RE: Opel Manta GT/E | Spotted

[732NM]

s m said:

I’m pretty sure my GTE was L- Jetronic

Stuff like the Capri 2.8/GOLF GTI of that era was K -jet

Edited by s m on Tuesday 7th May 16:51

Whatever it was, the flap went mental at idle when i fitted a fast road cam.

[simonsti]

I had a 230 bhp Courtney turbo back in the 90's.
That used an IHI turbo on the standard cih.

[Andy86GT]

Slippydiff said:

LE62NDE said:

I had an E-reg gunmetal hatch. Big lump of an engine, went well in a straight line but a bit hefty/agricultural in the twisties. Lovely velvet plush seats, sunroof; lots of happy memories, including continental holidays. Traded it in for a sensible Citroën when our firstborn came along...

They needed the following :

A set of Bilsteins.
A set of PMC Group A lowering springs.
The torque tube front bush replaced with bobbins.

Then they became something altogether different.

PMC being Peter Maiden Components if I remember correctly?
Are they still going?
It was their 'fast road ' spec exhaust I fitted, made a lot of noise, but not an especially nice sound.

[Andy86GT]

simonsti said:

I had a 230 bhp Courtney turbo back in the 90's.
That used an IHI turbo on the standard cih.

Blimey, all these references I'd forgotten about.
I remember reading about the Courtney Turbo with envy back then.
Didn't it also have water injection?

[Dunk328]

s m said:

I’m pretty sure my GTE was L- Jetronic

Stuff like the Capri 2.8/GOLF GTI of that era was K -jet

Edited by s m on Tuesday 7th May 16:51

Ah dammit. I couldn't be bothered to check which one was which, and rolled the dice... and lost

K-Jet I had on my 190E 2.3-16s...

[s m]

simonsti said:

I had a 230 bhp Courtney turbo back in the 90's.
That used an IHI turbo on the standard cih.

You’ve had some fantastic cars Simon

[martin12345]

KTF said:

Low/mid 20s MPG. Most people would run away screaming from a car that did that these days...

:

My 2002 Jag XJR "only" does 20 to 25mpg and I use it as one of my daily's with pleasure
The low (reverse) depreciation easily covers the cost of high fuel consumption !

Most people have little or no understanding of how much depreciation costs them - they'd run screaming from that if they did !!!

[VR6 Eug]

Great Cars, far better drive than the equivalent Capri.

[rallycross]

Andy86GT said:

simonsti said:

I had a 230 bhp Courtney turbo back in the 90's.
That used an IHI turbo on the standard cih.

Blimey, all these references I'd forgotten about.
I remember reading about the Courtney Turbo with envy back then.
Didn't it also have water injection?

That looks nice what was it like to drive? I remember seeing the ads for these Courntey turbo conversions. The wheels look a bit big for it.

[s m]

rallycross said:

Andy86GT said:

simonsti said:

I had a 230 bhp Courtney turbo back in the 90's.
That used an IHI turbo on the standard cih.

Blimey, all these references I'd forgotten about.
I remember reading about the Courtney Turbo with envy back then.
Didn't it also have water injection?

That looks nice what was it like to drive? I remember seeing the ads for these Courntey turbo conversions. The wheels look a bit big for it.

I can remember seeing the ads ……

[s m]

732NM said:

s m said:

I’m pretty sure my GTE was L- Jetronic

Stuff like the Capri 2.8/GOLF GTI of that era was K -jet

Edited by s m on Tuesday 7th May 16:51

Whatever it was, the flap went mental at idle when i fitted a fast road cam.

I can honestly say I never had any problems with the L-jet on mine, whether it was on the standard engine or with the 2.2/2.4 modded engines that gad cams in. I did have an uprated FPR once I went 2.2 and up and Aldon set it up ( PMC recommended them ). I was a bit dubious of their RR figures for it though but it ran really well - not like a modded car. I put it on a local RR which seemed more realistic and it was a bit more than a very good Astra 16v he said - really torquey though.
The rubber fuel pipe that Vauxhall dealers sold you for the injection system did seem very short-lived though and I replaced the piping by the plenum a few times in 7 years until I got some better quality stuff from Pirtek

[Mr Tidy]

s m said:

stinkyspanner said:

They always did well in the road tests compared to their peers at the time - usually coming out as overall testers choice. Over the years in between they have slipped down in the ratings

Edited by s m on Tuesday 7th May 00:59

That's why I had 2.8i Capris.

If you were buying a car like that in the 80s when you were in your 20s did you really care about fuel consumption - I certainly didn't!

[Rob 131 Sport]

VR6 Eug said:

Great Cars, far better drive than the equivalent Capri.

That’s why the Capri massively outsold it. The Capri was just so much cooler.

[RSstuff]

There was a Manta GTE Coupe on Car SOS the other night, the shell was very rotten underneath.

[biggbn]

Rob 131 Sport said:

VR6 Eug said:

Great Cars, far better drive than the equivalent Capri.

That’s why the Capri massively outsold it. The Capri was just so much cooler.

Manta much, much cooler than ubiquitous Capri to my eyes.

[732NM]

Rob 131 Sport said:

VR6 Eug said:

Great Cars, far better drive than the equivalent Capri.

That’s why the Capri massively outsold it. The Capri was just so much cooler.

It's a Ford, their market USP was cheap affordable OK cars, the Manta was far cooler at the time, the only Capri that had any street cred was the 2.8i and early 3.0, which were not common.

[ballans]

s m said:

rallycross said:

Andy86GT said:

simonsti said:

I had a 230 bhp Courtney turbo back in the 90's.
That used an IHI turbo on the standard cih.

Blimey, all these references I'd forgotten about.
I remember reading about the Courtney Turbo with envy back then.
Didn't it also have water injection?

That looks nice what was it like to drive? I remember seeing the ads for these Courntey turbo conversions. The wheels look a bit big for it.

I can remember seeing the ads ……

That’s a brilliant advert, thanks for posting SM.
Dread to think how much trouble I would got myself into if I’d turbo charged my Nova SR.

[s m]

RSstuff said:

There was a Manta GTE Coupe on Car SOS the other night, the shell was very rotten underneath.

As with a lot of cars I had when I started driving I waxoyled mine with a vengeance - it went to Ireland at 11 years old and was still fine ……but like most stuff back then they did like to rust

Did the same to my G reg Astra 16v and that’s still alive according to DVLA

A lot of factory rustproofing was dire back then plus once cars get a bit older people won’t clean mud out the known bodywork traps and they just fall to bits after a decade or two of salty winters.

Plus they are 35-40 years old now too!

[KTF]

VladD said:

My wife had one in the mid 90s. Great looking car. This shape and colour.

From my hazy memory of car brochures from this era, wasnt this colour/spec a sort of 'run out' model as most of the ones I have seen from that era were white?

[Dunk328]

The main killer of Mantas is/was the sunroof. For reasons known only to GM, the sunroof drain hoses stopped in the sills. (Dim memory, but I think maybe the sills had drain holes in them). Thus, the sills rotted fast and hard. For a while the non sunroof cars were more desirable because they simply didn't rot at the same rate. Unfortunately, the 80s was the point at which a sunroof was de rigueur for any snazzy car, so most had them.