By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

With a nitrous-injected 350 crammed under the hood, Tatu’s little Opel sure can roast the tires. I’m a fan of how the creative exhaust plumbing makes the most of the Kadett’s tiny engine compartment–the firewall has already been moved back to accommodate the sbc. Check it out on Tatu’s ride page.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This is funny, cause last week I sent this pic to Katherine, who is determined to buy an Opel GT in the near future. This star-spangled Opel GT has a 1985 CJ7 Jeep frame and a 1978 CJ5 Jeep drivetrain. More pics and details at eBay. Via Jalopnik

Continue reading "Awesome Opel GT 4×4 on eBay" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Canada’s Magna finally gets its wish. After failing to win Chrysler, they have reached an agreement in principle with GM Europe and will start to take over Opel. This is great news for the Europeans—Magna have been building cars on a contract basis for many years and actually know something about manufacturing. That’s more than I can say for either Cerberus (Chrysler’s owner) or Uncle Sam. Saturn may not die after all! More details at Reuters.

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

In some ways the concept is so audacious that it could not have been imagined just a few months ago. Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne is well on his way to positioning Fiat as an auto producer on the same scale of Toyota and Volkswagen. In a February interview that appeared in the April 2009 issue of UK’s Car magazine, Marchionne said that there will only be six major auto makers standing when the current round of consolidation concludes in the next 24 months. With these aggressive steps, first with Chrysler and now with Opel, Marchionne is trying to insure that Fiat is among the survivors. The near-doubling of Fiat’s stock in the last 12 month is clear evidence that Marchionne is a force to be reckoned with. Continue reading at Automotive Traveler

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Gotta love cheap RWD junkers!

Remember this strange ride that John blogged awhile back? The 1959 Opel that took the world record in 1973 for getting 376 mpg out of a regular pushrod four-banger with only mild modifications? It lived at the Talladega Motorsports Hall of Fame for many years, then fell into the hands of Seattle-area car dealer Evan McMullen. Well, McMullen now figures he’ll make a killing on it after buying it from Talladega for cheap, so off to eBay it goes. The Buy It Now price? $300,000. Sounds like another dreamer, though he’s already got a bid for $50K. Check out the auction here.

The new Opel Insignia in Europe will come with an optional windshield-mounted camera that can read speed-limit and no-passing signs and beam them to your dash display. The high-res camera can take 30 images per second, and uses signal processors to read the images and transfer them to the graphic display. Sounds like a nice deal for people with eyesight too weak to read the signs on their own, but how long until the onboard computer starts regulating vehicle speeds to keep them below the posted limit, or refusing to let you maneuver around an obstacle in the road in a no-passing zone? Worse yet, what would the robot brain make of this Seattle-area anti-street-racing (?) sign submitted by CarDomain member Judge Dredd? Would it let the car race, but only in the daytime? The implications are a little unsettling. Pics and video of the eye in action below the jump.

Source: Carscoop

Continue reading "Opel Insignia's All-Seeing Eye Will Read Road Signs For You. But Then What?" »

It’s Friday, and you know what that means: a couple of days of partying which will be awesome, even if it takes a little while to piece together what I actually did. Have a great weekend! Here’s the news: 

• If you’ve ever wanted to design a car from scratch, this might be your chance. Local Motors is calling for designs, and if they get a really killer one, it just might see production. Wired
• The brass at American Axle isn’t pumped about the proposal the UAW has submitted, saying that it won’t allow the company to be competitive. Obviously, this isn’t good for workers, who have been on strike for over six weeks. Detroit News
• Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo, who received a three year suspended sentence for fraud last year, recently had his conviction over-turned by Korea’s Supreme Court. Life is good at the top. Automotive News
• Most car companies get all huffy about spy shots of their new vehicles, but not Opel. The automaker is actually releasing it’s own. What’s next, dog and cats living together? Winding Road

There’s not much backstory on this Opel, which looks for all the world like it’s been built out of wood, right down to the gate hinges on the front doors. While of course it’s really just a clever paint job, the illusion is a lot more convincing than some of the other woodgrain treatments we’ve seen lately. And a pair of those wooden speakers would look great in it! Via BornRich.

Continue reading "A Wooden One" »

At the Geneva Motor Show, you can’t throw a rock without hitting some excruciatingly expensive exotic, so if you go, don’t throw rocks. Right now, our buddies from Road & Track are across the pond covering it, and from the looks of these photos, they’re having a blast. They sent us sick shots of all the hottest stuff on the floor—like the KTM X-Bow Dallara Edition pictured below—and they’re making editorial wish we weren’t stuck at CarDomain World Headquarters. Check out all the pics they sent after the jump, and for complete info on all these rides, check out the Best of Geneva slide show over at Road & Track. All photos by John Lamm, Road & Track.