any ex-opel manta owners out there?

[anonymous-user]

a friend has bought a manta but the car failed its MOT on brakes, uupon inspection they are not standard discs but grooved vented things which look rather more serious than the standard discs. the question is what would these discs be of, we are fairly sure thaey are carlton or omega ones but if anyone has owned a manta some help regarding brakes would be helpful!.... cheers!

[NikB]

Can't help with the discs I'm afraid, but I have had to rebuild the calipers several times. I seem to remember that they are single pot calipers that rely on sliders to work - these almost always seize. Could this be the problem?

Nik

[rev-erend]

someone probably bought them from Halfords...

[nubbin]

I doubt whether many PH regulars will admit to owning one!!

[andyf007]

If it's the later model, ie the Berlinetta or GTE type, then there were a variety of uprated brake kits fitted to these by *enthusiastic* owners. Mostly comprising of vented discs and 4 pot calipers, some rear drum to disc conversions were also done. It makes them difficult to tie down to a source model car or supplier. Best thing is to have a motorfactor match the pads and discs. IIRC some of the later "exclusive" GTEs were fitted with vented discs as standard.

Andy

>> Edited by andyf007 on Friday 22 November 10:30

[markda]

My god are those things still on the road, havent seen one for a long long time!

[PetrolTed]

nubbin said: I doubt whether many PH regulars will admit to owning one!!

I had a Manta GTE.

Good old rear wheel drive car. Unfairly maligned I think. Slow as sludge but I didn't realise that at the time.

[anonymous-user]

well this one already as a 2.2 vauxhall engine of some descrption in it and some sort of free flow zorst, so a fair bit of modding has already been done, looks standard from the outside though! hopefully a good spares place might get a fit

[davidy]

I had the Vauxhall equivalent, a Cavalier Sportshatch, with a quick cam and a £400 Bilstein Suspension Kit (lot of dosh in 1985!) it went really well (well I thought it did). Not bad for a first car and only £278 to insure!!!

Only problem was it was Pistacho Green

Every one has to start somewhere (have you got a hidden secret nubbin?)

davidy

>> Edited by davidy on Friday 22 November 10:58

[NikB]

I will admit to owning one, they are great cars!!! Used to get it sideways everywhere. Here is my old one:

www.more-power.co.uk/thelads/images/mc_manta_front_thumb.jpg

[bryanlister]

I had a Cavalier Sportshatch too!! It was my very first car - metallic blue, loved it. It was advertised by a trader as a 1600 GLS - except I discovered a 2 litre lump in it!! 1600 gearing though, Kent cam, uprated suspension, K&N and electronic ignitition - it went rather well for a student car. Had 115,000 miles when I sold it on. Not a Max Power car, it still looked very innocent and un scrote like. And, it was half the price of the Manta to insure for the same car with a Vauxhall badge. Brilliant!

[grahambell]

As the discs are grooved they won't be original equipment but aftermarket gear from Tarox, G-Force or similar. Try cleaning the all the brake dust and other crap off and look for any serial numbers or even names that might help you identify them.

If they are Tarox discs you'll need to use them with the proper pads as normal ones will damage them.

[anonymous-user]

I had two Mantas over the space of 9 years a Berlinetta 1.8 and a 2.0 GTE, and was an area Rep for the Opel Manta Owners Club.

The Exclusive did not have vented discs, but solid discs and single piston calipers.
The earlier Mantas circa 1980 had twin pots.

The Calipers are renowned for seizing.

If he needs more technical help try posting a message on the manta club site www.mantaclub.org

Lee

[DennisTheMenace]

might have the standard vauxhurl calipers and are renowned for seizing, take them apart and give them a good cleaning and replace the seals etc as you go , as ted says they are a good fun RWD car , Being a saddo i like the A series mantas from the 70's

[DennisTheMenace]

the a series looks like this

[dern]

I had an 84 1.8s berlinetta some time ago - I absolutely loved that car to bits.

Like everyone else says though the calipers seized quite regularly but you can buy a new set of seals and with a bit of a clean they are good as new.

Mark

[ultimasimon]

I had two early Manta A's, and IMO it was the best manta ever made. Those Ferrari back lights were excellent styling to an already sporty looking car.

My second Manta A had the original 1.9 Litre engine in, but I strapped the electronic fuel injection to it from the later 2.0 litre GTE. A reletively simple conversion requiring only 6 wires to connect from the ECU, and a return fuel line to the tank. Everything else was done with a simple manifold swap. My "rich" mate had a mk2 RS2000, flash git, and although the FI'd Manta was no match in a straight line, I could leave him miles behind on the twisties It's funny to compare specs against a new car, but then unless you had a Lux model you only got vinyl seats and electric nothing

When I was 17 it was my second car. It was mint, orange of course with only 56k miles. OMG twenty years of motoring have elapsed since then, and as much as I miss the car it is reminding me of how bloody old I'm getting !