Rüsselsheim, Classic workshop, inventory: Nothing is normal about this Astra. Not the pizza-sized carbon fiber brake discs. Not the 530 Newton meters of torque that fall on the rear axle. Not the six-speed gearbox that can be shifted under load. And certainly not the fact that this race car was cultivated for the street. The Opel Astra OPC X-treme is the most extreme Astra that Opel has ever built.
“In 2001, when Opel presented this study, I had just gotten my driver’s license,” Carl Lehmann recalls. Back then, he was cruising around in his Vectra and “dreamed of sitting in this super sports car from Opel.” Today, a good 20 years later, the time has come. The automobile journalist takes off his sneakers and climbs under the gullwing door over the suitcase-thick side skirts into the narrow seat shell. His grin is about as wide as the brutal fenders of the red painted carbon body.
Even after 20 years it has lost none of its appeal: the Astra OPC X-treme.
Father of the super sports car: “We wanted to make racing technology usable for the road,” says Volker Strycek.
“The Astra OPC X-treme hasn’t been moved for 18, 19 years – it’s about time!”
– Volker Strycek –
Carl Lehmann is on site with a camera team at the headquarters to present the sporty side of the Rüsselsheim compact class bestseller. After all, Opel has just introduced its latest sporty top model, the Astra GSe. When the journalist took the opportunity to ask if he could explore the extreme Astra from 2001, he ran into open doors. Gullwing doors to be exact.
No X-treme without Strycek
And it comes as it must: It does not stop at a static inventory of the super sports car. They make an appointment for a second appointment in a workshop to get the car ready to go again. “18, 19 years,” estimates Volker Strycek, “the X-treme hasn’t been moved – it’s about time!” The former Opel head of sport is the father of the Astra OPC X-treme. Actually also mother, brother-in-law, grand cousin and everything else – without him the super sports car would not exist.
Travel by low-loader: the super sports car was flown halfway around the world for presentations. All liquids had to be drained for this.
Valuable freight: The announced purchase price for the Astra OPC X-treme was one million Deutschmarks. Today’s unique piece: priceless.
Oil, petrol, new starter battery: accompanied by the VOX camera team, the super sports car is made ready to go again.
Expertise: Martin “Alesi” Rose from Phoenix Racing was part of the team that built the super sports car at the time.
And Strycek had no doubts that after almost 20 years the X-treme would be able to run again without much effort.
“Trust me: all the Astra OPCX-treme needs is a little affection, petrol and oil.”
– Volker Strycek –
Under his direction, the Opel Performance Center GmbH had already put the Astra OPC on the fast wheels by the early 2000s and built the fastest van in the world with the Zafira OPC. The next project: the super sports car, the unfiltered Opel performance philosophy, the Astra OPC X-treme. “And it turned out that we weren’t the only ones who had imagined a super sports car in exactly the same way,” says Strycek. The Astra OPC X-treme hit front pages worldwide, flew to Detroit and Japan for presentations.
The purchase price: one million Deutschmarks
After the premiere at the Geneva Motor Show, there were ten blind orders. The car should cost one million Deutschmarks – including lifetime maintenance. But things turned out differently. World events also played a role: while the former time chaser from the DTM was still celebrating its world premiere at the IAA in Frankfurt in September, planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York. The world was different. And the super sports car disappeared under a sheet. Til today.
The TV report about the Astra GSe and the Astra OPC X-treme can be seen on January 29, 2023, 5 p.m. in the “auto mobil” program on VOX, the most successful car magazine on German television.
How Opel gave the Astra wings
Despite various luxury attributes, the X-treme only weighs a slim 1,150 kilograms, just 50 kilograms more than the racing version.
It comes from Joachim Winkelhock’s 460 hp Astra V8 Coupé.
It’s the year 2000. Opel is returning to the newly started German Touring Car Masters. And Joachim “Jockel” Winkelhock promptly put the Astra V8 Coupé on pole position in his favorite race at the Norisring. The Opel team then fitted the vehicle with gullwing doors until the start of the race. “As a thank you. But also to annoy the competitors from Stuttgart a little,” recalls Volker Strycek, Opel Motorsport Director at the time. And the doors inspire the Swabian so much that he wins the first run. That winning vehicle became the basis for a project that the then still young Opel Performance GmbH tackled shortly thereafter: namely to make highly developed racing technology usable for the road. The Astra OPC X-treme, which was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2001, differed from the time chaser from the DTM in about half of the components. The snappy nature of the four-liter V8 heart is cultivated in such a way that the X-treme can also be moved at low engine speeds – nevertheless, with 444 hp it is hardly weaker than the original from the competition front.
From enthusiasts for enthusiasts: Stylish precision, Alcantara leather, brushed aluminum in the interior too.
Quite a few are skeptical when the Astra OPC X-treme is rolled into the Phoenix Racing workshop near the Nürburgring in the morning. “Trust me: All the Astra OPC X-treme needs is a little affection, petrol and oil,” says Volker Strycek confidently. In the end you also need a new fuel pump and a starter battery. But already in the afternoon Strycek presses the start button. A deafening roar and the rattling of straight-toothed gears ring out. Comment Strycek: “The beast is running – awesome!”
The driving dynamics: “Brutal.”
They arrange to meet Carl Lehmann and the film crew at the disused Mendig airfield for the final day of shooting. It should be the week before Christmas. Because before the Astra OPC X-treme can be let off the leash, various checks have to be carried out, for example on the brakes. Driving the X-treme, says Volker Strycek, is not without it: “The driving dynamics are brutal. You have to approach the steering, the carbon fiber brakes.” Many have not yet driven the Opel super sports car, “a dozen people. At most.” At a driving event in June 2001 on the high-speed track in Dudenhofen, some motorsport journalists would have preferred to be chauffeured by him rather than drive themselves, the former Opel motorsport boss recalls. The respect was too great.
The final day of shooting: Even the static shots inspire.
Let off the leash: the super sports car returns to its destiny.
First hand: Carl Lehmann in a technical discussion with Volker Strycek.
Unmistakable: The V8 coupés from the racing series were the inspiration here.
They realized the shooting, accompanied it and made it possible: (from left): Jens Cooper (Opel Classic), Leif Rohwedder (Head of Opel Classic), Martin “Alesi” Rose (Phoenix Racing), Volker Strycek (former Opel Motorsport Director), Matthias Meyer (Opel press department), Martin Morgenstern (Opel service workshop), Carl Lehmann (superclose editor), Lance David Arnold (moderator “auto mobil”), Claudia Weingart (photographer superclose), Julian Sell (cameraman superclose) and Lucca Auer (film assistant).
“A dozen people have ever driven the Opel supercar. At most.”
– Volker Strycek –
Carl Lehmann is not discouraged. He is confident: the seat fitting in the Classic workshop is to be turned into a test drive on the race track. The presenter of the program Lance David Arnold, an experienced racing driver, is already eager to test the power-to-weight ratio of 2.59 kg per hp. On a cloudy Wednesday the time has come. The Astra OPC X-treme and the Astra GSe are both ready. Volker Strycek’s fingers are itching. He first climbs into the top-of-the-line model and drives the plug-in hybrid with a system output of 165 kW/225 hp around the test track. “What great driving dynamics! Sporty – Rüsselsheim can still do that!” he comments on the round.
Double doors are opened, final instructions are exchanged. What does acceleration to 100 km/h in four seconds and a top speed of over 300 km/h feel like in the Astra OPC X-treme? There are answers to this on January 29 in the VOX program “auto mobil”. After all, we don’t want to reveal everything just yet. Just this much: Switching on is worthwhile when the most extreme Astra that Opel has ever built is let off the leash.
“Sporty – Rüsselsheim can still do that!” says Volker Strycek after his test drive in the new Astra GSe. If you want to know what a power-to-weight ratio of 2.59 kg per hp feels like in the Astra OPC X-treme, you have to tune in to the “auto mobil” program on VOX next Sunday.
January 2023
Text: Tina Henze, Photos: Claudia Weingart (superclose), Opel, Opel Archive