It may be absent from the sports coupe segment now, but in the 1970s Opel had a strong contender in the guise of the Ascona-based Manta, which, interestingly, was one of the few Opels sold in the U.S. market, too.
Even though it’s been teasing us with concepts, such as the 2013 Monza or, more recently, the GT that was displayed at this year’s Geneva Auto Show, making a production car has been ruled out by the powers-that-be at Russelsheim.
This did not deter a couple of automotive designers, namely Valentin Fuchs, who was responsible for the bodywork, and Marius Torterat, who took care of the interior, to imagine a modern-day Manta.
They tried out two themes, a more retro and a modern one, and eventually decided to go with something that combined the nostalgic proportions of the first with the overall theme from the second, which is much closer to the current Opel design language.
The end result is a muscular-looking four-seat coupe with a large, single frame grille, C-shaped LED headlights, doors that open upwards but are hinged at the rear instead of the front, and a fastback-style back. For the interior they wanted to stress that this is a driver-oriented car, hence the steep angle of the center console, while the rest is a mix of industrial and futuristic elements.
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