OPEL MANTA GSe ELEKTROMOD

Elegantly rakish 1970s coupé gets an all-electric makeover

-  NEIL BRISCOE

Opel, and by extension Vauxhall, wants to put the Manta name back into the minds of the car-buying public. An all-new car, battery powered and likely to have SUV-esque styling, is due to arrive in 2025 wearing the Manta name. In the meantime, Opel has dipped into its back catalogue and electrified an original Manta coupé to remind us of a time when the Opel lightning bolt and Vauxhall griffin were applied to cars other than humble family hatchbacks and SUVs.

Opel has preserved the original coupé’s delicate, simple lines for its vivified Manta but has, of course, entirely binned this 1974 car’s rather wheezy, 75bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine in favour of a custom-made 145bhp electric motor. Unusually, the frontmounted motor drives the rear wheels via a four-speed manual gearbox and a longer than standard propshaft.

Meanwhile, the lithium ion battery, with a mere 31kWh of usable capacity, is sited in the boot, albeit mounted as far forward as possible to help balance the weight distribution. What’s left of the boot space is said by Opel still to be sufficient “for a fortnight’s holiday in Italy for four”. The company quotes a single-charge range of 124 miles, which, after a day of driving around the countryside outside Frankfurt, feels entirely plausible.