Giorgio sits on a wooden bench and pours wine into three glasses. He smiles as gently as only someone whose life has been full can. “Salute!” he says calmly and raises the glass. As the wine rolls over the tongue, we sense that this meeting has a lot of potential to get lost. There are so many stories in Giorgio’s life that we desperately want to hear and write down. There’s this incredible “Martini Racing Lancia” collection, the takeover of the Italian design and development office Zagato in the 1990s or life as one of the largest Ferrari and Maserati dealers in Europe. And that’s just part of what Giorgio Schön is all about. No, we remain steadfast. And jump straight to the beginning of his racing career.
So, Giorgio, how did that start?
“Together with a friend, I put aside 10,000 lire every week. After a year we had a Mini Cooper S together. We started with this at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1968. We didn’t make it to the finish – but our idea convinced Pirelli and the Jolly Club to supply us with tires.” He didn’t tell his mother until two years later that he was racing. At that time she was already on a Porsche 911. She just said “Drive slowly!” He probably didn’t really follow the advice: in 1971, Giorgio won the Italian sprint championship with his Porsche – ahead of two fast factory Opel GTs. The car manufacturer from Rüsselsheim then signed him up for the 1972 racing season. Schön started in the four-hour race in Monza with the three-liter Commodore A and in the “real” Targa Florio with the Opel GT.
Giorgio Schön competed in the four-hour race in Monza with the three-liter Commodore A and with the Opel GT in the Targa Florio.
The Turin tuner Virgilio Conrero had increased the GT engine’s power to over 180 hp and optimized the aerodynamics.
In 1971, Giorgio Pianta and Giorgio Schön took a seat in the injection version of the Conrero GT in Sicily.
The dashboard is close to series production. The tank and spare wheel are located behind the Fusina bucket seat.
The colors of the Conrero racing team are blue and yellow – the colors of the city of Turin. The widened body is riveted.
Virgilio Conrero is known in the world of fast cars as “Il Mago,” the magician.
Through Sicily’s mountain villages: The Targa Florio is one of the oldest road racing tracks in the world. Car races took place here from 1906 to 1977 – through a beautiful landscape, past trattorias, churches and market squares.
At this point we treat ourselves to a sip of red wine. Because we have reached the destination of our journey. It’s about these two Opels. Two blue and yellow pieces of jewelry that Giorgio Schön only used for one season – but despite all the Porsches, Lancias and Alfas, he never forgot them. A few years ago he wanted to bring the racing cars to him. But you could only buy them with a complete collection. So Giorgio bought the collection and gradually sold the other cars. And had his two Opels back. “I have a good time with both of them,” he says calmly, taking another sip before showing us the Opel in detail.
What makes the two Opels so special?
The blue and yellow GT in particular made history. It begins with Romano Artioli – president of the Italian GM dealers, Opel dealer and owner of the “Garage 1000 Miglia” in Bolzano at the end of the 1960s. In 1969 he received the first GT delivered to Italy and recognized the car’s potential. He immediately knocks on the door of Virgilio Conrero, known in the world of fast cars as “Il Mago”, the magician. The tuner from Turin is supposed to turn the GT into a racing car that will shake up the two-liter group in Italy. At that time, they were dominated by fast Porsches. Conrero initially refuses, but later gathers his courage. Even if he sees little chance of beating the four- and six-cylinder Porsches. In addition, there was no homologation in Group 4 to date. Conrero consistently reworked the flat GT, increasing its performance to over 180 hp and making it a competitive sports machine.
One thing is certain: Giorgio Schön wrote down on a handwritten note how he got the Opel GT running.
The Conrero GTs are causing a sensation. The Italian Opel advertising at the time said “Opel: corre et vince” – Opel runs and wins.
The model for the yellow-blue color scheme of the GT was the Conrero Commodore Group 2.
The Commodore put around 300 hp on the road at the Coppa Belmonte, for example.
It is equipped with a cross-current motor.
At the beginning of the 1970s, they not only managed to annoy the Porsches, but also beat them.
Success didn’t take long to arrive: at the beginning of the 1970s, the Conrero racing team, with a lot of meticulousness and experience, not only managed to annoy the Porsches in the two-liter class, but even beat them. Especially at the “Targa Florio” in 1971, a round of the manufacturers’ world championship in which Salvatore Calascibetta and Paolo Monti achieved class victory. On top of that, they also achieved 9th place in the overall ranking and thus a place in the top ten in a top international field.
October 2023
Text and photos: Dani Heyne