July 31, 2007Print this page
Christian Geistdörfer, World Champion in 1982, at Classic Car Grand Prix at Nürburgring
The German Automobile Club is again hosting the Classic Car Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, August 10-12. Spectators can look forward to enjoying motor sport history in the making. The Classic Car Grand Prix is going into its 35th year, and Opel is there with a wide range of cars including an Ascona 400. It was with this model that Christian Geistdörfer won the World Rally Championship in 1982. The 54-year-old will be at the Nürburgring the entire weekend and will be available for interviews and autographs. Geistdörfer was the youngest co-pilot ever to win a World Championship race. In the course of his 15-year motor sport career, he won 13 World Championships and four Rallye Monte Carlo races.
Exactly 25 years ago as Walter Röhrl’s co-pilot in an Ascona 400, Geistdörfer achieved what no one thought possible: overall victory for one car that faced a nearly overpowering field of competitors.
The advantages of the Opel rally car were its reliability, weight – just under 1000 kg – and its 260 hp engine. But even so, the Ascona 400 had to prove itself against tough competition such as the Audi Quattro.
Perfectly prepared, Geistdörfer and Röhrl had an excellent start with the Rothmans-Opel Rally Team. At the finishing line in Monaco they celebrated their first victory of the 1982 World Championship season and took the first step toward the World Championship title.
The success streak was dramatically interrupted in Portugal when a defective steering system turned a curve into in a straight road. Traveling at 140 km/h, Röhrl and Geistdörfer drove straight off the road and rolled over a number of times, but luckily both were uninjured.
Many races later, the winner of the 1982 title was still open. The Opel pilots were facing stiff competition, particularly from the female team Mouton/Pons, who were racing with a four-wheel-drive vehicle. In Brazil, Michèle Mouton and Fabrizia Pons beat the Germans to the finish line; the World Championship was turning into an absolute thriller. At the second-to-last race of the season in the Ivory Coast, the result was decided in a head-to-head finale. After 5000 km through the bush, only six teams reached the finish line. Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer were the first to reach Abidjan, for a sensational result: the two Opel pilots were World Champions after 11 of 12 races.
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opel
The German Automobile Club is again hosting the Classic Car Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, August 10-12. Spectators can look forward to enjoying motor sport history in the making. The Classic Car Grand Prix is going into its 35th year, and Opel is there with a wide range of cars including an Ascona 400. It was with this model that Christian Geistdörfer won the World Rally Championship in 1982. The 54-year-old will be at the Nürburgring the entire weekend and will be available for interviews and autographs. Geistdörfer was the youngest co-pilot ever to win a World Championship race. In the course of his 15-year motor sport career, he won 13 World Championships and four Rallye Monte Carlo races.
Exactly 25 years ago as Walter Röhrl’s co-pilot in an Ascona 400, Geistdörfer achieved what no one thought possible: overall victory for one car that faced a nearly overpowering field of competitors.
The advantages of the Opel rally car were its reliability, weight – just under 1000 kg – and its 260 hp engine. But even so, the Ascona 400 had to prove itself against tough competition such as the Audi Quattro.
Perfectly prepared, Geistdörfer and Röhrl had an excellent start with the Rothmans-Opel Rally Team. At the finishing line in Monaco they celebrated their first victory of the 1982 World Championship season and took the first step toward the World Championship title.
The success streak was dramatically interrupted in Portugal when a defective steering system turned a curve into in a straight road. Traveling at 140 km/h, Röhrl and Geistdörfer drove straight off the road and rolled over a number of times, but luckily both were uninjured.
Many races later, the winner of the 1982 title was still open. The Opel pilots were facing stiff competition, particularly from the female team Mouton/Pons, who were racing with a four-wheel-drive vehicle. In Brazil, Michèle Mouton and Fabrizia Pons beat the Germans to the finish line; the World Championship was turning into an absolute thriller. At the second-to-last race of the season in the Ivory Coast, the result was decided in a head-to-head finale. After 5000 km through the bush, only six teams reached the finish line. Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer were the first to reach Abidjan, for a sensational result: the two Opel pilots were World Champions after 11 of 12 races.
gmeurope opel
The news in my Belgian favorite newspaper was saying that there was some resistance (for instance from Roland Koch [...]