Monday 10 May 2021
The Opel Rekord Series C is an executive car that was introduced in August 1966, by Opel as a replacement for the short-lived Opel Rekord Series B. It was slightly larger all round than its predecessor, from which it inherited most of its engines. It continued in production until replaced by the Opel Rekord Series D at the end of 1971.
The Rekord C's 4+1⁄2-year production run was longer than that of any previous generation of Opel Rekord, and during that period 1,276,681 were produced. This made it the first "middle-class" Opel to exceed the one million mark. Cars based on the Rekord C were also built at other General Motors plants both inside and beyond Europe, notably in South Africa and (with Chevrolet engines) Brazil.
After less than a year of production, in August 1966, the "stopgap" Opel Rekord B was replaced with the Opel Rekord C, featuring completely new bodywork. Hans Mersheimer, Opel's Technical Director and Chief Engineer, until his retirement in 1967, had set down the parameters for the new Rekord back in 1963.
The design of the Rekord C has been characterised by some enthusiasts as "erotic" on account of the "hip-curve" („Hüftschwung“ ) on the lower window-line ahead of the C-pillar, which reminded some observers of a Coca-Cola bottle and so gave rise to this becoming known as "Coke-Bottle line" Rekord "(Cola-Flaschen-Rekord)". The "Coke-Bottle line", which was also picked up by GM's English, subsidiary, with the Viva HB and seems to have originated in the United States with one or two mid-1960s "muscle-car" designs: it was also picked up for a sedan design by the 1968 Chevrolet Chevy II. There was a concern at Opel throughout this period that their designs might be rejected by European buyers as being simply "too American", and it was presumably a reflection of this that an alternative design without the "hip-curve" line on the back doors was also prepared by Opel designer Herbert Killmer. There was certainly a perception that Opel's great rival fell foul of the "too American" complaint with their Ford 17M launched in 1967 featuring a variation on the "hip-curve" which then had to be relaunched with a simplified form less than a year later because of poor sales which, rightly or wrongly, were attributed to an excessively American design. Ford's stumble with their 1967 17M model was Opel's gain in the market place, however, and there was no sign of market resistance the exceptionally well balanced overall design of the Opel Rekord C, hip-curve and all.
The new Rekord again offered a relatively extensive range of body types. Top seller was the saloon/sedan, available with either 2 or 4 doors. There was a 3-door "Kombi" station wagon, and now, for the first time, a Rekord station wagon with five doors. Opel also offered a three-door delivery van which was essentially identical to the station wagon except that the rear side windows were replaced with metal panels. In addition, from 1967 a factory built coupé was provided. This version had no fixed B pillar and excited positive reactions to the stylish "pillarless" profile on show when both side windows were fully opened.
A cabriolet version was also available. Based on the Rekord C coupé, this was a coach-built conversion produced by the body builders Karl Deutsch. The approach made them very much more expensive than other cars in the range: the cabriolet cost DM 4,000 more than the coupé on which it was based. Not many Rekord C cabriolets were sold, amid increasing concerns, during the later 1960s, that open topped cars (without roll-over bars) might be more dangerous in the event of a crash than cars with fixed roofs. An alternative cabriolet conversion, based on the Rekord C 2-door sedan, was developed by Karmann of Osnabrück. This never went into anything approaching volume production, although four pre-production examples are believed still to survive.
Opel had introduced a new generation of engines a year earlier with the Rekord B and these were the engines that reappeared in the Rekord C. The engine featured an unusual Camshaft in Head (CIH) engine configuration. The chain-driven camshaft was positioned directly above the cylinders but this was not a conventional ohc design. The camshaft operated the valves using rocker arms because the camshaft itself was positioned too low above the cylinders to permit direct action from the camshaft on the valves heads. One reason for this may have been cosmetic. Other automakers such as BMW with their 1500 launched in 1962 and Volkswagen with their NSU designed K70, which finally made it to the showrooms in 1970, squeezed vital centimeters off the height of the engine unit by canting it over at an eccentric angle in the engine bay. Opel's so-called (CIH) engine configuration similarly enabled the Rekord to incorporate the low bonnet/hood lines that style-conscious product development departments demanded.
The four-cylinder water-cooled 1492 cc unit, known as the "1500", and which first featured the previous year in the Opel Rekord B was now carried over with few significant changes, although an in-house "Carter Licence" carburetter briefly returned (having, in the Rekord B, been replaced by a bought-in carburetter from Zenith or Solex). The "1500" was the entry-level engine in 1966 and came with a claimed maximum power output of 58 hp which in 1969 was raised to 60 hp (44 kW) when the old GM "Carter Licence" carburetter was replaced by a bought-in Solex carburetter. Acceleration figures for the 1498 cc cars were a little slower than on the predecessor model which presumably resulted from the increased weight of the Rekord C. Fuel consumption looks heavy by modern standards, but this was nonetheless the most fuel efficient model in the Rekord line-up, and published data indicate that it was also more fuel efficient than the contemporary Ford 17M and Volkswagen 411. Early in 1970 the 1492 cc unit was withdrawn. Presumably it had cost much the same to produce as the more powerful and more torquey but in most respects identical 1698 cc engine which now-became the entry-level power plant. More significantly, at the end of 1970 Opel would introduce the Opel Ascona, which, being slightly smaller and more modern than the Rekord, would compete more effectively in the 1500 cc class than the relatively underpowered base-level Rekord.
A four-cylinder water-cooled 1698 cc unit had also first appeared in the Rekord B, but only in high compression form. Launching the Rekord C in 1966 Opel introduced a 1698 cc unit with the same lower compression ratio of 8.2:1 as the 1492 cc engine: in this form the engine was known as the "1700". As with the "1500", Opel returned to the old home produced "Carter Licence" carburetter for the first year of production, giving rise to a claimed power output of just 60 hp (44 KW). As with the "1500", so with the "1700", Opel gave up on the self built carburetter after a year, and with a bought-in Solex carburetter, though still with the 8.2:1 compression ratio, claimed power with the "1700" unit was increased to 66 hp (48 kW) in 1967. The "1700" engine powered more Rekord Cs than any of the other engines available for the car. Also offered was a "1700 S" using the same engine block but with a Solex 35 PDSI carburetter and a compression ratio raised to 8,8:1. Powered by this unit, the Rekord came with a claimed maximum power output of 75 hp (65 kW). This, in effect, was the same unit that had been launched in 1965 in the Rekord B 1700S.
The four-cylinder water-cooled 1897 cc unit, providing a maximum 90 hp (66 kW) of power known as the "1900 S" had also first appeared in 1965 in the Rekord B. With a compression ratio of 9.0:1 and a Solex twin chamber 32 DIDTA carburetter it powered the fastest four-cylinder version of the Opel Rekord C at its 1966 launch. However, in November 1967 a new version of the 1897 cc engine appeared with a modified "high efficiency" cylinder head and with the compression ratio further raised - now to 9.5:1 - and, for the first time in a Rekord, two Italian twin chamber Weber 40 DFO carburetters. This engine version, known as the "1900 H", came with a claimed maximum power output of 106 hp (78 kW) which made the car that it powered the most powerful Rekord yet. This was branded as the Opel Rekord Sprint and was initially available as a sedan or a coupé. In January 1969 Opel reported that the Rekord Sprint Coupé had sold much better than the sedan/saloon version, and the sedan/saloon version was withdrawn.
In March 1964 Opel had introduced Rekord customers to the option of a six-cylinder engine, installing a well-tried unit that was already powering the larger Admiral and Kapitän models and could trace its origins back to 1937. The Rekord C range was broadened in December 1966 with the option of an entirely new six-cylinder engine, featuring the (CIH) valvegear and camshaft configuration of the new four-cylinder engines introduced in 1965. In fact the new six-cylinder engine shared its cylinder dimensions with the entry level Rekord's 1492 cc unit which will have reduced usefully the variety of components needed. However, the six-cylinder engine naturally had an engine capacity 1+1⁄2 the size or the four-cylinder unit, which gave rise to an engine size of 2239 cc. Claimed power of 95 hp (70 kW) was slightly higher than that of the (at launch) most powerful 4-cylinder Rekord C, the "1900 S" and the six-cylinder engine also provided a small dividend in terms of improved torque. Performance of the new "2200" Rekord was therefore ahead of that of the "1900 S", but the engine was also relatively heavy and there was a penalty in terms of fuel consumption. The 6-cylinder Rekord C sold only in small numbers, and in August 1968 it was withdrawn from sale. After this there were no more six-cylinder-engined Opel Rekords, although this is when the Rekord "Six" went on sale in South Africa and South-West Africa, as the Commodore nameplate was not offered there. In southern Africa the six-cylinder Rekords were available with four-door sedan or two-door coupé bodywork, and only in combination with an automatic transmission.
By the time they withdrew the six-cylinder Rekord, Opel had launched, in February 1967, the Opel Commodore. This shared the Rekord's body but provided more luxurious trimmings, and it came with a choice from three different sizes of six-cylinder engine. The "2200" engine first seen in the Rekord C in December 1966 was also offered in the new Commodore when it was launched in February 1967. However, most Commodore buyers chose other (larger) engines, leaving the "2200" version a slow seller in both the Commodore and the Rekord ranges.
Technical data:
- engine: S4
- capacity: 1897 cc
- horsepower: 75 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 150 km/h
