Opel Olympia

The Opel Olympia is a

This engine was to remain in production until 1960 with only minor changes and its architecture was also used for the 2.5-liter "six" installed in the Opel Super 6 and Kapitäns.^[6]

The car's body was also altered, not only giving it a facelift and adding a 4-door saloon version, but also making the cars somewhat bigger overall - both 7 cm (3 in) wider and 9 cm (3.5 in) longer, but also on a 6 cm (2.4 in) longer wheelbase.

It was available in the same versions as its predecessor with the addition of the 6-light LV:

• LZ 2-door 4-light saloon, 2675 Reichsmark
• LV 4-door 6-light saloon, 2950 Reichsmark
• CL 2-door 4-light cabriolet, 2750 Reichsmark

• 
  Opel Olympia (1937), four-door saloon (front view)
• 
  Opel Olympia (1937), four-door saloon (rear view)

Due to World War II, production came to a halt in late 1940. During the war, the Opel plant in

After reconstruction, production of the Olympia was announced in November 1947 and restarted the following month. Opel had been building the six-cylinder Blitz truck since July 1946; it would have made sense to restart production of the Kapitän before the Olympia since it used the same engine as the Blitz. However, occupation regulations prohibited civilian sales of passenger cars of over 1.5 liters' displacement at the time.^[7] Externally, the OL 38 looked unchanged to the pre-war car, but the fragile and complex Dubonnet front suspension was replaced by a more conventional control arm and coil spring one.^[7] Only the two-door sedan was produced after the war. Until the end of 1949, 25,952 of these were made.

Opel Olympia 1950 (1950–1953)

In January 1950 the Olympia got a modernized body, but the car was still based on the pre-war Olympia. One change was the seemingly retrograde change to a column-shifted three-sped manual from the floor-mounted four-speed used before.^[9] The following bodies were offered:

• 2-door saloon, 6400 Deutsche Mark
• 2-door cabrio-coach, 6600 Deutsche Mark
• 2-door kombi (estate), 7350 Deutsche Mark

The kombi was built by Karosserie Miesen [de].^[9] In February 1951, the Olympia was upgraded with more modern 15- rather than 16-inch wheels and a trunk compartment which enclosed the spare tyre.^[9] In just over three years of production (until March 1953), about 160,000 cars were made.

• 
  Opel Olympia Berline (saloon/sedan) 1952
• 
  Opel Olympia panel van

Successor: Opel Olympia Rekord (1953–57)

In March 1953, the 18-year-old design of the Olympia was not directly replaced by anything, although the Opel Olympia Rekord used the name, with a modern pontoon body. In 1957 this dropped the "Olympia" part of the name, and was sold simply as the Opel Rekord until 1986, although the Rekord was an executive car compared to the Olympia which was a small vehicle.

Name revival: Opel Olympia (1967–1970)

In August 1967 Opel revived the Olympia name with the new Olympia A. The name had last been used, until 1959, for a reduced specification version of the

Giving the Olympia its own name may have distanced it from the Kadett in the Opel showrooms and enabled the manufacturer to charge a premium price, but in other respects the new Olympia did not convincingly fill the gap in the range that had opened up between small family cars and big family cars, the Rekords having grown ever larger with each new generation.^[11]

The Olympia was available in saloon/sedan and coupé-bodied versions. The saloon/sedan, available with two or four doors, shared the fast-back "Limousine" body of the "Kadett LS", while the Olympia coupé used the same body as the "Kadett coupé F". The Olympia was fitted with the "1100 SR" twin carburettor 60 PS (44 kW) engine, and could also be ordered with any one of the three high-compression Camshaft in Head (CIH) engines also fitted in the Kadett and providing 75 PS (55 kW), 90 PS (66 kW) or, in those export markets where the 1.5-litre version was available, 65 PS (48 kW).^[4] At this time, Opel also provided SAE power figures which were 67 hp for the 1.1 and 76, 84, and 102 hp for the 1.5, 1.7, and 1.9-litre versions.^[12]

The Olympia A was withdrawn in August 1970, by when 80,637 had been produced.^[13] The Olympia's demise cleared the way for the Opel Ascona, produced from August 1970 and introduced to the market in November 1970. The Ascona filled the gap between the smaller Kadett and the larger Rekord more obviously and, in terms of the sales figures, more persuasively than the Kadett-based Olympia, defining in the German auto-market a new mid-weight family car class where it would be joined by the Ford Taunus TC and, a couple of years later, by the Audi 80 and the Volkswagen Passat.^[14]

The Olympia design did live on in a manner, as the front design was used on United States-bound Kadetts from the 1968 model year until replaced by the next generation, and on South African Opel Kadetts beginning with the 1971 model year.

Body styles were:

• 2-door fastback saloon
• 4-door fastback saloon
• 2-door coupé

References