1960 Opel Olympia Rekord

„Opel‘s trim 5-passenger Rekord sedan makes good motoring sense from every point of view. The styling is smooth and pleasant — nothing faddish about it. Performance is smart with especially good response at low speed as well as effortless cruising at higher speeds. The Rekord is rugged. Its unitized body construction can take a pounding from rough terrain and never let out a squeak. It’s a ‚tight‘ car, snugly put together by people who take pride in their work.“

If restored with proper funds, Cuban vintage cars actually can look quite amazing. Rarely have we seen one in such nice condition as this Opel Rekord from Ciego de Avila. Only the Lada engine under the bonnet would be something to gripe about.

When presented in August 1957, the new Opel Rekord P (P as in „Panorama“) sure tuned heads, introducing flamboyant American flair to the rather austere German automotive landscape. Opel was a subsidiary of GM, and naturally the cars were developed in close connection with the Detroit mothership, which meant sharing similar design themes, too. In Germany, wraparound windows and optional two-tone paint were ultra-fancy features, and previously unseen in that segment. In a country dominated by VW Beetle and spartan micro cars, Opel ownership was definitely an achievement, and became a symbol of social rise, which proved to be very popular: more than 500,000 copies were produced in the three-year production run of this generation.

The flamboyant styling, in return, helped to make the Opel easily digestible for the American taste, when GM began importing cars from Germany and England in the late 1950s, in riposte to the sudden popularity of “compact” cars.