Opel wishes Walter Röhrl Happy 75th Birthday

• Röhrl Monte winner: 1982 victory with Opel Ascona 400 was one of his best
• Röhrl Opel GT lover: Perfect mix of driving fun and social acceptance
• Röhrl Opel Corsa-e Rally fan: Respect for the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup
• Röhrl birthday-boy: Up and down the mountains in snow-shoes

Walter Röhrl in Opel Ascona 400

Rally driver of the century. Best rally driver of all time. Driver of the millennium. Even the late, great Niki Lauda called him a “genius on wheels”! Who else could it be but Walter Röhrl, former Opel works rally driver, double world champion rally driver and multiple winner of the famous Monte Carlo Rally, who today celebrates his 75th birthday.

However, titles like these leave the Bavarian motorsports icon stone cold. All he ever wanted to do was prove that he was simply the best rally driver in the world. “My aim was to show that I can win in any car,” said Röhrl in the book Opel Motorsport mit Tradition. And his life’s ambition was to win the Monte Carlo Rally, which he achieved in four different cars.

Opel the reliable: Röhrl and Opel Ascona 400 defeat powerful rivals to win 1982 Monte

According to Röhrl himself (who won the 1974 European Rally Championship in a works Opel Ascona A with co-driver Jochen Berger), one of his best Monte Carlo victories of all came in 1982 with the Opel Ascona 400. “We were up against Hannu Mikkola in the Audi Quattro with four-wheel drive and at least 400 hp,” he remembers. “Our Opel Ascona 400 however, had only rear-wheel drive and 260 hp! But Opel ‘der Zuverlässige’ (Opel the reliable) did the name proud and by the second stage we were already firmly in the lead.”

Rest is history, as they say, and following the Monte win Röhrl went on to claim his second World Rally Drivers Championship title (and Opel’s first) on the gruelling Ivory Coast Rally.

Röhrl remains closely connected to Opel to this very day. For instance, he owns an Opel GT that he acquired from his former chief mechanic, Herbert Fabian. “I like to take the GT when I do the shopping,” he smiles, “it is the perfect mixture of driving fun and social acceptance – when you turn up in an Opel GT there is no jealousy, only admiration.”

ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup: “Remarkable achievement”

Röhrl, the perfectionist behind the wheel who is famous for his straight-talking, is also a keen follower of the all-electric ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup with the Opel Corsa-e Rally. “It’s remarkable what they have achieved there,” he acknowledges. “Charging is a particular difficulty. Of course, the stages have to be shorter now. Long stages that we used to drive are impossible electrically. But if that is the price for bringing rallying into the 21st century then it is the right way to go.”

Opel Corsa-e Rally

Today, as usual, the sports fanatic Röhrl will celebrate his birthday on snow-shoes: “Two hours, first trampling uphill then downhill – glorious! If I don’t do sport every day I get crabby, even though I’m not as fit as I used to be. But recently I was on my bike with friends – some of them only about 50 – and I still blew them off, not only downhill, but uphill too!”

That is pure Walter Röhrl, the legendary race and rally driver idolized by motorsport fans all over the world. What else is there to say but “Congratulations and many happy returns on your 75th from everyone at Opel!”