[NineLivesGT]

Just wanted to throw out a story that might be interesting. I know at one time or another, when your driving an Opel, we've all probably been snubbed by a Porsche or BMW driver, or had a guy with one make a point of nearly blasting our Opels off the road, which never makes me feel particularly good. I don't care, because I like my GT, I can appreciate it for what it is. I've even had a couple of guys who were getting into a BMW Z4 convertible stand next to my car, point, and laugh. When I was at Limerock, a couple of years ago, the people at the Vintage Motorsport Magazine stand made a point of telling me that I wouldn't find anything about my Opel GT there, because they said "That's not even a sportscar". I don't think anyone should consider any of these people real car guys. Most of the people at Limerock's vintage racing event that day were just as appreciative of the Sprites, Mini's, and whatever, as they were of the roped off 68/69 Lemans winning FordGT40 that was there.

Personally, I can appreciate anything from a 3 wheel Isetta to a Viper. I think most of us are interested in the automobile from a mechanical, or styling standpoint, and don't view ownership as a fashion or status statement. Anyway, here's the story:

After putting in a new master cylinder and front calipers and pads on the GT, I took the car for a quick spin just to break in the pads and check everything. I came to an intersection about a mile along, with a 4 way stopsign. A guy in a gleaming brand new black Porshe Turbo Carrera came to the intersection to my right, just ahead of me. I wave him through, twice, but he shook his head and wouldn't move, instead extending his open hand to me and my something of a sportscar. I expected him to let me get 200 feet down the road, and then go blasting by in a hail of smoke and turbo-driven horsepower. But he just followed along, about 15 feet back, as I shifted through 1st,2nd, 3rd, 4th. The road split to 2 lanes at the red light, a mile later. He pulled the incredible Porsche alongside my GT, which is currently grey, black, and white primer. Looks like a cow with wheels, basically. He rolled down the window and said, "I haven't see a car like that in 25 years ! That's gonna be really neat when it's done".

After all of the "no respect at all" experiences Opel guys seem to have, I thought this story just proved my earlier point. I just wanted to throw this out there. I tried to keep this story in mind, when the 2 arrogant snobs in the Z4 felt they were entitled to be obnoxious.

After countless hours of work, all of NineLivesGT's essential electrical functions are now working, even the wacky home-made back up light switch. Mechanically, running great once again, thanks to a new water pump. Gas tank is back in, now 100% leak free. The next step is to get it out of of 3 shades of primer and into a new coat of lacquer.

 

[N61WP]

BMW Club Driving School Sunday

What a timely story.....I have my 70 GT 2.0 entered in a BMW club driving school tomorrow! While most car guys I know are "car guys" like you described, I'm curious to see if I run into any types like your Z4 guys.

One of my autoX buddies was invited to a Ferrari track day with his Miata. He beat all the cars there except for one, a World Challenge race car. He wasn't invited back....Nothing more fun then embarrassing guys with high priced cars with some cheap POS.

I'll keep you informed about tomorrow.
Jc

 

[Travis]

I've even had a couple of guys who were getting into a BMW Z4 convertible stand next to my car, point, and laugh.

I wouldn't worry about the Z4 owners. Whether they want to admit it or not, their cars have some serious styling issues.... Yuck!

-Travis

 

[madhatterpdc]

A real car guy is someone that respects the enthusiasm involved in owning/maintaining/modifying any car. Without the respect, they are a poseur with a checkbook (see Z4 story above for example).

For example, I hate Porsches. An accurate quote as to why, "A Porsche is a terrible design executed brilliantly". But I respect them, every last one of them (minus the new SUV). However, a lot of Porsche people own their Porsches for the wrong reasons.

A theory that I have developed is that Porsches are for people that like fast cars, but don't know why.

I don't intend to pick on Porsches specifically, however, the majority of men and women that "play the car game" respect the non-preferred marques and models. I will never own a Porsche, VW, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or Chrysler from any year or model. But, Turbo's, GTI, S4, M3, SL 500, and Vipers earn respect, and I am more than willing to dole the respect out to the owners that deserve it.

I expect the same in return. I do not expect others to *understand* my affection for Opels, I only ask for the respect.

On the flip side, if you are building, restoring or even purchasing a car of any marque for the sole purpose of hearing people tell you "cool car" or "wow, that's nice", you will never earn my respect. Do it because you want to. Do it because *you* like it. Do it because it's different. But don't ever do anything for the sole purpose of impressing others, you'll waste your time and your money.

 

[NineLivesGT]

9LivesGT vs Porsche

Of course, everyone has their own preferences and tastes (or lack their of) in automobiles. The real point that I thought the story illustrated very well was that if you truly are a car guy, and not, as Madhatter well states "just a poseur with a checkbook", then none of us should be discouraged or swayed by people like the 2 Z4 guys I referred to in the opening thread. Hopefully, arrogant individuals like that are vastly outnumbered by people like the Porsche driver I mentioned... people who can appreciate or at least respect other enthusiasts' projects. Maybe I'm too much of a child of the late 60's, but it's a really cold experience when someone feels that they have every right to make a callous remark about a project that you have put your soul and blood into. We didn't feel that money gave someone the right to stomp on the other guy's head, just because he might have less of it.

I'm curious to hear how it goes for N61WP. Driving a GT in a BMW driving school ? Now if that isn't standing up for the marque, I don't know what is. I would think that those guys wouldn't be the clueless type to dump on a car because it doesn't have a pedigree or a status badge.

All the work I've done on my Opel to get it to the point that it's at now is solely because I happen to like the car. If others do, that's fine, but I'm not building it for anyone else.

On the other hand, it is always fun to see when someone gets a trip on it when they see it, any of us could agree. Sort of good to see someone appreciate your work. The same feeling that a painter gets when he hangs his work in an art gallery ?

 

[BQS4]

What you like

I have to chime in on this. I have been driving NOTHING but Opels for almost 30 years now, DAILY! I have had a few sneers and jeers, but, more often than not, I have had people give me "thumbs up", commented, or out right praise my Opels. But, as Madhatter says, I drive my Opels, not for the praise, although I love them imensely, I drive them because they ARE what I want to drive.

 

[N61WP]

Just got home...I agree totally with all you said.

I had 8 "I haven't seen one of those in years" by noon. I can't remember how many "cool car and looks great" remarks I got. Keep in mind it has the original paint and lots of dents and dings, and it still got the most attenion. I didn't run into any _ _ _ holes at all. They were a good fun bunch. My instructor had a Manta back in 73, so we had lots of Opel news to talk about.

There were many Bimmers there, of course, but also many others marques, including a Ferrari and several Porsches. We did 5 20 minute sessions. Although this was a driving school and not a race, it got pretty spirited by the end of the day and the GT held it's own and I was even able to pass a M3!

Nothing broke and everything work fine. I do have a few things to work on and ask about, but that will have to be another night.

Bestus,
James

 

[davidmor]

The other side of the story...

I have admired and read about cars all of my life. I have loved Opels since I saw the first one (that I remember) in 1975, when I was 10 years old. I was a Corvette fan at the time when I saw the strato blue Opel GT parked near the Space Needle in Seattle. Kids always like the smaller version of things so I naturally loved it. I can remember working all summer when I was 16 to make enough money to buy my first GT. I learned a lot working on that black '73. It had not been well cared for and I didn't know that much about working on cars beyond the basics. I took my turn at trying to rebuilding the engine and solex carb. I did a little body work. Eventually I was going away to college and my parents didn't want me driving back in an unreliable car, so I was to get a newer car for graduation (Mercury Capri) but had to sell the Opel first. I never had the money or knowledge to really fix the car up.

Since then I have been fortunate enough to own several Porsches, 1970 911T, 1995 Carrera 2, 1974 911S, 1996 Carrera 4S and a BMW 1998 M Roadster. I have driven lots of other nice cars and just plain love performance driving and interesting style.

Where I work there are always expensive cars in the parking lots, however I love to drive my Opel GT to work daily. Most of the folks younger than me don't know what it is and are very curious about it. Many of the guys my age and older talk about how much they enjoyed them in high school.

Next time you someone driving their Porsche or BMW, you never know they might also have an Opel in their garage that the love just as much as any of their other "children".

Rude people come in all flavors and income brackets. When it comes down to it we are all people going through life with different paths but the same human issues burden us all.

 

[NineLivesGT]

These are all some great responses. Glad to see everyone who chimed in on this took the high road, but there was little doubt that this would happen. To be interested in Opels to begin with, you would have to be a person who is curious about the car itself, which means you'd have to be a true car enthusiast. What status seeker, or individual who buys an expensive marque purely as a fashion statement, would be interested in automobiles enough to appreciate these cars?

I guess it's on record, from the above responses, that the Opelers really do "get it". Especially the response from Davidmor, who is BOTH an Opel and a Porsche enthusiast, and James' (N61WP) GREAT experience at the driving school.

I guess it's safe to spill the beans now. I was looking for general consensus around this point, and good representation from the Opel crowd, so that Opelers can stand and say "HERE HERE !!!" when they see what will appear in a future in episode of Barry Meguiar's "Car Crazy", on SpeedChannel... this may sound ridiculous, but here goes: In February, I sent same Porsche/Opel story to Mr Meguiar, after he read a letter on the show from someone named "Bill" who put him down for not speaking with any "regular car guys" on his show. Whoever "Bill" was obviously never watched Mr Meguiar's show, because he does speak to anyone and everyone. I recalled him giving Billy Gibbons of ZZTop, and Isky Ed Iskendarian extended personal in studio interviews on his show. If those guys are county club elitists, I'll eat my Solex. I thought Bill's letter was just so insulting and off-base that I just got mad, wrote a rebuttal and included the story, and sent it off to the Car Crazy website.

I almost fell on the floor when a couple of weeks ago, when I received a number of emails in return, along with the direct phone number of one of the show's producers. I placed a phone call to the show confirm... they said they have chosen the Opel/Porsche story letter to be read in an upcoming episode. But here's the best part... they asked for pictures of the NineLivesGT. Yes, my Opel GT shall be making an appearence on the show. Thankfully, I had taken some great shots of it, before the paint began to develop problems. It really looks great in those pictures.

They could not yet tell me details or when it will appear, but they did promise me a tape of the show, and maybe some other goodies.

I believe I may have accidentally scored one for the Opel crowd.

 

[West Coast GT]

Regarding NineLivesGt's incident:
Guys that pull that kind of stunt are into purchasing fun, not earning happiness. And, they are into making themselves feel better about themselves at the expense of others. And while I'm impressed all of you take the high-road (I really am, I admire people that have this capacity), personally, I just as soon give them a "_ _ _ _you _ _ _ hole". I seem to be intolerant of rude people, especially folks like the ones NineLivesGT describes. They have no value to society except to feed the economy. And if they can't even do that, why are we keeping them around?

Here's the part where I get a bit philosophical, so some of you may want to go to the next thread.

There's a big difference between happiness and fun. Fun is momentary. Happiness sticks with you. Fun can be bought. Happiness must be earned. It's earned through accomplishment. And the more difficult something is to accomplish, the more satisfaction and happiness you will achieve.

We work on Opels. I'm not suggesting that Opels are hard to work on, but it's often tenacious going, and it's certainly not as easy as going to a car lot and signing some papers for a new car. Most Opelers derive satisfaction and happiness from our cars because we have accomplished, and we have created.

I just bought a sports sedan Sunday, and even though it rides great (damn beast is longer than our mini-van), has lots-O-power, every electronic gadget & gimmick known to mankind; it's that little, spartan, 32 year old, beat-to-hell GT with the oil stain underneath that I'm proud of. And it hasn't even run for the last 6 months!

My son & I spent three years on it starting when he was 13. No new car will ever mean to me what those three years mean.

Porsche & BMWs; cool cars. What about the people that drive them? Some are A-holes, sure, but there's a bunch who have dreamed of owning/driving one for a long time. And they've worked hard at their own jobs to make enough to buy one. And they've maybe even had to wait til the kids were out of college, and then tweaked the finances to afford one. Their car represents an accomplishment to them. And it will bring happiness. But, for those that have not gone through this struggle, it's just a case of purchasing fun with a showoff quotient. And they typically find it fades, and then they're off chasing something else. And while you may feel bad for them, I say, "P _ _ _ on 'em", and "hope they have a nice stinkin' day".

Opelers - Stay Cool
'Cause when you're cool, the sun always shines .

 

[tekenaar]

Appreciation . . .

Of course, everyone has their own preferences and tastes (or lack their of) in automobiles. The real point that I thought the story illustrated very well was that if you truly are a car guy, and not, as Madhatter well states "just a poseur with a checkbook", then none of us should be discouraged or swayed by people like the 2 Z4 guys I referred to in the opening thread. Hopefully, arrogant individuals like that are vastly outnumbered by people like the Porsche driver I mentioned... people who can appreciate or at least respect other enthusiasts' projects. Maybe I'm too much of a child of the late 60's, but it's a really cold experience when someone feels that they have every right to make a callous remark about a project that you have put your soul and blood into. We didn't feel that money gave someone the right to stomp on the other guy's head, just because he might have less of it.

I'm curious to hear how it goes for N61WP. Driving a GT in a BMW driving school ? Now if that isn't standing up for the marque, I don't know what is. I would think that those guys wouldn't be the clueless type to dump on a car because it doesn't have a pedigree or a status badge.

All the work I've done on my Opel to get it to the point that it's at now is solely because I happen to like the car. If others do, that's fine, but I'm not building it for anyone else.

On the other hand, it is always fun to see when someone gets a trip on it when they see it, any of us could agree. Sort of good to see someone appreciate your work. The same feeling that a painter gets when he hangs his work in an art gallery ?

Whether some "one-off" fabrication on one of my Opels, restoring something back to better than original functionality on one of my "pure-stocks" or finishing a drawing or painting, that feeling happens BEFORE it's ever shown to another . . . maybe that's just me. Until I'm "done" with it, it doesn't get shown.

Just a thought, how about "9 LIVES" for a license plate?