[opelbits]

How about this:

My 72 GT (69 motor w/Weber)- driving home from my girlfriends house, about 3-4 miles, in 4" of snow. No big deal really, except the about two blocks from her housd, the throttle sticks wide open.
My 74 Manta- flying down the highway at 80 mph, on the way to a friends house, go up the poorly maintained, very tight, cloverleaf at about 55, (I loved sliding and drifting that car). I decided to get gas and pulled into a station about 100 feet from the end of the exit ramp, just as I pull up to the pump the left front of the car drops 6". I thought I had hit one of the access plates in the pump area. No such luck! Lower balljoint broke! Not 20 seconds after I was doing my best to set a record up the exit.
Broke a brake disc (top hat section separated from the disc portion) 2weeks later. Got a nice metal frisbee now.

 

[oldopelguy]

one more?

Driving from SD to Houston, TX for my third semester of college, on a Sunday. Master cylinder goes out in Kansas and the rest of the trip on the e-brake.

Driving from SD to NY last year, on Sept 11, both front tires blow out. Alternator erupts into flames. Three rocker arms break, and when replaced the new ones won't stay tight, requiring valve lash adjustments every 50 miles or so. Shamelessly I will plug for Fel-pro composite valve cover gaskets, however, after the adventure. The one on the car came of and back on 14 times without even weeping!

 

[chuckspeed]

Cool stories!

Ahh... the 4 wheel drift:

It's one of the things I really liked about Opels. They have always been real controllable with the back wheels hangin' out.

Was shredding some dirt roads in the UP of Michigan - took this TIIGHT hairpin at 40 MPH with the power on - Rally style. Had a full left-hand lock dialed in on the right hander mid-turn. This translates into using the driver's window as the windshield.

About three quarters of the way thru the blind corner (yeah - more adolescent stupidity) there appeared an old fart pulling a trailer heading the opposite direction. This was a poorly maintained secondary dirt road - in da UP, this means there's enough room for two cars to pass as long as they put one wheel off the road. NO WAY was there enough room for an RV and a sideways GT!

The passenger, (a normally manly beer-drinking type) screamed whilst involuntarily filling his shorts with bodily waste. I backed outta the throttle (nope - didn't stick THAT time - that's another story) and managed to get the tail tucked in before the gray brigade forcibly removed it.

The old man had heart palpitations afterwards. I knew this on account of he was a neighbor and made it a point to 'discuss' the event at length later that day.

The passenger - well, he never rode with me again.

sheesh.

 

[opelbits]

Yeah, heh, heh. I love Mantas.I have a friend that 'participates' in bouts of road rage. He is very cool and calm when he responds to idiots. Excellent driver, he's done things with a 79 Impala I could only dream of. But, when he rides in the Manta (or any of my cars), he puts on the seat belt, grabs on and closes his eyes. By his own admission he doesn't want to see what's going on.
I uesd to get the car into a drift on another favorite exit ramp, tight curve with a nice entrance, and then start wiggling the steering wheel and I could actually feel the tires deflecting off the rain gutter on the inside of the curve. Control, not ultimate grip!
All this stuff was done on old springs, KYB GR2 shocks and various 185/70/13 tires (Goodyear Eagle GT+4's were my favorite).

 

[chuckspeed]

Hey! Admin guy!

How come opelbits is considered a cool opel newbie (I'm not disagreeing, BTW) and I'm *just* a newbie?

Speaking of newbie - does being a newbie have to do with the site or opels? I woulda thought 23 years of Opeling woulda qualified for something other than newbie status.

C'mon - it took me 15 years to figure out how to get an Opel to run smooth on a Solex! I'd be willing to trade that info for a status upgrade...

CARB STORY:

I got Pop this '73 Manta (dark blue, automatic). Pop's not much of a carb guy - there are dents in the shop wall from the impact of carb bodies that well,...didn't make the umm, grade.

After amassing a large collection of Solex bits, Pop gave up and solved the problem the farm-boy way. He pulled the one barrell FoMoCo carb off a spare '64 Galaxie (170 straight six). With carb in hand, he got a hunk of aluminum and proceeded to cut away everything that didn't look like a carb adapter. (Pop's a tool and die maker with a complete machine shop behind his house, BTW) He bolted up the whole shebang to the Manta, fabbed up an adapter plate to pick up the throttle linkage, and fired the critter up...

Damn thing ran like it had fuel injection. Rock solid idle, crisp cold and warm starts. Only downer was it ran like a Ford six - power down low, but nothing after four grand. Couldn't out-run a Rabbit, and top end was cut to about 90 MPH.

 

[Gary]

Hey! Admin guy!

How come opelbits is considered a cool opel newbie (I'm not disagreeing, BTW) and I'm *just* a newbie?

Speaking of newbie - does being a newbie have to do with the site or opels? I woulda thought 23 years of Opeling woulda qualified for something other than newbie status.

C'mon - it took me 15 years to figure out how to get an Opel to run smooth on a Solex! I'd be willing to trade that info for a status upgrade...

6 more posts and your status will change..... Keep 'em coming!! (They change at 10, 25, 50, and 100 posts.)

RallyBob, <Grand Kahuna of All Things Opel>, is the only member with a "Custom" title.

Gary
Admin guy

 

[RallyBob]

Sadly, I cannot recant any Opel stories from my youth without serious risk of prosecution......

 

[Gary]

....Until now

(I forgot that I "enabled" that feature.) BTW, RallyBob's was given to him. He did not pick it.

So Chuckspeed you can go to your user CP and get creative!!

 

[chuckspeed]

Nope. Locked out.

Canna change it, cap'n!

Allrightie - another story:

BEATING THE CAR GUY AT HIS GAME

Bought a '73 Manta Luxus off my old boss. Electric blue, vinyl top, automatic, air conditioning, and a sunroof. Looked like the Opel equivalent of an LTD - if you like that sorta thing. The car had a softball sized dent in the front left fender and no one would fix it (detroit developed an aversion to Opels in the early 80's), so I bought it for about $1200. It had a little bit of rust here and there (hey, it was an Opel) so I proceeded to repair/repaint.

I had painted quite a few cars by the time I got to the Luxus, so I was getting good at my game. The car was shot with Ditzler lacquer cut with their slowest curing thinner, which gave it a very shiny finish. After each coat, I'd block the surface to remove imperfections. With about ten coats, the car looked better than new.

Stuck it out front with a $2500 tag on it. After a few days, this guy shows up and starts tapping all over the car. 'There's rust here', he'd say.

'Nope, not there', was my truthful answer.

After about three variants of this, he centered his examination on the section just behind the front wheel. 'I KNOW there's rust here - DON'T try to fool me - I work at a BODY shop!'

'Well sir,' I replied (working hard to contain myself), 'why don't you stick you head inside the wheel well and prove me wrong!'

He did. Of course this is not a blind area on a Manta, so it's one of the last areas to rust out. He pulled his head out (rather sheepishly, I might add) and asked, 'Will you take $2300?'

He drove it home.

To this day I can't figure out how he missed the patch panel a foot square that kept the front seat from kissing the pavement.

And he worked inna body shop.

 

[chuckspeed]

okay - I'm goin' for that change in status, so hang on:

THE OPEL THAT ZIGS

GM is famous for making stupid decisions. Back in '97 they saw fit to bring the Opel Omega MV6 into the states as a Cadillac Catera. The Caddy that Zigs? Nah...The Caddy that Flops is more like it. It's too bad...The Omega MV6 was the top-of-the-line European GM product, and the Caddy conversion only added to the luxury - heated memory leather seats, Bose audio system, dual zone automatic climate control, just to name a few goodies.

GM brought them in from 1997 - 2001, having to give away the last batch at silly discounts. Their loss is our gain, as the Catera is one heckuva Opel. Some stats:

- 3.0 liter DOHC 24 valve V6
- 205 HP (DIN)
- BMW 5 series auto trans
- Rear wheel drive
- 4 wheel independent suspension
- 4 wheel disc brakes
- Free-flow dual exhaust
- full analog gauges (white on black)

Gotta tell ya -- I KNEW within the first 30 feet of a test drive that this was an Opel, and I was HOME. I bought a used '98 a few years back, and it's rapidly run up my list of fave cars

The car is MAGNIFICENT on the highway - it eats miles. I've done several 1000 mile daytrips with it, and I'm not tired at the end of the day. Please remember my daytrips are at Chuckspeed - triple digits inna car that's not set up for it can be really tiring. I tried a 1000 miler in a Ford F-150 Lighting - my eyes felt like Tater-tots at the 700 mile mark. It's really at home in the elevated speed range - there's not much that can run with it above 90 MPH, as the poor kid with the Mustang GT found out as I sucked his headlights out at 125 MPH in the rolling hills of Missouri a while back. Too bad it's chipped to 135 MPH - I could finally peg the speedo inna Opel if it wasn't!

Like any German car, it's a bit slow around town - feels heavy below 35 MPH. I can live with that.

The best part is the price. You can pick up a 2000 Catera with 25K miles on the clock for LESS than the cost of an optioned-out Ford Focus! There was a Sport version available in 2000, which comes with aluminum interior appointments, deck spoiler, higher rate springs, stiffer shocks, and 17" rims.

GMAC has killer used-car rates right now; the aformentioned Catera with 20% down clocks in at $300/month on a 60 month, 5.9% loan. Since Caddys come with a 4 year, 50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, there's no used car warranty blues, so it's like buying champagne on a beer budget!

Now if I can figure out how to get the Opel badge on the grille...

 

[chuckspeed]

the 2000-2001's look more like an Omega. Dave MacIntosh (a friend of mine) did the styling for them and went for a 'euro' (read minimal) redesign of the sheetmetal.

The 97-99's have the 'electric shaver' rear end, which has a different quarter panel than a German-spec Omega.

The hot ticket, actually, would be to 'trade' the interior bits (they're cheap used, and all leather) for the German spec exterior trim - think we're talking about a grand or two in pieces parts.

 

[chuckspeed]

Okaay - got another one...

HERE WE GO LOOP-DE-LOO

Pop's '73 Manta (the one with the Fairlane carb) had been worked on by a hack mechanic. I remember the hack had drilled bunch of 1-1/4" diameter holes over the venturis of the Solex - effectively eliminating air filtration. ick. It also had a diesel airhorn, complete with an aircompressor - like anyone really needed THAT.

Anyhow the hack had left his mark on numerous places all over the car. The most, ahem...exciting find occured one morning on I-275 southbound. Pop was pottin' along at 75 MPH just minding his business on the way to work when all of a sudden he's looking at oncoming traffic. The car had swapped ends INSTANTLY. Pop's one heckuva driver, tho - he managed to get the car sorted out and on the side of the road without kissing any Mack trucks in the process.

On the side of the road, he has a look underneath. The torque tube is hangin' on by two bolts. Turns out the hack had decided to replace the diff carrier oil seal but didn't have the right 12 point wrench, so he proceeded to Vise-Grip the bolts into place. They loosened up and the torque tube became the mechanical equivalent of of a line lock - at 75 MPH.