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The Opel Kadett C Coupé as a GT/E was a boy's dream for many people back then. And of course only really original in the “yellow-white” original paintwork of the 1000 series from '77-'79. Slim body and rear-wheel drive. The final opponent for the Golf GTI faction. Either Volkswagen or Opel GT/E. Two liter displacement, the engine is mounted lengthwise and, thanks to Bosch L-Jetronic, has 115 hp. Anyone who maintained a mustache and wore VoKuHiLa back then also liked the Rüsselsheim-based company's crisp sports coupe. Today a sought-after cult young timer. On the way Oldie. The series GT / E had not only missed the well-known 2.0 liter 115 PS injector, but also a locking differential and a crisp short five-speed sports transmission from ZF. The empty weight of the coupe? For today's conditions a special feature. Easy under 1.000 kilograms! So conditioned, the Kadett Coupé was of course predestined for motorsport. Incidentally, the starting price at that time was 16.900 D-Mark! No bargain, but for sports drivers an achievable fixture!
With the heart of a rally hero to the Bodensee-Klassik 2017
Then also 47 can be a victory!
The Lake Constance Classic is an event for people with gasoline in their blood. Surrounded by the wonderful panorama of the Allgäu, the Alps and Lake Constance, everyday driving can be forgotten with the help of “old metal” and crisp tours. Back to a time when driving was primarily a pleasure.
So that the sporting ambition is not thwarted by overzealous police officers with laser guns and absurd fines for exceeding the speed limit even a tiny bit - the premise of the exit is: “Traveling instead of racing” and the sporting competition is held in “special stages” in parking lots. But here too it is not about “record lap times”, but rather about precision – about 1/100 in adhering to time targets. Recorded in the road book, the teams face the tasks. The passenger dictates, the driver reacts. 100 meters in 16 seconds is the announcement and the driver has to do exactly that. It's a team sport. And it is not uncommon for teams to break up because of these tasks.
Lämmle and Habby in the start number 32
The roles in the cockpit were clearly assigned. My co-pilot was supposed to be Sarah Elsser, a presenter known from TV. And this woman would tell me where to go. It reads as if the chauvin behind the wheel cannot be explained away. Classic gender roles during the rally? No. But Habby is a car blogger and a terrible passenger. This makes the role of the co all the more important: announcing the direction and times. During the obligatory rally training, an older couple sitting one row behind us also agreed: “What Lämmle says will be done.” Or something similar to the wording of the couple in the 60s and 70s. From now on, Lämmle will be the first name of the co-pilot Sarah, and whatever Lämmle says, Habby will do. Turn left there? What if everyone in front of you drives on the right? Then you still turn left. Lämmle is in command. The division of tasks was not so classically chauvinistic.
The paper tiger
We were supposed to drive Achim Warmbold's rally car. A rally variant of the Opel Kadett C Coupe GT/E. 160 hp, equipped with a short gearbox and limited-slip differential. Reinforced dampers, shorter springs and a roll bar complete the setup. A first start: Oh, it runs rough. The first few meters: Oh, it definitely doesn't have 160 hp. That's how it is with press vehicles. Not everything that looks like a rally actually drives like a “rally”. Our starting number 32 drove Achim Warmbold's “35” to second place in the German Rally Championship in 1978. But unfortunately only the look of the ex-works car and the starting number - the performance corresponded to the series GT/E and probably only with a lot of love.
Mountain stages became mountain tests for the ZF transmission. Below 2.500 revolutions, our Kadett didn't really run smoothly and didn't want to accelerate. From 3.5 it pulled - at 4 it ran out of air and at 4.5 it became louder - but no longer faster. Diligent stirring in the crisp sports gearbox. The first gear at the back left, two at the front and so on. This can be irritating in the hectic pace of a time test - was that second, third or fourth gear? Our cadet received it with warm reactions. At least the look was right and the hearts of older men on the side of the road often beamed. At a gas stop, the chestnut-colored cashier smiled mildly and put on a dreamy look: “My husband had one of those too.” I think - the episode between her and her husband certainly had highlights in the Kadett GT/E.
Class victories and painful defeats
You wouldn't be able to love the Lake Constance Classic so much if it wasn't organized by a professional team. After the first day of evaluation, the mood in the “Lämmle and Habby” team was great. Lämmle immediately understood the Chinese signs and showed Habby the right way. And the first special stages were also extremely successful. For such a young team. For Lämmle it was after all the first classic rally. 29th place out of 173 participants. You can be a little proud of that. The Friday of the rally started with this pride. Two stages, several special stages and in the evening we should have discovered that if the fuel gauge shows “empty”, then the Kadett is really empty. Completely empty. Luckily we only ran out of gas shortly before we reached a gas station. So Lämmle was allowed to take the wheel and Habby was happy about the good power-to-weight ratio of the Rallye-Optik-GT/E. A little exercise couldn't put a damper on the good feeling. A catastrophic result indeed.
65th place on the second day - a bitter disappointment. What happened?
Overlooked a double hidden passage test - and looked up at the sky twice during a special stage. That was enough to collect a red lantern in the tight field of top people. Every 1/100 second deviation one penalty point, missed passage control, 300 penalty points and in the evening of day two there were 1323 points on the account. The day before, there were 814 and the top teams remain under 400 per day. 🙁 It has to be motorsport. This feeling. Actually it's not about anything. But on the other hand, after all. Team Lämmle and Habby under pressure.
Day 3 - a forgiving end
The third day rewarded the participants with terrific routes. Narrow and winding mountain passages, the GT / E roars between the third and second gear and 3 to 4.000 turns back and forth. The cornea slowly forms on the right hand. Unusually harsh the pressure, with which the circuit wants to be led, little flattering in the hand of the shift knob. Meanwhile, the ears got used to the low-insulation rally lawyers. It's just loud in the GT / E.
Concentration with Lämmle, concentration with Habby. Repeat the good result from Friday again. Show that Friday was not a stroke of luck, but the result of good teamwork. And the first special stage of the day promptly failed. But Lämmle rebuilds the frustrated habby. Thanks to the co-pilot's singing, the mood in the '79 VoKuHiLa dream car can't stay bad. And with 377 penalty points on Saturday we even improve. 17th place in the starting field and once again made up a lot of land. And with a 0.00 in the very last special stage, we even won a special stage. But this victory remains unrewarded, because we are sitting in a sponsor's vehicle. ZF is a partner of the Bodensee-Klassik and our vehicle has been registered for participation by ZF. How won, so - happy. Point. But we remained the best ZF team and third-best Opel - you just have to find them, the reasons to celebrate!
In the end, this Lake Constance Classic feels like we have won it. Thanks to “Lämmle”, you were a great co-pilot!
