Opel Olympia in American sauce!
Here comes the second part of the Opel Olympia story, brought to you in collaboration with Opel Classic Rüsselsheim. In the first episode of this series, we introduced you to the origins of this small but mighty car!
In 1929, General Motors became the majority shareholder in Opel, and this had a direct influence on the design of new vehicles, which gradually began to take on a more American style. GM aimed for all of its products to have a unified appearance while still meeting the expectations of local markets. This was exactly the case with the Opel Olympia, which underwent a facelift at the end of 1937. The new Olympia model, designated OL38, replaced the earlier 13237 version.
American design
Starting in 1931, General Motors held 100% ownership of Adam Opel’s company, and this had a significant impact on the design language of the cars produced in Rüsselsheim. Back in 1927, GM had established a department, what we would today call a design division, called the Art and Colour Section, which was renamed the Styling Section ten years later. For the first time in history, a major corporation engaged in mass automobile production had consciously created a department focused exclusively on vehicle body design. Thanks to then GM president Alfred P. Sloan, the first head of this new division was the renowned designer Harley Earl, who remained in the role until 1958.
Project Rüsselsheim
In 1936, Harley Earl received a special assignment from GM leadership: to establish a sister design division directly at the Opel factory in Rüsselsheim. The goal was to give Opel cars a modern design in the spirit of Art Deco appealing to European consumers while maintaining visual consistency with GM’s American model lineup. Earl appointed his protégé, Franklin Hershey, as head of the German design team. The team in Germany also included Strother MacMinn, John Coleman, George Jergenson, and a young representative of German engineering, Hans Mersheimer, who would go on to work for Opel until 1967. With this team, by the end of 1937, both the Kadett and the Olympia were completely redesigned.
Experimental car
The Olympia was experimental in many ways it was the first mass-produced German car with a self-supporting (unibody) body. To enable this modern construction, an entirely new production system was patented, which remains a standard in automotive factories worldwide to this day. In terms of design, the Olympia was also a bold experiment. The main task of the German design division was not simply to redesign small Opels based on American Chevrolets or Buicks. Instead, the team was charged with creating an entirely new six-cylinder Opel Kapitän, and the earlier work on the Olympia helped kickstart this project. The mission was accomplished. In March 1939, the Kapitän caused a sensation at the International Geneva Motor Show. Before the outbreak of World War II, 25,374 Kapitäns were produced in three body styles. The export version of the Kapitän, produced exclusively in Antwerp, was called the Super Six, and in Switzerland, the Captain. This designation was intended to avoid associations with the military ranks Opel used at the time: Kadett, Kapitan, and Admiral.
Little Chevrolet
The new Olympia OL38 was available in several body styles: LZ (two-door sedan), CL (convertible), and LV (four-door version). The front of the car underwent notable visual changes, becoming more rounded and somewhat reminiscent of a smaller Chevrolet. The beautiful yellow badge featuring the Greek discus thrower disappeared from the front grille. Compared to the previous version, the OL38’s hood opened in a modern way familiar to us today, earning the nickname „crocodile mouth.” In the older version, the hood opened on both sides like wings, which was an outdated design. Changes were also made under the hood: the OL38 was equipped with a much more modern overhead valve engine with a 1500cc capacity and a four-speed gearbox, resulting in an increase in Opel’s power to 37 HP. The range of available colors for the Opel also expanded.
Reliable as an Opel
The new Olympia was a reliable and durable car. This was proven not only in the Monte Carlo Rally, where Tadek Marek and Witold Pajewski competed driving the Olympia OL38, but also in other events. Opel’s factory team entered production Olympias in the first Internationale Deutsche Alpenfahrt in 1938. The drivers covered 1,600 kilometers across 38 mountain passes and they succeeded, with the team winning the Alpenpokal (Alpine Cup) for the best mass-produced car. The team included Bernhard Hermann, Diehl Heinrich, Fritz Göbel, Kittner Edgar, Vogt Heiner, and Carl von Guilleaume. Probably the most well-known driver among them was Robert “Bobby” Kohlraush. The hill climb race was repeated in 1939, with Opel once again fielding its factory team. The Olympia OL38 also became part of cultural history, appearing in numerous films and TV series. In the Belgian comic book Tintin, the main character drives a yellow convertible Olympia.
Interrrupted generation
The outbreak of World War II halted the production of the Olympia. Opel’s factories were completely converted to support the German war effort. It was in the plants in Rüsselsheim and Brandenburg that the Opel Blitz trucks were manufactured vehicles that played a key role in the September campaign. By 1940, 87,214 units of the OL38 model were produced. Production of the Olympia did not resume until November 1947, when it became the first civilian car to roll off a German production line after the end of World War II. Over the next two years, 26,000 slightly modernized Olympias were produced, still closely resembling the pre-war models.
A major change came in 1950, when the Olympia underwent a series of updates and was even offered in a station wagon version. In 1953, a completely new model the Olympia Record was introduced, available as a sedan and caravan. The Olympia-Record name remained in use until 1962. In 1967, the name returned when the luxury version of the Kadett was designated Olympia A. Production of the Olympia nameplate in any form officially ended in 1970, closing the chapter on this groundbreaking Opel model.
