Opel Manta GSe ElektroMOD
The Opel Manta GSe ElektroMOD is revealed as an EV RestoMod Opel project with an electric motor and manual gearbox.
As we move in to the brave new world of electric cars, some of the soul is being lost as vocal ICE turns in to silent EV, and cars become something you treat as a monthly payment, not a treasured possession.
But even as the sky darkens for petrolheads, glimmers of hope appear, as some car makers look to their past to create their future – like Honda with the Honda E – and (whether you like it or not) EV powertrains offer a proper usable future for real classic cars too, with classic car specialists converting cars to EV – and Jaguar and more doing the same to their heritage models.
Now it’s time for Opel, Vauxhall’s German twin, to play the retro electric car game with an electric RestoMod on an original Opel Manta – a car which is clearly a one-off, but also fishing for feedback – to create the Opel Manta GSe ElektroMOD.
The obvious change for what was an original Manta before Opel started playing is the EV powertrain replacing the four-pot ICE, a classic-appropriate 145bhp electric motor and modest 31kWh battery.
Interestingly, it comes with the original four-speed manual ‘box, so you can, if you want, drive it as you would the original. But thanks to the electric motor’s torque, you could just leave it in fourth all the time.
Other tweaks include the modern Vauxhall/Opel Visor nose – which here displays a selection of woke messages – some LED lights, digital dash from the Mokka, sports seats from the Adam and 17″ alloys with modern rubber.
Vauxhall/Opel may have no intention of building this Restomod Manta in volume, but clearly a positive response to it could well influence future projects.
It’s a thumbs up from us.
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