bit of pre-xmas fun/cheer.

name this mystery car.

bonus question - name the engineer responsible.

clue (not off topic of world of 914s).


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prize. if you ever come to australia i'll take you to the pub.

Opel Kadett....Heinrich Nordhoff

Ditto, Opel Kadett... is this one of the fuel record cars?

@Bullethead @Craigers17

warmish.

it is an opel kadett, but..........

EDIT
not nordhoff.

Fritz Lohr? I thought he was the main man in the '70s-'80s.

Has to be German ,can’t spell cadet

no
60s.


kadett maybe/sort of.

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another clue.
one german manufacturer tested something else using a corvair station wagon.

Feel like I'm getting into the weeds. Nordhoff or Ferry?

warm

not in the weeds.

2nd and final guess for me....Harley Earl?

no

freezing cold.

right country.

Opel Kadett B Caravan — picture must be a development car, probably hybrid electric prototype powered by Stirling engine (Stir-Lec)?

warm on the kadett function.
mid western cold on the engine.

right call going for engine.
nutha clue.



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kadett - standard version by opel.

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mystery kadett.
clue - gear lever boot.
+ something thats just not in that place in a standard kadett.

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Can I join in?

It's a test mule built jointly by VW and Porsche – part of the EA266 prototype programme (see pic), with four-cylinder motor laid on its side under the rear seat. The Kadett wagon body was used to disguise the car when out on public roads.

Oh, and a certain Ferdinand Piech was Porsche's driving force behind the project...

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^^^^^ This. When Wonki presents a riddle, there has to be a Piech angle

My brother had one back in the '70s. The car sat for 4 months as he waited for a set of front brake rotors. No internet back then; no distribution channel either in the USA.

see you at the pub if you ever come down here.

- as part of that - 914 replacement would have had one of these engines in it.

further bonus.
heinrich klie had a big hand in the initial first version design.
lots of 914 elements in the details of the original protos.

EDIT - additional info.
not just an inline 4 laid flat.

VW engine range was inline 3 and inline 4 laid flat.
piech liked odd cylinder engines?

in parallel he was doing the engine range for porsche transition to water cooling.
derived from these VW engines.
914 replacement would have probably got the 110hp 4.
the water cooling radiator is part of the engine packaging.
looks pretty sketchy if you ask me.
def would have overheated in australian conditions!

not only was he working on a 914 replacement project off the side of this,
he was also doing the GTI before the golf GTI in the VW range.

note the tacho position in the hot hatch.

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standard econobox version

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most histories say all protos were crushed except for one retained by VW.
in their museum.

but there is a second one. and i think its hidden in the far end of the porsche basement?
not sure. its the hot hatch version. escaped the leopard tanks as well.

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Looks like an air cooling fan at the crankshaft side of the flat four ??

My brother had an Opel GT sold by GMC Buick Cadillac dealers in the USA back in the mid-seventies. He wrecked it, no serious damage, except for his ego. I gave him a few bucks for it and traded it in on my 2nd 914 to a used sports car place that wanted to put a Corvette engine in the Opel GT, but not sure that ever happened. This is NOT the car, but what it looked like before the fender-bender:

the fan does look very similar in design to a 911 fan.
its positioned off the bottom of the engine at the sump side.
driven by a belt off the crankshaft pulley that also seems to drive the alternator and water pump. you can see it twists around the alternator goes across the fan drive and seems to come out underneath.

would have been a prick of a thing to change the belt on?

the radiator was positioned on passenger (right hand side of car) and ducted to the fan.

piech was really going for it on the packaging front.

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engine in the first batch of running protos. you can see the duct work off the sump end of engine to radiator.

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it looked like it had a porsche steering rack same or similar to 911/914.
steering column cranked across to c/l of car under dashboard.

the opel gt had an interesting (but negative) part to play in australia not getting its GM division sports car.

same time as opel gt was being developed by GM europe this car, the torana GTR-X was being developed by Holden, the australian subsidiary/brand.

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almost went into production but GM management thought better of it and canned it after number crunching. decided they could do better if they bought in opel GTs for small numbers of aus market. then never did a rhd opel gt so that was the end of that.
similar problem to 914. no rhd versions. GTR-X was a plastic fantastic the same as the corvette.
a prototype survives and still belongs to GM (holden was shut down about 7 years ago).
and a second prototype that was almost complete when the program was shut down was sold off to a retired holden engineer back in the 80s to save it from the crusher.
he died a few years back without ever succeeding in re-assembling it. was missing a lot of parts. apparently its being restored and put back together presently.
design is interesting in that its what you would call front mid-engined.

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