Opel Z

[Eugene Aubry]

Opel Automobile GmbH (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-smallfont-size:85%.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-smallfont-size:100%German pronunciation: [ˈoːpl̩]), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Group prior to its merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to form Stellantis in 2021. Most of the Opel lineup is marketed under the Vauxhall Motors brand in the United Kingdom since the 1980s. Some Opel vehicles were badge-engineered in Australia under the Holden brand until 2020, in North America and China under the Buick, Saturn (until 2010), and Cadillac brands, and in South America under the Chevrolet brand.

Opel is still headquartered in Rsselsheim am Main. The company designs, engineers, manufactures, and distributes Opel-branded passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and vehicle parts; together with its British sister marque Vauxhall, they are present in over 60 countries around the world.[9]

The company was founded in Rsselsheim, Hesse, Germany, on 21 January 1862, by Adam Opel. In the beginning, Opel produced sewing machines. Opel[10] launched a new product in 1886: he began to sell high-wheel bicycles, also known as penny-farthings. Opel's two sons participated in high-wheel bicycle races, thus promoting this means of transportation. In 1888, production was relocated from a cowshed to a more spacious building in Rsselsheim. The production of high-wheel bicycles soon exceeded the production of sewing machines.[11] At the time of Opel's death in 1895, he was the leader in both markets.

The first cars were designed in 1898 after Opel's widow Sophie and their two eldest sons entered into a partnership with Friedrich Lutzmann, a locksmith at the court in Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt, who had been working on automobile designs for some time.[12][13] The first Opel production Patent Motor Car was built in Rsselsheim early 1899, although these cars were not very successful (A total of 65 motor cars were delivered: eleven in 1899, twenty-four in 1900 and thirty in 1901) and the partnership was dissolved after two years, following which Opel signed a licensing agreement in 1901 with the French Automobiles Darracq France to manufacture vehicles under the brand name Opel Darracq. These cars consisted of Opel bodies mounted on Darracq chassis, powered by two-cylinder engines.

Opel's cars were initially tested on public roads, leading to complaints about noise and road damage. Under public pressure, Opel began construction of a test oval in 1917. The track was completed in 1919, but not open to the public until 24 October 1920 under the official name of Opel-Rennbahn (Opel Race Track).[16]

Opel as a company and its co-owner Fritz von Opel, grandson of Adam Opel, were instrumental in popularizing rocket propulsion for vehicles and have an important place in the history of spaceflight and rocket technology. In the 1920s, Fritz von Opel initiated together with Max Valier, co-founder of the "Verein fr Raumschiffahrt", the world's first rocket program, Opel-RAK, leading to speed records for automobiles, rail vehicles and the first manned rocket-powered flight in September 1929.[17] Months earlier in 1928, one of his rocket-powered prototypes, the Opel RAK2, piloted by von Opel himself at the AVUS speedway in Berlin, reached a record speed of 238 km/h (148 mph) in front of 3,000 spectators and world media representatives, including Fritz Lang, director of Metropolis and Woman in the Moon, world boxing champion Max Schmeling, and many other sports and show business celebrities. A world speed record for rail vehicles was reached with RAK3 at a top speed of 256 km/h (159 mph).[18] After these successes, von Opel piloted the world's first public rocket-powered flight using Opel RAK.1, a rocket plane designed by Julius Hatry.[19] World media reported these events, including Universal Newsreel in the US, causing "Raketen-Rummel" or "Rocket Rumble" immense global public excitement, particularly in Germany, where, among others, Wernher von Braun was highly influenced.[20]

Opel RAK became enthralled with liquid propulsion, building and testing them in the late 1920s in Rsselsheim. According to Max Valier's account, Opel RAK rocket designer, Friedrich Wilhelm Sander launched two liquid-fuel rockets at Opel Rennbahn in Rsselsheim on 10 and 12 April 1929. These Opel RAK rockets were the first European, and after Goddard, the world's second, liquid-fuel rockets in history. In his book Raketenfahrt Valier describes the size of the rockets as of 21 cm (8.3 in) in diameter and with a length of 74 cm (29 in), weighing 7 kg (15 lb) empty and 16 kg (35 lb) with fuel. The maximum thrust was 45 to 50 kp, with a total burning time of 132 seconds. These properties indicate a gas pressure pumping. The first missile rose so quickly that Sander lost sight of it. Two days later, a second unit was ready to go, Sander tied a 4,000-meter (13,000 ft)-long rope to the rocket. After 2,000 m (6,600 ft) of rope had been unwound, the line broke, and this rocket also disappeared in the area, probably near the Opel proving ground and racetrack in Rsselsheim, the "Rennbahn". Sander and Opel also worked on an innovative liquid-propellant rocket engine for an anticipated flight across the English Channel. By May 1929, the engine produced a thrust of 200 kg (440 lb.) "for longer than fifteen minutes, and in July 1929, the Opel RAK collaborators were able to attain powered phases of more than thirty minutes for thrusts of 300 kg (660-lb.) at Opel's works in Rsselsheim," again according to Max Valier's account.

The Great Depression led to an end of the Opel-RAK program, but Max Valier continued the efforts. After switching from solid-fuel to liquid-fuel rockets, he died while testing and is considered the first fatality of the dawning space age. Sander's technology was confiscated by the German military in 1935. He was forced to sell his company and was imprisoned for treason. He died in 1938.

In March 1929, General Motors (GM), impressed by Opel's modern production facilities, bought 80% of the company. The Opel family gained $33.3 million from the transaction. Subsequently, during 1935, a second factory was built at Brandenburg for the production of "Blitz" light trucks. In 1929 Opel licensed the design of the radical Neander motorcycle and produced it as the Opel Motoclub in 1929 and 1930, using Kchen, J.A.P., and Motosacoche engines. Fritz von Opel attached solid-fuel rockets to his Motoclub in a publicity stunt, riding the rocket-boosted motorcycle at the Avus racetrack.[21]

After acquiring the remaining shares in 1931, General Motors had full ownership of Adam Opel AG and organized it as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1935, Opel became the first German car manufacturer to produce over 100,000 vehicles annually. This was because of the popularity of the Opel P4 model. The sales price was 1,650 marks and the car had a 23 PS (17 kW) 1.1 L four-cylinder engine achieving a top speed of 85 km/h (53 mph).

Opel also produced the first mass-production vehicle in Germany with a self-supporting ("unibody") all-steel body, closely following the 1934 Citron Traction Avant. This was one of the most important innovations in automotive history.[22] Launched in 1935, the Olympia was light and its aerodynamics enhanced performance and fuel economy.

1938 saw the presentation of the highly successful Kapitn. With a 2.5 L six-cylinder engine, all-steel body, front independent suspension, hydraulic shock absorbers, hot-water heating (with electric blower), and central speedometer. 25,374 Kapitns were made before the intensification of World War II brought automotive manufacturing to a temporary stop in the autumn of 1940, by order of the government.

Opel automobile production ended in October 1940, after the company's American leadership had rejected an "invitation" to switch to munitions manufacture a few months earlier.[24] In 1942 Opel switched to wartime production, making aircraft parts and tanks. Truck manufacture continued at the Brandenburg plant, where the 3.6-liter Opel Blitz truck had been built since 1938. These 3 short tons (2.7 t) trucks were also built under license by Daimler-Benz in Mannheim.[24]

After the end of the war, with the Brandenburg plant dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union, and 47% of the buildings in Rsselsheim destroyed,[25] former Opel employees began to rebuild the Rsselsheim plant. The first postwar Opel Blitz truck was completed on 15 July 1946 in the presence of United States Army General Geoffrey Keyes and other local leaders and press reporters.[25] Opel's Rsselsheim plant also made Frigidaire refrigerators in the early post-war years.[26]

The 1973 version of the Opel Kadett was later rebadged in hatchback, saloon, and estate form as the Vauxhall Chevette for the UK market, with German factories producing the Opel versions. The Opel Ascona of this era was sold on the UK market (and made in British and continental factories) as the Vauxhall Cavalier. Both of these cars had mild styling changes, as did the flagship Opel Rekord and Vauxhall Carlton saloon and estate ranges, which went on sale towards the end of the 1970s.

During the 1970s, Opel expressed interest in building an additional production facility in Spain and eventually settled on a location near Zaragoza , intending to develop a new supermini for the 1980s there. The factory opened in 1982, and its first product was the Opel Corsa (imported to the UK as the Vauxhall Nova from 1983).

The Ascona switched to front-wheel drive for an all-new General Motors J-Car global model format in 1981, with the Cavalier nameplate continuing for the UK market. The Kadett was revamped again in 1984, and became the company's first winner of the European Car of the Year accolade. The Rekord's successor, the Opel Omega (still Vauxhall Carlton in the UK), achieved the same success two years later.

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