16.10.2006
Opel Rekord C turns 40

In 1966, the new Rekord C celebrated its much-noticed premiere on Opel's Dudenhofen proving grounds, which had opened earlier that year and covered an area of 2.6 million square meters as well as over 32 kilometers of roads.

The third generation of the Rekord line-up had been completely redesigned and reengineered. The Rekord C was Opel's first passenger car to feature coil springs on the rear axle. It set new standards in its class, featuring disk brakes on the front axle as well as break servo. It was powered by four- and six-cylinder engines of the cih (camshaft-in-head) line-up first used in the predecessor model in 1965.

The basic engine was the 1.5-liter four-cylinder with 58hp, topped by the 1.7-liter power unit with 60hp and the S-variant with 75hp. The 1.9-liter S-engine had a performance of 90hp. The top-of-the-line engine, which had a displacement of 2.2 liters and 95hp, was designed for maximum comfort and smoothness. The six-cylinder version of the Rekord C succeeded the Rekord 6 known from the Rekord A and B, a particularly powerful and luxurious Rekord variant featuring the six-cylinder engine of the Opel Kapitän. In the spring of 1967, the role of this premium Rekord was taken over by the new Commodore.

At the wheel of the Rekord C, famous race driver Stirling Moss promoted the sporty qualities of Opel's new automatic transmission. In addition to the familiar three- and four-speed manual transmissions, available as both steering-column control and sporty stick shifting, the company offered a new three-speed automatic transmission as of the autumn of 1968 to replace the two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission.

In addition to the sedan and the wagon versions, Opel started offering a dynamic coupe in the spring of 1967, the sportiest version of which was the 106hp "Sprint."

Special editions, such as the elegant convertible by body manufacturer Deutsch and a cab variant with a longer wheelbase complemented the Rekord C standard line-up.

A total of 1,253,161 Rekord C units were built through December 1971. It was the first time Opel sold over one million units of one model.