I have one. Restored to OEM then some driveability mods added. 14" wheels replacing the original 13" and Pertonix electronic ignition and Weber 32/36 carb. Gotta watch engine swaps as engine compartment is small and it's a unibody. Not as fast as it looks. Has other downfalls but nothing that can't be overcome. Basically a rebodied Opel Kadette. Manta's are a better platform for upgrades.
Still a fun car with interesting features and always a conversation starter.
Woody wrote: I love the little things, but the reason you've never seen one is that they can actually rust from the top down.
More like bottom up. The battery "box" was in the nose, on the belly pan and that didn't do good things to the sheet metal. Both of my dads' are missing some, or all, of the belly pan forward of the radiator. They didn't come with a lot of power but the CIH engine takes basic mods pretty well. Any non-opel motor swap involves a decent amount of fabrication, nothing bolts in, per-se.
IIRC these are built funny, like partially brazed together and such, making rust repair difficult.
One of the editors at Hot Rod Magazine is using one as a daily driver, she periodically has small articles in the magazine about it.
Kenny_McCormic wrote: IIRC these are built funny, like partially brazed together and such, making rust repair difficult.
I've never run across brazing, but the only body parts that unbolt are the hood and headlights. The door hinges are even welded on, and you need a special tool to pull the pins and remove them.
Add in no trunk and you simply cannot get to the back of most panels for rust protection or repairs.
The curve of the body is pretty close to the same as on the NA Miata. If I had a Miata that needed a new front and/or rear end I absolutely would be grafting Opel GT sheet metal to both ends.
A guy I knew in college had a nice gold and black one. Let's just say it ran a whole more than my TR-4 did. 
I've never spent much time in one, but they are definitely a nice looking car, even after all these years.
IIRC, the lack of a trunk/rear luggage access was a major contributor to slow sales in the US. The Rx7 and 280z, which were better all around, didn't help either.
I'm sure GM wasn't expecting the 240Z to arrive and overshadow it so badly. I expect that had the Datsun not been released, the Opel would have been more popular.
I have a Road and Track comparison test including the 240Z, Fiat 124 Coupe, Open GT, MGB-GT, and GT6. In the end they ranked them in that order, but liked the Opel pretty well. Of course it wasn't as fast as the Datsun or the Fiat, but I remember them liking the way it drove and the fit and finish. The 124 came surprisingly close to the 240 in the final results, with only the lack of hp compared to the Datsun holding it back. They actually said it drove the best of all if I remember correctly.
Tom Drake, Vermont, Owner: MidTown Machine Shop. Has had this for as long as I've known him. Many track records in the NE.
theres a black one sitting in a field about ten minutes from my house, the guy who owns it is going to restore it one day 
its been in the same spot for the last 15 years
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