What Is The Crash Test Rating For Opel Gt?

[gtmaxx]

WHAT IS THE CRASH TEST RATING FOR AN OPEL GT?????? please just guess and reply anyway.THANKYOU.

[hustlerzlife]

No airbags = terrible. But my friend got rear-ended in his GT by a drunk driver with a Ford Truck. Destroyed the car but the break away stearing column and stuff worked. He didn't even break any ribs.

[namba209]

Well, lessee. I was #5 in a 10 car collision on an I-5 on ramp. I stopped and didn't hit the car in front of me, until the cars behind couldn't/didn't stop. I watched the front bumper slowly creep up to the base of the windshield at each subsequent impact behind me. Got out and checked to see how the other folks were. Then played hello, getting out of bed for the next three days. Totalled my 71 GT, the only thing I was able to save was the Weber carb. Not a real fun day. The rear bumpers got bent up a bit but never got close to the fuel tank. The car just got about 3 feet shorter overall mostly in the front.

[jeff denton]

I would not want to crash one. I think they are a pretty well built car, but thirty years of wear and tear and corrosion have to seriously weaken them.
I feel safer in mine than any other car I've driven, but have done a few things to it in the interest of rigidity...
Where's that photo of one that rear ended another small car? The GT's nose went under the car it hit, ended up under it.

[slartybarfast]

Obligatory smart ass reply.

Better then a Ford Pinto worse then a Volvo 240.

[calvin]

Finally a subject where my expertise can help.
I bet I am the foremost authority on the high speed wrecking Opel’s at this sight though only Ascona and Manta's. A dubious honor.

I am sure the safe, safety factors have gone into the GT too. Having chopped up and disected a GT the firewall area and front are very very strong there are sever layers of folded stell you don't see till you start hacking

I can say that if you have a high speed crash (say at 80-90mph) the Ascona does what it is supposed to do. The hood pops off the engine and trany drop out the bottom and the part of the car you ride in rises up over the engine.

if you spin backwards into a wall and your floorboards are rusty it will pitch you and the seat out the back window... (moral here is wear a seatbelt and that won't happen)

Mantas are sturdy too the roof holds up well when you roll them over. the nose does tend to drag a bit when you go sliding along on the roof.

If you slide sideways into a tree they tend to bounce rather than wrap.

If hit form behind when you are stopped (this one wasn't my fault.. for once) by a drunk in v-8 car (in this case an opel admiral) going 85 it is possible to push the back bumper in to the back of the drivers seat... despite then having to kick out the front window to get out you make it out almost unscathed.


My rating the little buggers are lots stronger than they look.

Hit something head on very good
Get run into something going sideways... also good
Being rear-ended... fair to good

One bad thing is someone or something bumps you at above 80 they spin wildly. Also trying to bump someone like they do in NSCAR from the back to get them out of the way is more prone to cause you to spin than the car you bump.

You guys should just take my word on this don’t try it at home since none of the 4 opel's survived.

[baz]

as these cars were made befor crash test ratings were made we dont know but in europe the gt would get around a 1 in an NCAP test (best is 5, worst is 1) because they are pre crumpel zone cars and with the gt the nose is so low that it would lose points for pedestrian safty, the gas tank is too far back in the car and inside the passenger cell and untill the 73's no side impact bars in the doors

[oldopelguy]

Originally Posted by calvin If hit form behind when you are stopped (this one wasn't my fault.. for once) by a drunk in v-8 car (in this case an opel admiral) going 85 it is possible to push the back bumper in to the back of the drivers seat... despite then having to kick out the front window to get out you make it out almost unscathed.

How'd the Admiral make out in that crash Calvin, in case I'm behind you sometime trying to induce flashbacks....?

[calvin]

well I was stopped at the light.. it wasn't all that damaged they towed it the shop(and towed him to jail) cause the grill, radiator were gone along with the fenders but it was salvageble.. and german insurence pays for upgrades so I got reimbursed for all the parts I had put into it plus blue book. I made out like a bandit.

those 60 something admirals were tanks

[jmbinjax]

This doesn't answer the question but thought I'd share the story. I believe it was around '79 or '80. I had my first GT I bought from one of my older brothers. I was skipping school and I took my attention off the road when I saw my temp gauge jumping around. When I looked back there was big Ford wagon stopped. I couldn't stop and due to the GT's low-pointed front end it went right under the wagon. Fortunately, it was in town and speed was low. The wagon came to a stop on top of the hood after just bumping the windshield. Once a tow truck pulled the wagon off my GT I was still able to drive it - it flattened the tops of the fenders - completely detroyed front end but still driveable. Of course I had some explaining to do when I got home in the middle of school day. I had every intention on fixing it by replacing front end - never did - it's rusting away somewhere in PA.

[Paul]

My younger sister had a 74 Manta until an old man decided to run a yellow/red light at the intersection of HWYs 68 and 71 in Springdale, AR one Sunday morning. It was lightly raining and the truck was crossing her path from right to left at an oncoming 45 degree angle vs a pure 90 right angle. She was traveling about 40 mph and he was going about 45 to 50 as he speed up trying to make the green light. She hit him right about the drivers door, or should I say just under the door. If you look closely at the photo of the police photos you can see that the pick up went airborne and landed worng side up.

My sister was not wearing her seat belt but reached up and hugged the steering wheel just before impact. She had some brusing from the steering wheel and a small bruse where her head hit the windshield.

Obviously, the car was totaled, but I thought the drivers compartment held up well.

[ushawk1]

The '71 I bought has so much Bondo that a crash wouldn't even dent the car. No metal crumpling for me baby! The wreck would crack all the Bondo though; so my roof would cave in, and the fenders would fall off.

[timemachine]

Paul's pictures show the hood hooks doing their job and deflecting the hood from going through the windshield. Every accident is different, but the passenger compartment is completely intact in this case.

The only major Opel accident I faced was in a '72 Rallye when I was T-boned behind the driver door by an Audi doing 40-45. The pavement was wet, so the car spun more than 360 across the intersection. Like somebody else said it bounced more than caved. I pulled the dent, the doors still closed fine and straight and the car ran straight until I got rid of it.

That car was not rusted, and I'm sure I'd have fared worse in a patched car. Bondo is the opposite of protection and will very much compromise the structure and safety of the car. Even in the 70s, unibody cars were designed for structural integrity to survive a wreck.

[baz]

Originally Posted by ushawk1 The '71 I bought has so much Bondo that a crash wouldn't even dent the car. No metal crumpling for me baby! The wreck would crack all the Bondo though; so my roof would cave in, and the fenders would fall off.

our cars are a unibody and need to be steel to be safe , if you have bondo as a structural part of the car and get hit we will miss you and the local opelers will come to see you off
bondo does not crack in an crash it explodes and takes non of the energy of the impact out of the crash ,result one dead opeler + thousands innocent bystanders hit by shrapnel

[jeff denton]

I think I could make a GT body out of 1/2" T1. It would be a very crash resistant car, and wouldn't need the rollcage that is typically used to make a car safer than originally planned. Of course I'd need to use 2-ton suspension and running gear, but that would be the easy part.
No I am not kidding. I could do it. But the point is, when you crash a car, chances are your car is junk and you are dead. To heck with the car, they make new ones every day. And the new ones have had a lot of effort put into making them "crash survivable".
Keep in mind that in an impact, there are actually three impacts that hurt you. First, your car hitting the opposing object. Second, your body hitting the inside of your car. Third, your internal organs hitting each other and bones.
See why airbag technology is so important? How many threads are there here about installing air bags in an Opel? Oh, I guess we aren't really quite that serious about our safety. We go ape@#$% over horsepower boosts and brake improvements and suspension mods to do 90mph and slide around the corners but how many of us studied and copied the rollbar threads and who out there uses a real seat and sufficient harness?
The rollcage and seat and harness will help you in a stupid traffic accident just like it will in a racetrack incident.
Sure you may end up in a wheelchair or on life support for decades, who knows?
Seriously, I think the anwer is to use modern technology for your basic everyday transportation and use your beloved toys for fun. Let the new plastic Japmobile take the abuse and protect you from the idiots we share the road with. Let it sit at the curb and get hit by drunks and pissed on by dogs while your baby sleeps under cover in the garage. People on the street aren't that impressed with your GT, they are busy driving and talking on the phone and applying makeup and looking for a CD and mixing a drink and rolling a joint. All at once while the light turned yellow and then red. Their insurance company isn't real impressed with your car either, don't forget...

[namba209]

Originally Posted by jeff denton when you crash a car, chances are your car is junk and you are dead. To heck with the car, they make new ones every day.

That's the idea with the new cars, Jeff. They are totalled in a 25 MPH crash! Guess who wins? The insurance company will get you another car, so the car makers win again. First when you buy the car, second when it's replaced. If they built the cars with the same structual integrity as they did way back when, with today's safety standards, they wouldn't be able to sell as many cars, a fender bender that would total a new cars today, would survive and be reparable if they had the same material as in a lot earlier years. Here's another thing that bugs the living daylights out of me. Using my bought new, 71 Dodge van for $4577.55, as an example. It weighed 7700 l8s, I got in a wreck with Margarets 83 Dodge van. New it was $17000 and weighed 5600 lbs. Same body style, same running gear. Her van was a ton less in material and 400% more in cost. My wages sure didn't increase that much, and the cost to build it surely didn't increase that much, especially when there was less material used to build it. O.K. I'm off the soapbox, sorry to vent this way, but you struck a nerve here.

[jeff denton]

Didn't mean to upset you, Ron! I neglected to factor in each person's unique economic situation/personal transportation needs. Because I can't, and won't. That would be another topic altogether, which comes up in just about every thread we study here... It sucks that life is all about money, a statement guaranteed to provoke a fun topic all in itself!
This is about the safety of ourselves and our loved ones when we run around town for every trivial little reason.
Of course the car makers just want to sell lots of new plastic cars at what we all probably agree is a rip off price. In that price is all the research and development costs. To make us more able to walk away from the crashes no one will take responsibility for. Enter the insurance companies and the attorneys and the hospitals and rehab centers and on and on... everybody's got to make a living, some maybe unfairly more than others, so that they can eat and sleep in whatever form of luxury they need and pay the taxes to support those who won't or can't make a living. Oh and to go to third world countries and civilize them! And to go explore distant heavenly bodies. All these really important things the government deems necessary in addition to keeping us safe in our silly little cars...
Please don't ever surrender your soapbox! Our discussions here are priceless to me! I dig hearing the opinions and wisdom of our friends here, I want to learn something new every day.

[timemachine]

The fact is, new cars are safer, more reliable and as inexpensive as they have ever been in equivalent dollars. Remember "planned obsolescence"? That was how GM, Chrysler and Ford got to replace a car on the road every five years. Now, the glut of decent and solid used cars has changed the whole auto market.

Growing up, I can remember crawling under the car with my dad every couple of years (always the dead of winter it seemed) to replace a leaky exhaust. Now, it's common that the tailpipe lasts as long as the car does. Though cars are a lot more complicated and impossible to work on without a diagnostic console, they run for a long time without much beyond oil changes and they don't rust through after a few years. With apologies to Opelers, we can thank the Japanese for a lot of that. On the mechanical end, part of it is no more carb, no distributor, better rubber etc.

One of the reasons I think Opels have surved to the extent they have is because they are simple, fun and easy to turn a wrench on, -- especially the Mantas and Sportwagons Asconas and Kadettes -- even though they do require more maintenance than a modern auto. And though a car without an airbag is not as safe as one with, me and many others have survived to a ripe age despite having grown up driving what some people would now call a death trap. Part of it is luck and surviving your teenage idiocy when it comes to driving. That still applies as much as it ever did.

Jim

[namba209]

Jim, when was the last time you spent $600 for a tool to work on your car? That's what the scanner cost for me to check out Willit?'s engine computer. Or, how about leaning against it and leaving a big dent in the fender, just from your body weight. Safer? Sure, no doubt, but only because of the airbags. Not from the PR release of having crumple zones, which was their way of dignifying paper foil for sheet metal. Computer controlled car building has dropped the price of building a car, laid off thousands of the work force, but that didn't stop the price of the cars from going outa site. For the price of a new car today, I bought my home here in SoCal. In the past 20 years have your wages increased 400% for doing the same job, not hardly.

Jeff, I'm not upset too much. You just opened up a venue that I'm apalled at. It used to be the car mfg's were proud of their cars and what they represented. Now, as in all of the large companies in the States, the big thing is how much can they charge. In one word, the biggest problem in the U.S. as in the rest of the world today........GREED.

[jeff denton]

I used to despise the new cars. I hated that you can't identify one from another, unless the styling happened to include some obvious retro feature the company was proud of. I used to think, "man, I could build one helluva hot rod for what your new plastic piece of crap cost!"
Ya know what? I got sick of constantly working on my old cars and trucks. Just to have basic transportation.
Plus, I have become extremely impressed by some of the technology in the new cars, especially the survivability they work so hard on.
And, I think that maintaining your own car is a thing of the past, and it is good. Really now, how many people are mechanically inclined enough these days to actually pack a wheel bearing in such a way as not to get themselves or others killed?
Hot Rod magazine had an article on this a few years ago. One point I appreciated was this: Do it yourself (driveway) oil changes account for a certain given amount of retail oil sales. A stated amount of used oil from these were disposed of properly. The rest of it (given) amounted to 25 times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. Uh, where did this icky old oil go if it wasn't known to have been taken to the oil recycler?
I'm all for sealed oilpans. The public has no business changing their own oil. Those of us who disagree are also smart enough to unseal their oilpan and change their own oil anyway.
Leave the service, maintenance, and tuneups to the pros. Unless you are one, and a lot of us are. It's how we make our trailer house payments...
And yes, this is a safety issue. When I worked on trucks I occasionally was appalled and disgusted at what I saw holding that wheel on the dump truck. Idiots.

[jordan]

Originally Posted by jeff denton See why airbag technology is so important? How many threads are there here about installing air bags in an Opel? Oh, I guess we aren't really quite that serious about our safety. We go ape@#$% over horsepower boosts and brake improvements and suspension mods to do 90mph and slide around the corners but how many of us studied and copied the rollbar threads and who out there uses a real seat and sufficient harness? The rollcage and seat and harness will help you in a stupid traffic accident just like it will in a racetrack incident.

Pioneering your own supplemental restraint system is NOT a good idea at all, not only is it not practical cost wise there is a large possibility of it not being functional and possibly detrimental. Accusing people about not being concerned with their safety is making a very blanket statement. I WILL NOT put an airbag in my gt because I am for one, young and dumb and I do not have the desire to do such a thing I would rather concentrate on making sure the braking, suspension, and lighting system is up to snuff, preventing the accident is your first line of defense; use your head and drive safely....don't try and out run the train. Also to know if an air bag system would even work you would need a series of cars to test crash in different situations, configurations and speeds and analyze the results (I have one and only one opel mind you) it's alot easier for an airbag to do harm before good, all variables need to go into play within the threshold of it's design and that decides if you go home, go to the hospital, or go to the morgue after the accident. In the early 80's VW made a model (I don't recall which one) that was undertested in crash tests and the passenger side airbag decapitated a small child sitting in the front seat in a ridiculous low speed accident. With that knowledge myself and I'm sure no one else on this forum will mess around with prototyping the first opel gt SRS airbag...NOT WORTH IT. My soap box is now firewood.

[namba209]

Really great points Jeff. Having to pull the gas tank to replace the fuel pump on the monza was not fun, but necessary. 3-4 years before that I had to replace the water pump, terrible job, power steering pump had to be taken out for that. But then again when was the last time you changed a fan belt in less than 5 minutes and didn't have to adjust it. Some things are easier than they used to be, others are harder. You're probably right about the oil changes, I got a 5 quart plastic bottle from my local auto parts store, free, a while back and they don't charge me for taking the oil and filter back to them for recycling like the tire stores do now when they change your tires. Some kinda progress there. Me a pro? maybe kinda sorta, I was paid to be a mech on some really exotic machines, but I was thoroughly trained before they let me near them. I saw a documentary a couple of days ago on something automotive and saw a guy slapping a wheel bearing into a load of grease on his hand. Not even attempting to force the grease between the rollers correctly. I can see your point in that regard and others. "Smoke tight, and a quarter turn"?, no thanks I've got 5 torque wrenches to be sure.

[ushawk1]

Originally Posted by baz bondo does not crack in an crash it explodes and takes non of the energy of the impact out of the crash ,result one dead opeler + thousands innocent bystanders hit by shrapnel

I am driving a hand grenade. How fun. Imagine if a Pinto hit me...two explosions and tons of shrapnel. Anyone have surplus flak jackets for sale?

[Tru-Craft]

The thing that is misleading about the crash test is that a Honda Civic can get a higher rating than my F150 truck! Sure in a 45mph offset crash into a flat un-movable object, a smaller car with less mass will slow down faster than a heavier one.
But, when that Honda crosses the yellow line into my truck at 45mph (90mph impact) lets see who walks away!

I think the GT would do well in a frontal crash test, long hood lots of crumple zone.
Let's not even think about a side impact in a Honda or my GT!!!!
That Ford blue oval on my truck is right at my eye level!

Let's just say, I would not want my daughter driving a GT everyday in the Tampabay area!
As a second car or weekend car, it is perfect!
Lyle

[jeff denton]

Right, Jordan, none of us are gonna put an airbag in a GT, much less then crash test it every way imaginable... probably none of us have the training and ability to do this! I wonder how many of us read the thread about adding the door bars and put that project on the list? Have you checked your seat mounts and restraint system lately? Thanks for the reminder, Calvin. How's that fancy steering wheel gonna feel when your face bends it? Ouch. It happens. Too close to home sometimes. My friend Steve hasn't eaten corn on the cob in over thirty years. Nor smiled much.
This is about how crashworthy a GT might be considered, and what some have done to improve it which also happens to make it a better handling car.
I'm into it. Hope you are, too! The original question was an excellent one, I love all the responses, noticed it tends to worry others as well as me.
Yes you have a lot of control over how you drive your car, if you roll it over a cliff that was your fault and St. Peter will be pointing this out to you shortly afterwards. However when you are the victim of previously described multi-tasking drivers failing to have concern over your safety I can only hope you are able to walk away. Or at least build your next car to operate by hand control. Such optimism tends to be more popular than the life support scenario...
What happens, happens. Myself, I am tired of losing friends to car accidents.
Suicide makes more sense.
Ron, I would hardly knock the mechanical capabilities of a Blackbird mechanic. We all know our capabilities. Some of the questions asked and the stories told kinda point out that we must be careful what we mess with. I don't even want to tell you what I found holding the tie rod ends to the tie rod on Parts GT. Scary that someone did that, I hope they don't still work on cars that I meet on the highway.