RE: SOTW: Opel Manta

[Shropshiremike]

Whiters said:

Mine would be a late model Exclusive or a cocaine white GTE

Or one of each!

[anonymous-user]

Polar white, like my old one.

The latter Exclusives were Glacier White, which was a brighter white and made the Polar white ones look cream in comparison.

[Dunk76]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1987-Opel-Manta-C20LET-Turbo...

Now, to find a nice decent sunroof-less Coupe to stick it all in.

ETA

Sod that...

Have a v8 instead

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/754130.htm

Edited by Dunk76 on Sunday 23 November 16:05

[wildcat45]

Back in 1979 my cousin traded his green Cavalier GL for a 2.0 Manta coupe. It was an SR model with ATS Alloy wheels, lilac blue paint and black velour interior.

Superb car. From my eight year old perspective the headlight wipers made it out of this world! Being an Opel made it much better than the Vauxhall versions - again to my 8 year old mind.

There was I remember a black roll bar or something inside above the B posts.

He traded it in the following year for a copper coloured V reg Carlton with acres of beige velour inside.

At the time North Fields garage at the top of Emlyn Street got a dark blue S reg Manta in. It sat in that showroom till I guess about 1983. How I wanted that car but I had to make do with my Raleigh Grifter.

[Shropshiremike]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's true - my dad's Cavalier was Glacier and it was a much brighter white - easy to see side by side. Another friend had an F-reg Exclusive in Starmist - lovely colour with speckles in

Edited by Shropshiremike on Sunday 23 November 17:26

[mgp1969]

chunkymonkey71 said:

The engine was tiny and the bay was huge! You could sit inside the bay when working on the engine.

LOL -my first car (viva) was like that - enormous engine bay and crappy 1.3 litre engine - maybe it was a vauxhall thing. I remember sitting on the inner wings when replacing the water pump (it was not easy to budge the old one). try doing that in a modern car

incidentally, there was an orange magnum someone had dropped a rover v8 into i saw at a couple of custom car shows - looked standard apart from (IIRC) some black revolution 5 spoke wheels which looked pretty cool (honest!)

[mgp1969]

[quote=defblade
Although that didn't seem to occur to me when I bought an Opel GT



[/quote]

great looking cars though - i remember when i first saw one of these, i couldn't believe it was an opel

[Morningside]

Shropshiremike said:

[...

That to me is the proper colour of a Manta.
Although due to a friend of ours at the time we did nickname it "Manta. Get There Eventually"
- Sad I know, but I was only 18.

[DjSki]

These cars were a joke even when I was a kid and they were new. Best forgotten I'd say.

[Athlon]

I don't think so, they were known as great handling from almost day one, they were a bit underpowered but far from a joke, and lets remember just how good they were in the British rally championship, don't forget the '83 Manx when the 400's destroyed the Quattro's.

[Shropshiremike]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Don't know if this will come out too well as it is a scan of an old pic but the Cavalier was Glacier - a much brighter, sharper white than the Opel Polar

chunkymonkey71 said:

The engine was tiny and the bay was huge! You could sit inside the bay when working on the engine.

Certainly easy to get at stuff for maintenance - anyone on here who still has one still got the piece of plasticised cardboard between the rad/slam panel? Replaced mine with one of the RMJ fibreglass moulding ( and got one of the undertrays as well )

[DjSki]

Athlon said:

I don't think so, they were known as great handling from almost day one, they were a bit underpowered but far from a joke, and lets remember just how good they were in the British rally championship, don't forget the '83 Manx when the 400's destroyed the Quattro's.

No issue with the 400's but the road car was poor.

[anonymous-user]

This was my one.

D Reg 1986, with the latter side wing indicators, and Recaro Chicago Grey interior

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 23 November 20:49

[clani200]

@ Shropshiremike.

Yup A99 JUE was the first registered i200 in UK Jan 6TH 1984 and converted by Steve Thomson Cars. A99 JUE was used on Irmscher Brochure re ST Sport ect.
Many moons ago the car was under restoration in an around 96.
Although not many Mantas left on oor roads they still have a good following all UK, Southern Ireland, and Europe.
Spares & new repo panels can be got if willing to search oot.

rab.

[Shropshiremike]

DjSki said:

No issue with the 400's but the road car was poor.

Although they did OK against their contemporaries in the road tests of the time - stuff like the AE86 and Scirocco for example in the Fast Lane test. Based on an old platform they did at least offer a bit of rwd fun like the AE86

Edited by Shropshiremike on Sunday 23 November 21:29

[dern]

DjSki said:

Athlon said:

I don't think so, they were known as great handling from almost day one, they were a bit underpowered but far from a joke, and lets remember just how good they were in the British rally championship, don't forget the '83 Manx when the 400's destroyed the Quattro's.

No issue with the 400's but the road car was poor.

Lots of people had a lot of fun in them. Does anything else matter?

[gog440]

mat205125 said:

dern said:

Trackside said:

Talking of Mantas with something other than 4-pot engines, I saw this one on the Rockingham Stages rally last year that was running a 4.0 litre Jaguar lump!

I love the way the lights and grill are raised to fit the engine

Odd choice of engine though. Lots of cheaper ways to get better power than the jag motor surely

i see this car out on events quite often, never sounds quick but really shifts. Think he runs it nearly standard (but they were over 200 bhp as standard anyway) and it is totally reliable

[interloper]

I picked up a rather sheddy example about seven years ago for the princely sum of £300. Sadly after 3 months its engine started to smoke like a very smoky thing and I had to get shot. For such a simple piece of kit it was a bloody good laugh to drive, not fast but the nose went were you pointed it and the tail caught up eventually!

If I had been buying a hot hatch back in the early Eighties I wouldn't have bothered I would've bought a Manta GTE instead.

Oh yeah I guess I ought to add the obligatory pic..

Edited by interloper on Sunday 23 November 22:52

[jaf01uk]

T66ORA said:

astrsxi77 said:

Stigmundfreud said:

astrsxi77 said:

So very nearly bought a gold 1.8i Berlinetta seven-odd years back.

It's such a shame there was never a 6-pot version. I would gladly add a white Cartlon GSi 24v powered GT/E coupe to my dream garage alongside a Scorpio 24v powered Capri 280 Brooklands!

You do know a brooklands is nothing more than a colour scheme yes? So not so special once you've changed the engine for the 24v unit.

Er, yes! Just a colour scheme, I know. But, to my eyes, the 280 was the best looking Capri ever made and with the Cosworth 24v replacing the Cologne V6, it would have the bite to match the bark.

Brooklands had 15" alloys instead of 13" and full leather, so more than just a colour scheme then?

And a limited slip diff...........

[Shropshiremike]

jaf01uk said:

And a limited slip diff...........

The Special had the LSD as well

@interloper

Thought I'd seen that hatch before