Being a classic car prospector is almost like being a pirate. The only difference is you don’t travel with a band of misfits, and in the end – you have to pay for the cars you find. Tom Cotter of Hagerty has always been looking for rotting classic vehicles and recently discovered that one barn find always leads to the next. In their latest episode, he came across the Opel GT, a.k.a Baby Corvette.
The Opel GT was a front-engine rear-drive two-seater sports car developed and marketed by German automobile manufacturer Opel. The Opel GT ran for two generations, separated by a 34-year hiatus.
The first generation of this classic two-seater sports car ran between 1968 and 1973. The second generation ran from 2007 to 2009 and was rebadged as a variant of the Saturn Sky.
The Opel GT debuted as a styling exercise in 1965 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It used the Opel Kadett B components and the two-door top bodywork from Brissonneau & Lots. The styling of this rare classic sports car was often likened to the 1968 Chevrolet Corvette.
Cotter passed by an ex-Nissan employee who owns a collection of interesting classic cars, including Nissan Zs, Morris Minor, Austin Marina, and a Jaguar MK2 E-Type. His visit led to an Opel-obsessed collector, Harold, based in Chapel Hill, Tennessee.
Harold owns a collection of fairly-preserved Opel GTs that have been daily drivers until recently.
Cotter is amazed at the resemblance between the Opel GT and the 1968 Corvette C3.
“So the intriguing this is, these look like the 68 Corvettes, the C3 Corvettes. Which came first?” He asked Harold. “The chicken or the egg? "It’s debatable and depends on who you talk to,” Harold responded.
Harold thinks the styling of the Corvette started with the Opel GT. In 1951, Harkey Earl, GM's Head of design at the time, started a Corvette project called “Opel Project,” keeping in mind hat Opel was boring and wouldn’t get the attention of the masses.
Harold has a great collection of Opel on his property. We recommend catching that conversation and the history of his Opel collection in the video below.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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