Start with what the Opel Tech 1 is: a 5-door hatchback, built from 1981, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer.
The background
The Opel Tech 1 Concept was a research vehicle and concept car developed by Opel, which was a subsidiary of General Motors at the time. It was exhibited at the 1981 International Motor Show Germany (IAA) in Frankfurt. The car was based on the fourth-generation Opel Kadett D and used the platform, which was called the T Car. The vehicle was designed by Erhard Schnell and foreshadowed some of the design aspects found on production Opel/Vauxhall cars released throughout the 1980s.
Under the skin
The record carries the shape — a 5-door hatchback — and the layout: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Where it sits
In the Opel line-up the Opel Tech 1 has a clear place: it replaced the 1979 Opel Kadett (D); it handed the line to the 1985 Opel Kadett (E). The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Mitsubishi Pajero, the DeLorean Motor Company DeLorean DMC-12, the Audi Quattro. Its Opel stablemates include the Opel Sintra and the Opel K-180.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Opel Tech 1 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.
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