Opel’s New GT Hints at Sky Red Line
If you were a child of the ’60s, the Opel GT was a car that probably stood out in your mind. It was 1968 when the first of these quirky little fastback-targa coupes with pop-up headlamps came off the boat from Germany, and they were the complete opposite of the kind of vehicles that parent company General Motors was selling at the time. And while it pint-sized inline-four was no match for the 454-cubic inch monsters that it was sold alongside in Buick dealerships, over 70,000 of these were sold in North America, making it Opel’s best-selling vehicle. And while the Opel brand name died a rather premature death in North America by 1973, the name of the sporty coupe continues to live on with enthusiasts.
Today, Opel lives on in North America - and not just on the jerseys of AC Milan soccer (er… football) fans’ - a good number of the vehicles that can be purchased in GM dealerships have been influenced significantly by GM’s European division. Cars like the Cadillac Catera and the Saturn L-Series sedan were Opel vehicles, reworked to American tastes, while others, like the Chevrolet Malibu, Saab 9-3, Pontiac G6, Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac Pursuit utilize platforms developed in conjunction with Opel and other GM brands. And, if you’re up on GM’s global operations, it should come as little surprise that many of the up and coming Saturns, such as the midsize Aura sedan and forthcoming Outlook crossover, have similar styling cues that can be traced back to Russelsheim, Germany.
To the delight of enthusiasts around the world, Opel has announced that it will be bringing the GT name back to life, and remarkably, it’ll be sold in North America; although it won’t be sold as an Opel. Instead, it will bear a tiny red square badge, as the GT is the forthcoming Saturn Sky Red Line model.
On first look, it makes perfect sense - aside from the ‘lightning bolt’ Opel badge, and a few reworked details such as cornering lamps integrated into the bumpers, the GT is a spitting image of the Sky, and as such, should provide us with a crystal-ball look at what the Sky Red Line will look like.
Pages: 1 2