1965 Opel Admiral V8 - Mini-Chevelle
 

During the 1960's and a few years in to the 70's GM in Germany Opel factory had an American designer. He apparently had some connections and were influenced by the American style. Opels from these years look very much like Chevelles in the styling.

Admiral, Diplomat and Kapitän were the big Opels, just a bit smaller than the Chevelle. Smaller cars were the Opel Rekord and Commodore that shared a lot of styling with the Chevelle but a much smaller car.

Standard engine were the 2.6 litre and later 2.8 litre straight six OHC engine, or as Opel called it CIH (Camshaft In Head).

The cool version were the Diplomat with a 283 Chevy V8, but the Admiral could also be had with V8.

There was also a special version of the Diplomat, a 2-door hardtop that had a 327 smallblock, body were made by Karmann and 347 units were made for the modell years 1965-67.

Today I saw one of them at a local meeting, a 1965 Diplomat Coupé V8. The V8's all got PowerGlide as transmission.

http://www.protouring.se/files/opel_admiral_1965_1.jpg
http://www.protouring.se/files/opel_admiral_1965_2.jpg
http://www.protouring.se/files/opel_admiral_1965_3.jpg
http://www.protouring.se/files/opel_admiral_1965_4.jpg

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Diplomat

Cool car!


Jan

Re: 1965 Opel Admiral V8 - Mini-Chevelle
 

The Opel's were pretty solid cars.
IIRC, the 283 in that car was fitted with a factory oil cooler.

Re: 1965 Opel Admiral V8 - Mini-Chevelle
 

----Very cool! the front is reminiscent of a 63 Chevy and the rear and roofline reminds me of the 63 Grand Prix. Dont think I ever heard of these before. How many are left, do you think?......Bill S

Re: 1965 Opel Admiral V8 - Mini-Chevelle
 

The coupes are rare, with numbers below 1000 I believe.

Re: 1965 Opel Admiral V8 - Mini-Chevelle
 

Several styling clues of a '65 Chevelle.

Re: 1965 Opel Admiral V8 - Mini-Chevelle
 

very cool. Looks like a 65 Chevelle from the beltline up