OPEL

OPEL 

Five brothers founded the Opel plant for the production of sewing machines and bicycles. The first cars were built on the company's main plant in the city of Russe selhayme-west of Frankfurt-am-Main. Car production began in the 1898 first model was a failure, and the company had an agreement to issue licenses for the French model of firm Darracq ("Darrak"). In 1911 the plant burned to the ground. Car production resumed in 1912 until the mid 20's. Opel remained an independent and collected mainly middle-class machines.PACKARD 

Opel Kadett GT-E at the site of British Rally 1976 Rally in the execution of Mr. Coupe was fuel injection system and a 5-speed ZF gearbox
In 1928 the company came under the control of the American company General Motors ("GM"), which led to the establishment of ties with the British company Vauxhall ("Vauxhall"), is already in its composition. However, for many years of cooperation between them was not. The patronage of Americans benefited. By 1930, Opel was the largest German manufacturer of automobiles, capturing 37% of the local market.
In 30-ies. supported by finance GM, Opel resisted depression with cheap cars. During the Second World War, its main factory was in ruins, and in 1945 the equipment for the production model Kadett ("Cadet") was taken to the Soviet Union to reparations. Able to resume car production in 1947, after which the company took 20 years to return to the forefront.

Opel Manta rally on the highway of the Royal Automobile Club in 1985
The main activity was production of Opel family cars, but sometimes the company turned to sports cars. The first of these was the coupe "GT" 60s. It took a long time before GM Opel allowed to begin limited production of a special sports model Ascona 400 ("Ascona"). In the 70's. Concern GM began gradually to bring together production programs Opel and Vauxhall. Although each company has continued until the 80th. use some of their engines and transmissions, the design and shape of the body very quickly became common. Basic models of both companies has been difficult to distinguish from each other.
In the 80's. Opel began producing limited lots of high-speed versions of their models. To do this, the British company Cosworth Engineering ("Kosuort Engineering") was contracted to manufacture 16-valve 2-liter engine for the Kadett and Ascona. Then, Opel has developed all-wheel drive transmission. In the 90's. two new original models - Coupe Calibra ("Caliber") with a motor with a turbo supercar Omega / Carlton, developed and collected by Lotus ("Lotus"), is also part of GM.

In the early 90s. Opel led the formidable range of Lotus Omega (377 hp)
And yet, Opel never distracted from their main task, to produce as many cars. In the early 90s. Each year the company manufactured the more than 600 thousand vehicles, putting it on par with the German branch of Ford ("Ford").