunus, an Opel Manta or the Opel GT? Then my mother settled in  the discussion mixed, the latter immediately dropped. Well, with 2 small children, the GT is not immediately the most practical of the series. It eventually became a Manta A but the Opel GT remained the favorite for me forever. 

And that Opel GT is still on my bucket list almost 50 years later. A couple of times it really didn't matter much, but there was always some reason not to do it anyway. Lack of space, money, time to restore, there was always something. I recently saw an announcement from the Belgian Opel GT club: they organized the 27 ° European bars, time to process my childhood tauma.  

Just this year it is 50 years ago that the first Opel GT was exhibited at the Brussels salon and a few months later the first were delivered. All the more reason to descend en masse to Wachtebeke, a municipality a stone's throw from the Dutch border. The club aimed at more than 200 participants and that number was certainly exceeded. Not only Belgians and Dutch by the way, also a lot of Germans of course but also some from France and didn't I see one from Sweden there either? I didn't count them right now, but it was a parking lot full there. Quite a few yellow, red and ocher colors together there. Each period has its fashion colors and white, black and gray were clearly not. 

Also remarkable that many of these cars were restored to their original state, the tuning and styling stores that you saw more a few years ago were almost completely gone.  In a separate area, you could look for the missing piece or some spare for, you never know, in the parts market. There too, in a tent some very rare models, such as an Opel GT Aero, with targa roof and built in 2 copies at the end of 1969 and built as an eye-catcher for the salons in anticipation of the Manta A that would attract attention a year later. Also an Opel motorcycle and some racing versions of the Opel GT, one packed with Irmscher parts and a Conrero. In 1970 GM Italy asked Virgilio Conrero of Turin to prepare their Opels for races. Conrero, one Alfa Romeo, man in heart and soul, initially saw nothing in a collaboration, but when he saw the Opel GT, he reversed his decision. The beautiful line and the mechanics seemed to him extremely suitable to use the car in the then GT class Group 4 up to 2.0 liters, both on the circuit and in mountain races. In 1971 he managed to win the “Targo Florio” for an army of Porsches. Anyway, nice stuff there. 

The weather was good and it was good to be there in Wachtebeke, nice atmosphere, nice line-up of a whole lot of nice GTs, also some new ones by the way, a snack and a drink.

What else should a person have? Um, for me a GT-ke then certainly…