!NEW! Opel at Techno Classica 2015 – Design as a Brand Value

• Exciting: Ten rare Opel models at vintage car show in Essen
• Innovative: Opel Design Studio first of its kind in Europe
• Ground-breaking: Style icon Experimental GT celebrates 50^th birthday
• Opel design philosophy: “Sculptural artistry meets German precision“ 

Exciting curves. Opel Experimental GT was shown on a slightly slanted platform at the IAA in 1965 to emphasize the two-seater’s dynamic shape.

Opel showcases ten design icons and concept cars at this year’s Techno Classica in Essen (15.-19.04.). The rare models on display range from the Experimental GT, the Diplomat A coupé and the Genève Study to the GTC Concept, and – as an example of Opel’s current design language – the new Corsa. The exhibit demonstrates that exciting design is one of Opel’s core brand values, a message underlined back in 1964, when Opel opened the first design studio owned by a European automaker. It was there that, for the first time, professionally trained designers and modelers – not just design draftsmen and model makers as had been the norm until then – began creating and developing the design of future vehicles. Opel welcomes all the friends of the brand, as well as all those interested in automotive history, to its 650 m2 stand in Hall 2 at Essen.

Originally, the Opel Genéve Concept that made its premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in 1975 was to be powered by a Wankel engine. But the oil crisis in the early 1970s and the engine’s high fuel consumption halted this project. 

The beginnings of automobile design

Opel’s classic collection comprises about 500 cars that embody more than 150 years of the brand’s engineering expertise and embrace various style and design eras. Opel entered the automotive world in 1899 with the Patent Motor Car “System Lutzmann”. While horse-drawn carriages initially served as the starting point for motor car engineering for all manufacturers, immediately after the turn of the century the first approaches to developing specific automotive design characteristics quickly took shape.

Opel engineers were already experimenting with the streamlined shape back then and Opel models from this era often carried the sobriquet “Torpedo”, highlighting their streamlined frontal design. The influence of such design on the shape of future cars was continually growing.

Pioneer of forms. The Design Studio opened in 1964, called N10 internally, set standards for progressive work and quickly turned into a hothouse of creativity for European designers.

In 1964, Rüsselsheim-based Opel was the first European automaker to open its own design center, still called “styling studios” back then. It accommodated the first design organization owned by an automaker outside North America. Just one year after operations began, the first product from the team of Opel designers and modelers made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in 1965. Their stunning Opel Experimental GT was the first true concept car from a European automaker. Hardly anyone had expected such a sporty concept car from Opel. And even less expected was that the Rüsselsheim carmaker would bring such a trend-setting vision to the road: in 1968, Opel presented the production-ready GT sports car. Today, the Opel GT is one of the most coveted Opel cars on the classic car market.

Showpiece. Opel Experimental GT was first shown at the IAA in 1965, causing quite a sensation.

The premium-class models from Rüsselsheim’s KAD series are now just as sought after as the Opel GT. Within this model range, the 1965 Diplomat A Coupé occupies a very special place. Like the Experimental GT, it is celebrating its 50th birthday this year and it is a true rarity. Just 347 of these coupés, based on the Diplomat V8 sedan, were built by the Osnabrück coachbuilders Karmann between 1964 and 1968.

The Diplomat A V8 Coupé was not just luxurious, it was one of the fastest grand touring cars of its time

Opel again caused a sensation with another study at the 1969 IAA in Frankfurt. The Opel CD (Coupé Diplomat) thrilled industry experts with its striking, tapered form. The fiberglass body was based on a platform about 30 centimeters shorter than the Diplomat B, together with a wheelbase of 2.5 meters. For demonstration purposes, the glass dome that served as the cabin roof could be folded back as a whole with the windshield. The lattice model displayed at the Techno Classica gives an insight into what was at the time highly innovative technology in the Opel CD.

In 1975 another breath-taking concept study made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show – the aptly named Genève Concept. Designers in Advanced Engineering again created a two-seat sports coupé, this time adopting a mid-engine principle. The shape was even more tapered and streamlined and it was, of course, again fitted with pop-up headlamps.

Opel has continued presenting exciting studies in the small-car segment. At the Geneva Motor Show in 1982, the Corsa Spider, a small two-seat roadster penned by Opel designer Hideo Kodama, was unveiled. It was the forerunner of a completely new small-car range below the Kadett, which debuted in the fall of 1982 as the Corsa. With sales totaling more than 12.4 million units, this model range is today one of the most popular in the small car segment.

With the Opel Insignia study in 2003 and above all with the unveiling of the Opel GTC Concept in 2007, a new design era began at Opel, summed up by the phrase: “Sculptural artistry meets German precision”. Sculpted body surfacing and 3D headlamps are signature styling motifs of the studies created by Chief Designer Mark Adams.

As the latest example of this new design language, the fifth generation Opel Corsa will be displayed at the Rüsselsheim automaker’s stand. The new Corsa shares similarities with the successful lifestyle-oriented Opel ADAM, such as its low grille. And with its wing-shaped headlamps and that signature Opel, ‘blade’ body side, it represents the current, further evolution of Opel design.

!NEW! 50 Years of Innovation: Opel Design Studio First of its Kind in Europe

• Advanced Studio started its creative work at Opel in Rüsselsheim in 1964
• Architecture and concept was modeled after GM studio in Warren, Michigan
• Design icons from Opel GT to Opel Monza Concept

1964 was a year of Olympic Games – the XI Winter Games were opened in Innsbruck, and just a few months later, the Olympic flame burned at the XVIII Summer Games in Tokyo. And Rüsselsheim also extended an invitation to a special celebration. For the first time, guests were able to visit the new Opel Design Studio in building N10. For many of them it was also the last time, because after the grand opening, the futuristic-looking facilities were again closed to the public. From June 1964, forms, colors and functions of the brand’s cars were developed and decided here. “It’s easier to get into Fort Knox than into N10,” said an insider back then.

The new, ultra-modern Opel Styling facility that opened in 1964 in the N10 building was directly inspired by GM Styling in Detroit. This new set-up propelled Opel to the leading edge of automotive design in Europe.

The formal opening of the building marked a milestone in European automotive history. It was the largest design studio owned by an automaker in Europe. Up until then, most European car manufacturers often commissioned external specialists for the development of new concept cars. Northern Italy, in particular the area around the capital of the Piedmont region, Turin, was regarded as the mecca of automobile design. Pietro Frua, Guiseppe “Nuccio” Bertone and Pininfarina had all set up their coachbuilding enterprises between the Alps and the Apennines. They were responsible for the design of many of the car manufacturers’ new models and concepts.

First studies from European car manufacturers

The idea for Opel’s own design studio came from US parent company GM. In Warren, Michigan, near company headquarters in Detroit, GM Styling had already been working on the future of the automobile since the late 1950s. The first attention-getting concept car had been presented even earlier: after the Art & Color Section established in 1927 and headed by Harley Earl was re-named GM Styling in 1937, just one year later GM presented the Buick Y-Job – the first genuine concept vehicle in automotive history. The goal had been to develop a new, large convertible for the Buick brand to present to the public. The building in Warren was now built on the Rüsselsheim premises, identical in form, layout and function, just on a smaller scale.

In the early 1960s, GM Styling was the biggest and most powerful design organization in the world. By 1956, GM Styling’s 1,200 staff members had settled into the brand new building designed by Eero Saarinen at GM’s Technical Center in Warren, near Detroit. Opel benefited considerably from GM’s power and vast expertise.

However, the Rüsselsheim design studio’s task was much more complex. It was to develop not only the design language of new model lines, but its sharp minds and visionaries were to reach out beyond the confines of daily business and research the design of future vehicles. Design was seen as strategic focus for future success, not as an end in itself. And this is exactly what made the difference. While others at best developed the shape of a new body, in Rüsselsheim thought was being put into design language and emotions, including aspects like what kind of statement, what character does the customer expect from the car of the future.

Clare M. MacKichan, founder of Opel Styling in Rüsselsheim, sits in the middle of his staff for one of their first meetings in their new building. They made Opel Styling the most advanced and powerful automotive design organization in Europe.

Advanced Studio was a department in N10, free from daily design work, charged not with working on what should be on the road tomorrow or the day after, but with developing possibilities and opportunities for products that would win over customers years down the road. This was a real challenge. Because as a designer back then said, if you are a step ahead of the mainstream’s taste, you are moving around on the precipice to boredom. Take a brave step further, and you have made yourself inaccessible to most people. Or to put it more bluntly: had someone entered the king’s palace in the 19th century with a tablet PC, that person would have had to reckon with being thrown in jail for subversive behavior. Maybe that is why some automobile studies look boring and uninspired just a few years after their premiere.

Opel’s design team led by Erhard Schnell (standing right) try out the future Opel GT’s interior at Opel’s brand new Advanced Studio.

The Opel design studio’s task made it unique in Europe. It quickly turned into a European school for automobile design that had a magical attraction for the best in the industry. The studio’s personnel list from the past reads like a Who’s Who of the automotive design world: Anatole Lapine, Erhard Schnell, George Gallion, Charles M. ‘Chuck’ Jordan, Herbert Killmer, Chris Bangle, Murat Nasr and Hideo Kodama. And more than a few made their way to other manufacturers during their career after other brands had also established their own design studios years later. Many ideas, forms and design statements in automobiles originated in Rüsselsheim and reach back into the 1960s.

Following the stunning success of the Experimental GT at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Opel decided to put the car into production. While engineers were developing the chassis and powertrain of the future Opel GT, designers adapted its shape for production, which required creating new sketches and clay models.

Opel GT production started in 1968. But Opel designers had further ideas and the Advanced design team under Erhard Schnell (speaking with Hans Seer) prepared a proposal for an Aero GT with a targa roof, here as a clay model, for the 1969 Frankfurt Motor Show.

The list of design icons created by the Opel Advanced Design Studio in these 50 years can hardly be topped in its diversity. The Opel Experimental GT was the first masterpiece of work the young, committed team presented just one year after the new design studio was opened. The bold sports car already made its debut in 1965 at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA). Thereafter in quick succession followed the Opel CD, a streamlined coupé with a V8 engine in 1969, the GT2 with sliding doors in 1975 and the extremely aerodynamically optimized Tech1, whose drag coefficient of Cd 0.235 was an absolute sensation in the early 1980s. The women and men from the Advanced Design Studio team presented their latest work at the last IAA in Frankfurt. The Opel Monza Concept shows design solutions and technical approaches that will appear in the brand’s model lines in the coming years.

Opel Monza Concept (2013)