9/19/2023 0 Comments 1971 opel manta for sale![]() The Manta was a quick, cheap and expedient solution to at least keep the Capri from gobbling up the whole market that it created in Europe. Still, it’s quite obvious that Opel was not trying to take on the Capri whole-heartedly. ![]() V6 power is what had made the Capri an affordable Euro-muscle car, although the percentage of V6 Capris sold in Europe was undoubtedly fairly low. The other difference was that Opel didn’t offer any six cylinder engine options in the Manta. That solution was a lot quicker than designing a unique body. Everything except the exterior sheet metal was essentially the same, which gave the Manta a decidedly taller and less overtly sporty stance than the Capri. The Manta was just a re-skinned Opel 1900/Ascona A, which also appeared in 1971 ( CC here). Whereas Ford invested in a whole new body structure (like the US Mustang), with a very decided long hood-short tail stance, Opel cheaped out with the Manta. ![]() But there was one very big difference from the Capri. The Manta was an attractive coupe with a very stylish Camaro-esqe nose, a semi-fastback roof, and all-round slick GM styling, thanks to Chuck Jordan who was Opel’s Styling Chief at the time. With the Manta, they cut that head start by the Capri down to twenty months, arriving in the fall of 1970 as a 1971 model. It took GM two and a half years to get the Camaro out the door to chase the runaway Mustang. And not only was the Capri a huge hit in Europe, democratizing performance, it was also a big hit in the US where it became the number two selling import car for a few years. The Capri was available with a palette of engines ranging from an economy 1.3 L four to a lusty 3.0 L V6. The concept of a popular-priced sporty coupe with a huge range of engine options was unheard of then. Ford’s 1969 Capri ( CC here) was at least as revolutionary in Europe–if not more so–than the Mustang was in the US. Just like Chevrolet was caught off guard by the madly successful 1965 Mustang and rushed out the 1967 Camaro to compete, the same drama unfolded again in Europe a few years later. The Manta earned that title several times over. The German Camaro indeed, on multiple levels. But in its home country the Manta became the butt of endless jokes and ridicule, known as Germany’s ultimate mullet-mobile. It was the darling of the US buff books, who praised it for being one of the best handling cars of its time as well as an all-round class act, one that could give the BMW 2002 a run for its money at two-thirds the price. But even without an engine transplant, the Manta’s story is plenty interesting. We’ll shed some light on that later, but let’s just say that this Manta is even more of a German Camaro than usual. (first posted ) Given that this was originally sold as a Manta 1900, you can safely assume something other than its original 81 hp 1897cc four lurks under its hood, despite the lack of any external cues.
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