The clock strikes 11:04 a.m. The gates open, the flagman gives the signal, and 15 Opels may now leave the pits and head out onto the venerable Nürburgring race course. There’s still one more waiting to set off: the white Opel Grand Prix race car from 1913. But the driver of the single-seater remains calm: “It just needs to warm up a little,” assures Joachim Winkelhock, Opel brand ambassador and rally champion. “It’s understandable; the car is over 100 years old after all.”A few minutes later and ‘Jockel’ is whipping the classic race car around the track at over 140 kilometers per hour.
Head to head: Manta A, B Commodore GS / E and the Grand Prix cars from 1913.
Even Jockel respects the ‘monster’
This is exactly the kind of achievements in engineering that incites enthusiasm, and visitors to the 42nd Oldtimer Grand Prix, hosted by the AvD (the German car club), think so too. Fifteen Opels and 111 years of motorsport history all on one race course make for an incredible show. Among them is the two-cylinder Opel race car from 1903, which Hanns-Werner Wirth is driving. Although he has to make three pit stops along the way, at the end he crosses the finish line just as happily as the rest of them. “It amazes me how a car like this is still running at all,” exclaims the experienced classic rally driver. “Opel Classic has done a really excellent job there.”
However, Wolfgang H. Scholz is behind the wheel of the most fickle of race cars. This Opel has all the qualities of a classic: the car, built in 1914, features a whopping 260 hp and a 12.3-liter engine. Even professional drivers like Jockel Winkelhock refer in awe to the green behemoth as ‘the monster.’ Wolfgang Scholz is getting to know it better with each passing lap. “First you have to get a feel for the car.”If the speedometer needle creeps up to over 100, then the experienced classic race car driver holds back. “The car can definitely go faster, and wants to as well, but I’d rather not give into it to the temptation to do so.”
Several yellow Corsas and one black widow
Other cars in the line-up include models such as the Corsa A Cup, Corsa A GSi, Corsa C Rally, Corsa Race Camp, and the current Corsa OPC. ‘Corsa, Old and Yellow’ is after all the slogan of this Opel Classic show. Particularly eye-catching is the Corsa Spider, a working study of a convertible that, along with the Opel 1982, whets your appetite for big things in small packages.
The ‘Black Widow’ stands out in a sea of yellow. It has been reconstructed in keeping with the original, legendary Rekord C, which ushered in a new era of Opel motorsport history in the late 1960s. A number of Kadetts and Asconas also represent the champions of this era.
Like the time in Spa: Walter Röhrl and his Manta A have found each other again.
Man and machine reunited at long last
But don’t forget that it was the Manta A that provided visitors to the Opel tent with one of the day’s most touching moments. In 1975, a young newcomer to the sport, one Walter Roehrl, drove his legendary first race in this very model in Spa, Belgium.
And who’s sitting in the yellow racer this year?
None other than the Walter Roehrl himself, 67 and still young at heart. He starts out with the AvD Historic Marathon at the 42nd Oldtimer Grand Prix, but insists on dropping in again on Opel at the event. “I immediately felt 45 years younger,” Walter Roehrl reveals to presenter Thomas Ranft. Soon memories from the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours in Belgium come flooding back: “This car was still unknown at the time, then suddenly I left the heavily favored Alfa Romeo in its dust.”And everyone knows that old passion lingers: “This car is just as young as me, and absolutely suitable for everyday use,” said Roehrl.
Before starting: Michael and Ulrike Lohscheller in the Commodore.
… with the Head of Finance breathing down the rally legend’s neck
Everyone who saw the man and the machine reunited out on the track were able to see that for themselves. A Commodore B GS/E Coupé followed the pair in hot pursuit. Walter Roehrl celebrated his debut in an Opel at the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally. This time, Michael Lohscheller, Head of Finance at Opel, was driving the classic car: “I had it well under control after the first lap.”His wife Ulrike in the passenger seat fully agreed.