In the early 1970s, Opel of Germany brought out a new sports coupe. This one had styling like a smaller Corvette and the car caught on with consumers quite well. Powered by a small 1.9 liter overhead cam four cylinder engine, and with a base price well within the range of many car buyers, it looked destined for greatness. However, all was not rosy with the car. The road test magazines got their hands on it and while they liked the styling and overall fit of the car, its suspension was not that of a dedicated sports car and it tended to understeer (plow or push), like a big dog when driven hard.

Still, the car looked great and was, as they now say, a chick-magnet so was bought by many young, impressionable males who wanted a 'vette, but had a Vega budget. (This then-young impressionable male didn't have the green for a car like this or would have been driving one!). Years later and time has taken its toll on these cars. It has been a LONG time since I have seen one on the road so I can only assume that most are long gone or in the hands of loving car nuts who only drive them on warm, sunny days!

Frankly, I am not that knowledgeable about car kits as I am about aircraft. I seriously doubt that his is an all new kit, especially considering the subject and knowing that AMT has a huge stockpile of older kit molds. Despite that, the kit is pretty cleanly molded with no flash and few ejector pin marks in any difficult places. There is a rather hefty mold seam on the body, but nothing you can't sand down in a short time.

Like most AMT/ERTL kits, this one is make in China to take advantage of cheap labor and increase profits for the company. The kit is made of semi-soft medium grey plastic and has a thick box. However the box has probably been made in China, folded flat for shipment and then assembled and shrink wrapped here in the US. The result is that it tends to bulge quite a bit. One very nice thing about AMT kits is that the body, chrome and clear parts are all in a separate bag to keep them from being scratched by other parts. I wish a certain Japanese aircraft kit maker would follow their lead!

Fortunately, the kit itself is not really that large. You get basically two options for the kit. One is a stock Opel GT and the other is one is a street rod with Buick V-6 installed. The really adventurous may want to try to squeeze a V-8 in there; good luck! The street rod option includes a different hood with a scoop, a roll bar for the interior, and some other body accents. There are also some different wheels for this second  version. If you look at the parts image, you can see that there is no separate front suspension, but the rear is a separate piece. This kit actually has long metal axles to help hold the wheels on so should be rather sturdy.

As you might expect from this kind of kit, there are a number of chrome pieces. I didn't take them or the clear parts out of the bags to keep them from being scratched, but the chrome looks very well done and properly thick. I'd imagine that most of us will be using Bare Metal Foil to wrap those parts that have mold lines removed and the wealthy amongst you will take them to be rechromed after you clean them up. Decals are not a bid deal for car kits and you get two license plate decals for the back of the car.

When I saw that this kit was being issued, I put it on my list of kits to have. Though I do darn few car kits, it is one that looks petty easy to do and one that won't take up a lot of space on the shelf!

Review kit courtesy of my kit collection.

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