hypothetical ? - Karmann Ghia vs Opel GT

[Dan J]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

Dunno - but the lady's t- shirt looks like a couple of badgers want to escape

My thoughts exactly!

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by IROC

You're right. My bad.

I did a lot of work on mine when I had it. I was a college kid at the time and had no money, but it was the car that started my character flaw of modifying everything I own. I put a Weber carb on it, sport shocks and modified the exhaust to remove the primary muffler and only ran the resonator at the back. It sounded great. I went super-radical and put 175/70-13 tires on it! I also painted it myself.

Fun car.

I put a Stebro muffler on mine. Struggled with Solex (I think) linkage also but was still in high school.

Overall. Meh.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by tcar

And yes, they did use the Corvette as a model.

Not so sure about that. The concept was revealed in 1965, long before the C3. Maybe they had seen the Mako concept, but not just IMHO, I have read that a lot of the styling was found in Italian cars, not in the US.

I would TOTALLY go with the GT. The Karman is just another rear engine air cooled variety of the modular VW concept. And way more common. Yawn.

The 1.9 engine was fairly respectable, I had one in Europe in a Rekord E which was a much larger and heavier car, and it'd still make it move quite well with great fuel mileage to boot. You can up the displacement going to a larger Opel engine, say a 2.4 and now you are really going to have some fun in a small light weight car. If you are more adventurous, other hotter 4 cylinders (think forced induction) also fit.

The Opels of this era were built very well, near indestructible ...

G

[Rodsrsr]

[RSBob]

The GT has uber cool styling and is relatively rare compared to the more pedestrian Ghia. Ghia parts will be easier to find, but part of the fun is the challenge of the restoration. With nice paint, it will be a head turner because of its rarity.

[Heel n Toe]

I don't know why it's such a difficult decision. Would you prefer to drive this...



...or this awesome, front engined, rear wheel driven, soulful beauty...



Okay, of course that photo comparison indicates I have a bias toward the Opel GT. I had a '73 in my early 20s and really enjoyed it.



Plenty of support for the GT here: https://www.opelgtsource.com/