German automaker Opel was controlled by General Motors from 1929 through 2017, the year Detroit's largest automaker sold Opel and sister brand Vauxhall to French colossus Groupe PSA. One highlight from GM's tenure was the GT, a two-door coupe that was originally produced from 1968 through 1973.
Indirectly succeeded by the Manta, said fellow received a true successor in the form of the second-generation Opel GT in 2007. Essentially a badge-engineered Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice, the second coming of the GT failed to sell in satisfactory numbers.
Assembled in Delaware, the Kappa-based GT ended series production with 7,519 units to its name. It marked the bitter end of rear-drive Opels, yet Opel did tease us with the GT Concept at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of series production due to a shrinking market for sports cars.
Mind you, this isn't a Euro market-only problem. A glance over US sales reports for the Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger from the last five years or so reveals worsening demand for this kind of vehicle, which brings us to the Opel GT rendering from pixel artist Ascariss Design.
Based on the now-defunct Camaro, the rear-drive coupe and convertible in the featured clip wouldn't sell in large numbers back home in Germany or anywhere else in the EU due to a plethora of reasons. From the rising prices of new automobiles to increasingly restrictive emission regulations and the Alpha platform of the Camaro, it would be too much of a hassle to make a third-gen Opel GT happen.
Photo: Chevrolet / Ascariss Design on YouTube / edited
Even under GM's control, expanding Alpha production to a plant in Europe would be prohibitively expensive. Over at Stellantis, which is the automaker formed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Groupe PSA, the all-new STLA Large platform of the 2024 Dodge Charger is a bit of a disappointment in terms of curb weight and internal combustion choices.
Otherwise put, a way too heavy third-gen Opel GT developed on the STLA Large would be offered with either a dual-motor setup or a twin-turbo sixer cranking out no more than 550 mechanical ponies. By comparison, the Alpha-platform Camaro climaxed at 650 stallions from a 6.2-liter supercharged V8.
Hearsay suggests that General Motors intended to send off the sixth-gen Camaro with the flat-plane crankshaft V8 of the Corvette Z06. If you're into cars, you are surely aware that modifying a V8 intended for a mid-engine sports car with a rear-mounted transaxle into a V8 for a front-engine vehicle is pretty hard. There's a reason why the LT2 small block of the Stingray and E-Ray, along with the 8,600-rpm LT6 of the Z06, don't have other applications except for the C8-generation Chevrolet Corvette.
The Camaro is going to come back, though, with Mark Reuss indicating a car-versus-crossover debate with General Motors. But alas, the seventh generation will be fully electric. Opel wants to become fully electric by 2028, although the slowing demand for BEVs may result in a change of plans. Under the Stellantis umbrella, it's hard to imagine Opel being allowed to develop a rear-drive sports car on the STLA Large.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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