Did BMW designers get their inspiration for the 6-Series from this Opel Manta? Opel in the early 1970’s had an answer to the segment leader, the British made Ford Capri. It had all the styling elements and it was better built and far better looking.
All Mantas came with the 1.9 liter engine that could run the 0-60 time in about 13 seconds. This Opel manta was well known for its handling ability as it was introduced with a brand new front suspension design and with an upgraded GT style rear suspension.
The new front suspension design eliminated the oversteer problem that had plagued the transverse leaf spring suspensions of the Opel GT and the popular Opel Kadett. Compared to the Ford Capri, the Opel Manta was more a grand tourer than sports coupe.
Opel left the Manta alone until 1975, when the emissions mandate caused Opel to add fuel injection. The Bosch L-Jetronic electronic computerized system, which precisely measures the amount of fuel for each cylinder.
This cut into the fuel consumption somewhat, but also brought up the performance back toward pre-1971 models.
