Opel (Opel ) is believed to be understood by many car fans. This car company originated in Germany, but was acquired by GM Group in the early years, making it a "American car company" in Europe. However, after the financial crisis in 2008, the global economy fell into a downturn. Although Opel has been working hard to adjust, it was eventually abandoned by GM. As a result, it was officially re-acquired by PSA Group for US$2.2 billion in 2017. This acquisition made it a legitimate European car company again.
This is an early sewing machine advertisement for Opel.
Please don’t get me wrong. This article is not about Opel’s history. Although Opel’s development history is really exciting, there is still a history that is more legendary than Opel’s development history in the process of Opel’s development. That is its racing history. Racing may be considered a very distant topic for Chinese people, but the editor can say that every car manufacturer will definitely have its racing history. Of course, the current PPT electric car manufacturer is exceptional. The racing history of many car manufacturers began in the early days of their establishment, and they basically participated in certain events, won any competitions, etc., and became famous. However, Opel was not. Although Opel also participated in events in the early days and even beat Mercedes at that time, the one who really made Opel famous was indeed "building Rockets".
Until 1928, Opel had a market share of 37.5%. It was once the largest automobile manufacturer in Germany and the second largest automobile brand in Germany (Mercedes has a more transcendent position), including the later BMW and Volkswagen, all of which used Opel as their catch-up target.
This may be a little confused. What can you win Mercedes and why do you build the Rockets? Don’t worry, let the editor answer slowly for you. Time goes back to the AVUS track in Berlin, Germany in 1921. At this time, AVUS is holding the AVUS Grand Prix. Fritz von Opel, the grandson of Opel founder Adam Opel, drove an inline four-cylinder engine with only 2.3L displacement. The engine is only 25 horses, and the racing car equipped with this engine is called the Opel 8. And his opponents include Mercedes (Mercedes), who has absolute confidence in the game.
Opel is also producing bicycles while manufacturing sewing machines.
Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße is born from an extremely crazy idea of the former Germans, connected together by using a long stretch of road on the oldest highway and adding guardrails around and adding U-bends at both ends. This AVUS track is located in Berlin, Germany.
This AVUS track located in Berlin, Germany also held many events at that time.
The first AVUS Grand Prix is also the first event Fritz von Opel participated in on behalf of Opel. The team of
Mercedes was leading the other cars at the beginning of the race. Such a huge advantage gave them greater confidence, but unexpectedly, the Opel 8 had slowly caught up from behind and surpassed them in the latter part of the race. This shocked the Mercedes team because the Opel 8, which has only 25 horsepower, isn't very competitive. Could it be that Opel added something to the engine? Of course not. The reason why the Opel 8 can surpass Mercedes' racing cars is that Fritz uses his knowledge of aerodynamics to optimize the design of the racing body to reduce its air resistance. Even without a powerful engine, the Opel 8 can still run faster by relying on its aerodynamic advantages and ultimately achieve surpassing.
Although he won Mercedes in the competition, this did not greatly improve Opel's fame. What really made Opel Auto and Fritz famous was the project jointly responsible for Fritz and astronomer Max Valier (Marx Valier) in the fall of 1927. This project has nothing to do with cars. It is an aerospace rocket research project. This project is called [Verein für Raumschiffahrt], which is also the world's first rocket project. The program also invited German and pyrotechnic engineers and manufacturers, Friedrich Wilhelm Sander, to participate, because Sander has signal rockets that produce solid fuels, and after Sander joined, the program was also promoted faster. The first rocket was not launched into space, and was installed on a glider and Opel-made rocket Opel-Rak1. Both the aircraft and the vehicle are named Opel-Rak1.
With the addition of Sander, the rocket experimental plan is easier to implement.
Opel Rak1 Rocket is a model based on the Opel 4 racing car, equipped with extremely small wings and 12 rocket propulsions with 40KG. The Rak1 rocket was first tested in March 1928 at the Opel test track, Opel Rennbahn, and was driven by racer Kurt Volkhart. It was tested for the first time with a speed of 75km/h. In April of the same year, Rak1 was tested again, this time it had a speed of more than 100km/h and accelerated 0-100 in 8 seconds. This test was very sensational and attracted high attention from the media. After
After that, the research team agreed that faster tests should be conducted, and due to the overwhelming reaction of the media, the venue chose the AVUS track in Berlin for this test. This test also used a new rocket, called the Opel-Rak2. The Rak2 was built on the basis of the Opel 10 racing car. It has larger wings and is equipped with 24 solid-fuel rockets. It can provide 6 tons of thrust for the rocket, and this car weighs only 560KG. On May 23, 1928, the Opel Rak2 rocket came to the AVUS track for testing. This time, more than 3,000 invited guests and media came to watch it. This time, Fritz von Opel will personally test the power of this rocket.
And the driver of this test was Fritz von Opel himself.
This test ended in less than 3 minutes, but Rak2 had already run at 238km/h at this time. The reason why it cannot be faster is that Rak2 cannot provide more downforce, so it must be adjusted before it can increase the speed. On June 23, 1928, the Opel conducted another test. The number of rockets this time has not changed, but other parts of the vehicle have undergone subtle changes. The car was named the Opel Rak3. The speed of this rocket broke the world record and reached 256KPH. After breaking the record, Max Valier, who was partnering with Fritz von Opel, did not give up research and tried to switch from solid-fuel rockets to liquid-fuel rockets, but he eventually suffered an accident during testing, so Max Valier was later called the first death in the Dawn Space Age. After the experiment was successfully completed, the audience came to congratulate Fritz von Opel on its success.
Fritz von Opel, who was only 29 years old at the time, deeply proved to the world the power and controllability of the Rocket's propulsion in front of the camera, and Fritz von Opel also won a new title "Raketen-Fritz" (Rocket Flitz). After this battle, Opel Auto became the most advanced automobile manufacturer in Europe at that time. Although Opel was forced to cancel the Rocket Racing experiment and devoted its energy to the development of new civilian models due to the Great Depression, Opel did not give up continuing the glory accumulated by Opel Rak on the field.
"Raketen-Fritz" was very addicted to the research on rocket propulsion technology at that time.
In the next few decades, Opel devoted his energy to rally and won a total of three European titles between 1982 and 1990. Walter Röhrl, who drove the Opel Ascona 400 in 1982, won the driver's world championship that year, which can be said to be the peak from the beginning.
983, driven by the same famous racer Ari Vatanen (Vatanen), won the Safari Rally (Safari Rally) and won the excellent results.
Opel racing was the hottest time in the mid-1990s German RV Masters (DTM) and International RV (ITC). Unfortunately, Opel was in both of the above events, but only won the championship and other sporadic victory in the 1996 ITC event.
Opel Calibra is active in the DTM arena and is equipped with a V6 with a 500PS engine and four-wheel drive system.
In 2014, Opel returned to the rally field through Adam R2 racing. So far, not only has the brand new Opel Corsa Rally 4 used to participate in the ERC (World Electric Rally Championship) Barum Czech Rally Zlín (Barum Czech Rally) and also launched the ADAC Opel E-Rally Cup this year. The name of this car is also a tribute to Adam Opel, the founder of the Opel brand.
What do you think after reading this racing history of Opel? The editor’s thought is that there are one or two “crazy people” behind the initial stage of every successful car company. It is precisely because of these “crazy people” that the continuous pursuit of the ultimate, innovation and exploration can bring about the successful development of a car company. As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. If a car company can succeed at the beginning of its establishment, its development path will be much smoother.
