OPEL

Astra OPC X-Treme: a unique motorsport gem

At Opel Classic in Rüsselsheim, a very special edition of the Opel Astra is lovingly guarded. Special, because nothing about it is normal, like its gull-wing doors, its carbon fiber brake discs, its 4.0-liter V8 engine with 444 hp mounted on the rear axle and its racing transmission. This is the Opel Astra OPC X-Treme, the most extreme Astra ever made. A race car for the road.

In 2001, Opel presented this marvel on four wheels that, unfortunately, we will never see again. But, on the other hand, it makes it a unique jewel of motorsport, the result of a time when manufacturers dared to do crazy things like this. More or less contemporary is the Renault Clio V6 and, a little earlier, the Renault Espace F1. Those were good times...

Volker Strycek is the father of this extreme creature and was the head of Opel at that time. Without it, the Opel Astra OPC X-Treme would never have existed. Under his direction, the Opel Performance Center GmbH had already created the Astra OPC in the early 2000s, as well as the Zafira OPC, the fastest MPV in the world.

The next project was the super sporty, unfiltered Opel performance philosophy, the Astra OPC X-treme. “And we discovered that we weren't the only ones who had envisioned a supercar just like that,” says Strycek.

After the presentation at the Geneva Motor Show, there were ten requests in the dark. The car would cost one million German marks, including lifetime maintenance. Unfortunately, the world context of the time influenced the future of the car: while the car was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show, planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York. The world changed on September 11, 2001 and the Astra OPC X-Treme suddenly disappeared.

The basis for the design of the Astra OPC X-Treme was the Astra that Opel competed in the 2000 German Touring Championship (DTM), with driver Joachim 'Jockel' Winkelhock at the wheel. The Opel team developed an Astra with gull-wing doors that so inspired Winkelhock that he won the first race, at the Norisring. From then on, Volker Strycek wanted to take racing technology to the streets.

The Astra OPC X-treme that was presented at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show differs in approximately half of its components from its brother from the DTM 2000. The V8 engine has been modified to deliver power at a lower rev range, but its 444 hp (a power-to-weight ratio of 2.59 kg/hp) had almost the same footprint as the racing one. It also had a different fuel pump and starter battery.

Its performance was more than remarkable: it accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 4 seconds, being able to exceed a maximum speed of 300 km/h. Serious records for a sports car coming from a C-segment compact. As for its behavior in races, Strycek himself commented: “The driving dynamics are brutal. You have to get used to the steering, the carbon fiber brakes.” A car that, on the other hand, few people had the privilege of driving: “A dozen people, at most”.

Opel now remembers the Astra OPC X-Treme coinciding with the launch of the Opel Astra GSe, the new sports car from the German brand, equipped with a plug-in hybrid system with 225 hp. The same car, but with very different souls: one, radical and extreme; the other, efficient, adapted to current times. In any case, we will always remember the most extreme Astra ever built.

Autonews and Mundoquatrorodas