{"id":48542,"date":"2023-04-29T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T13:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48542"},"modified":"2023-04-29T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T13:03:09","slug":"junkyard-gem-1957-opel-olympia-rekord-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48542","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1957 Opel Olympia Rekord P"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting in the middle 1950s, General Motors made a real effort to sell Americans its vehicles built on the other side of the Atlantic. Pontiac dealers here got the British-built Vauxhall Victor<\/a>, while Buick dealers sold the Victor’s cousin, the German-built Opel Olympia<\/a>. We saw a discarded ’58 Victor Super Estate<\/a> a few years back, and today’s Junkyard Gem<\/a> showed up recently at the very same car graveyard in northeastern Colorado<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Olympia name goes way back in Opel history<\/a>, when the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games<\/a> inspired its selection. You’d think that the notoriety of the 1936 Olympics as a Nazi Party propaganda festival might have encouraged Opel to change the car’s name after World War II, but Olympia badges went on various Opels<\/a> (with some pauses) through 1970.<\/p>\n

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Just as the Malibu name began its life as a trim-level designation for the Chevelle<\/a>, so did the Rekord name get appended onto the Olympia. The Rekord name eventually took over completely, with the last Rekords<\/a> coming off the assembly line in 1986.<\/p>\n

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The “P” in this car’s name comes from the panoramic wraparound front and rear glass, a feature inspired by the gorgeous machinery coming from GM’s Detroit car divisions<\/a> at the time. Starting in 1959, this model became known as just the Opel Rekord<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The influence from snouts seen on the 1955 Buick<\/a> and 1955 Oldsmobile<\/a> is unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There’s a great deal of 1956 Chevrolet<\/a> inspiration visible in the side view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The MSRP for this car in the United States was $1,995, which amounts to $21,818 in 2023 dollars. The similar 1957 Vauxhall Victor sedan cost $1,988 here ($21,741 in today’s money). The cheapest possible 1957 Chevrolet four-door sedan (the One-Fifty with straight-six engine and three-on-the-tree manual transmission<\/a>) cost $2,048 ($22,397 now). Of course, this Opel would have been in a showroom with far more upscale 1957 Buicks, which started at $2,660 ($29,090 after inflation) for a four-door.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Still, this was a small car that got good fuel economy and was easy to park, yet boasted up-to-the-minute American styling. Buick dealers managed to move some of them here, though Opels became far more commonplace on our roads<\/a> starting in the late 1960s. Yes, I bought this beautiful hood ornament; it now lives on my garage wall.<\/p>\n

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The engine is a 1.5-liter overhead-valve straight-four, rated at 51.3 horsepower and 78.8 pound-feet. The ancestry of this engine goes all the way back to the 1937 Olympia.<\/p>\n

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The only transmission available was a three-speed column-shifted manual<\/a>, which put it firmly in the American automotive mainstream in 1957.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This car had a big fabric-covered sliding sunroof top. I’m not sure if this is a factory option or an aftermarket job. The luggage rack on the roof doesn’t make much sense in combination with the sunroof, but it looks cool.<\/p>\n

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This car sat outdoors in the harsh High Plains climate for many years, and the interior is quite crispy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rodent nesting material and poop are everywhere inside, which means hantavirus<\/a> is a threat to parts pullers. I’d wear a respirator if I wanted to grab anything serious out of this car’s interior.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The body is solid, with just a bit of rust from sitting in snow every winter. This car could be put back on the road without much effort, but it’s stuck two-thirds of a continent plus an ocean from the enthusiasts who would appreciate it the most.<\/p>\n\n

Der Zuverl\u00e4ssige<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting in the middle 1950s, General Motors made a real effort to sell Americans its vehicles built on the other side of the Atlantic. Pontiac dealers here got the British-built Vauxhall Victor, while Buick dealers sold the Victor’s cousin, the German-built Opel Olympia. We saw a discarded ’58 Victor Super Estate a few years back, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}