This might be a little obscure, but then, so is my angle on this whole hobby. I’ve always wanted an excuse to share some German song lyrics, so here they are, relevant because they’re about cars:
Jeder Popel fährt ‘nen Opel / Every booger drives an Opel
Jeder Affe fährt ‘nen Ford / Every monkey drives a Ford
Jeder Blödmann fährt ‘nen Porsche / Every idiot drives a Porsche
Jeder Arsch ‘nen Audi Sport / Every ass an Audi Sprot
Jeder Spinner fährt ‘nen Manta / Every wacko drives a Manta
Jeder Dödel Jaguar / Every muppet Jaguar
Nur Genießer fahren Fahrrad / Only bon vivants ride a bicycle
Und sind immer schneller da / And are always faster there
I think it’s by a German group called die Prinzen… basically insulting all drivers of the above-mentioned cars and saying how you get there quicker by bike. If you’ve seen any German city centers lately, you’ll no doubt agree.
Anyway, the first line always stuck in my head and came back to mind when I saw this cute little primrose yellow Opel Kadett, listed in Black Hawk, CO by the original owner for $3000. There’s something to be said for older cars in period colors, and this color suits this subcompact just right, second only to the Rallye package with driving lights and stripes.
This car looks pretty solid, and the battering ram is great for doing battle with larger vehicles, which means just about everybody. Hey, at least you can use it to push Fiat 500s out of the way. I would guess the tow hitch indicates most of the miles were accumulated behind a mobile home and not actually running, so you might want to ask the owner about that. You can certainly see some shrunken Chevy design cues in here – in some ways the car looks a bit like a shrunken Nova.
This shot of the right side will have to make up for the lack of an engine shot. Seller says the car has a 1.1 engine, but later models were equipped with a 1.9, and I’d guess for practicality’s sake this is a worthwhile upgrade. Engines should be readily available since the Opel GT, Manta, and Ascona/1900 also came with this engine, and other ancillaries to support the conversion could be pulled off a donor 1.9 Kadett. On the bright side, these cars are probably pretty light and tossable in a simple, low-tech fun kind of way. Do make sure to ask about accident history – this pic shows three different shades on the front fender, door, and rear fender, but that could just be poor picture quality.
Simple interior, but it looks clean, stock, and you may even be looking at a crack-free dash. Oddly enough, the driver’s seat is uncovered and in good shape, but the passenger seat is covered. Has the car lived outdoors or indoors? Fortunately, this car’s owner did not give in to the temptation of an automatic, which I’m fairly sure was available for the US market. All in all, a fun, easily modified little alternative to the Beetles you still see all over the place (if you live in a dry state) that in terms of 1969 sales gave those a run for their money.
Rusty But Trusty 
January 7, 2010 at 12:13 pm |
[…] the same time. I won’t go into too much detail about this car, since it’s been covered here before, but to say that this car is the Kadett B with the same 106hp 1.9l four as the just-featured […]