1965-1967 Opel Diplomat 5.4 Coupe

[editor]

Some of you may find this interesting, so I thought I'd put it up. Largely forgotten now, the Opel Diplomat 5.4 Coupe was a supercar in it's day. Good photos from Opel Public Relations.

It is interesting to note just how much American design influenced European automakers (including Opel) in the Fifties and Sixties.

LINK HERE

[Stéphane Dumas]

thanks for the link about the Opel Diplomat It looks like a smaller 1964-65 Chevelle coupe hardtop or a smaller Riviera
Also the Opel Rekord with its nice coke-bottle styling of the same era gived birth to the Brazilian Chevy Opala

[ees1996]

Man that is a nice car. The history on the engine alone would be more than enough to get me!

[Bravada]

Oh yes, the KAD trio are absolute classics. The last time GM was seriously competing with Mercedes. I am not that much a fan of the Coupe, but the berlinas were my dream cars when I was a kid...

[GMCSonoma]

Neat car and a great powertrain!!!!! Thanks for posting that!

[t-rex]

That's one car that's far from forgotten in my mind...

[editor]

Bravada -

Hey, that's a great photo of the other part of the puzzle - thanks for posting it. Very nice.

[t-rex]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Oh yes, the KAD trio are absolute classics. The last time GM was seriously competing with Mercedes. I am not that much a fan of the Coupe, but the berlinas were my dream cars when I was a kid...

Those are the same alloy wheels found on the Ford Granada!

[Bravada]

I am not sure whether those wheels are aftermarket or not, but I guess they might be. They look late 1970s-ish at best, and the last generation of KAD (Diplomat B) was discontinued in 1977, though for some time it did continue as an old car desperately trying to cut it in the modern marketplace, so it might have been "spruced up" with more modern wheels for the last seasons... That said, it looks really neato with those!

This brochure shows the Diplomat B as I remember it originally, with period wheels and all:

http://www.oldtimer.400.pl/galeria/D.../diplomat.html

[GMCSonoma]

Originally Posted by Bravada

I am not sure whether those wheels are aftermarket or not, but I guess they might be. They look late 1970s-ish at best, and the last generation of KAD (Diplomat B) was discontinued in 1977, though for some time it did continue as an old car desperately trying to cut it in the modern marketplace, so it might have been "spruced up" with more modern wheels for the last seasons... That said, it looks really neato with those!

This brochure shows the Diplomat B as I remember it originally, with period wheels and all:

http://www.oldtimer.400.pl/galeria/D.../diplomat.html

Intersting link! Were these on their own unique chassis, or were they shared with Holden? Were they actually the A body on the 112" & 116" WB???

[Bravada]

I would guess the chassis MIGHT be unique, GM was still willing to fund each division's independent tech dev at that time... The chassis seems to be derived from the previous-gen 1964 KAD (the above model is a 1969-1977 Diplomat B), and I think it might date back to even earlier Kapitans... The wheelbase is 2845 mm, the 1970/71 Holden HTs were 2820 mm... Besides, the KAD were still using those fashionable DeDions in the rear, unlike any other contemporary GM car I know of...

[GMCSonoma]

Well, 2845mm converts roughly to 112"
2820mm converts to 111", roughly...
Hmm...

I understand the independence between divisions, but yet there were many similiar platforms with shared components!


neat, all the same!

[Bravada]

Well, I guess that even if the base was the same, the KAD were afforded some significant reworking. This was a car that was meant to compete with the Mercedes S-Klasse of that time (not yet formally established, I mean the 280S, 280SL and 350), and, according to period reviews, chassis-wise it was at least on par with those...

BTW, wheels are genuine! Photo from period brochure:



Entire 1976 brochure - the Diplomat was really tired by then...

http://www.redline-hannover.de:8080/...obseite11.html

[editor]

Yes, Mercedes was the target at that time - Opel was trying to drive the brand up-market, but the effort wasn't even close to successful. Consumers just wouldn't pay high-end money for the Opel brand, and Opel, unlike BMW and Audi, who were sort of in the same boat at the time, did not stick with the effort to push their cars up-market. Opel went back to the mass-market, and I think you know what happened to BMW, and then Audi.

[RedVee8]

I like the mid 70s(?) Monza coupe. There used to be one about 10 mins down the road that I saw around fairly frequently. Sold now.
The Ascona looked alright too.

Also in the 70's Wheels magasine had a story showing the mid sizers from around the GM world. The LH Torana, the Opel Ascona - not sure what else, Bravada correct me but I think there may have been a Vauxhall (was it still a ) Victor, an probably a US. Anyway the point is that they were all roughly the same size and looked similar but just different enough so that every body could have there own version.