Opel Commodore C

[Wesuri]

That's because the VN-VS Commodores were based on Opel Senator B, which was based on Opel Omega A. Senator used extended Omega floorpan and they shared many parts. Holden stretched the Senator floorpan some and used many of the outer panels and smaller parts.

Opel Senator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Calaber]

Wesuri

I have to commend you on your knowledge of Commodore development in Australia. The Australian car industry has only comparitively recently started to spread its wings into significant overseas markets - prior to that it was of little interest to overseas people when it came to Australian designed and developed cars, but you have obviously kept in touch.

As you said, many of the VN body parts were simply carried over from the Opel, with the doors being a complete copy. The same thing applied to the VT series bodyshell. Both designs used the basic Opel design for the body structure, and adapted Australian front and rear ends to suit our market, and totally redesigned interiors. I think the Opel interior on the mid 80's designs was far better than the Holdens, but I have seen the 97=2003 Omega interiors and prefer the Holden design there.

 

[fuzzy2308]

i learnt lots of new things from this thred.
was it the opel b that also came out as a 4cyl?

 

[Wesuri]

Almost every Opel has been offered with a 4cyl engine. Few exceptions to this are Commodore that was only available with straight-6s and the Kapitän, Admiral and Diplomat trio. The 30's Super 6, Kapitän and Admiral had I6s and the later 60's and 70's K.A.D. models were either I6 or V8 (sbc). Omega B was offered wih many I4's, V6's and I6's. There was also a V8 model planned but sadly it never came reality.

Opel names it's generations pretty straightforward, starting from "A" and continuing from there without skipping letters. So there has been a B generation of many models, for example Kadett B, Ascona B, Manta B, Rekord B, Omega B, Admiral B, Kapitän B, Diplomat B, Commodore B, Corsa B, Vectra B...

Funny thing about the letters is that when Kadett was replaced by Astra in the Opel model palette the letters kept going on where Kadett left. So there are Kadetts from A to E (and the pre-war model) and Astras from F to H. I-generation should come out this year.

I think a few things that have generated a lot of interest - maybe more than any other thing - towards the Australian car industry, are the first two Mad Max movies . Seeing the Falcons every petrol-head wanted to know more. These movies and the Falcons certainly boosted up my interest. I think the first spark came from seeing some cool Utes, and later the 60's Monaros made me drool, they still do. The Opel-virus in me has made me searching more info about the Australian Commodores and also about Brazilian Chevy Opalas etc. But how to add one of each to the garage .

 

[88GreenVN]

PM sent on Holden history

 

[krijnen]

body reinforcement,s to rekord e1/commodore c

PM sent on Holden history

I have some pictures made of my 1984 E2 rekord and then of my 1991 south african rekord 2.0..they have the same mods made as these holden,s.
The south african rekord is very different and a lot stronger build than a european model, as the series went over from E1 to E2, opel did no changes at all.
Somewhere on this site i have made a photoalbum ,i can,t give you a direct link to it because i,m not too good at this.

If any questions remain after seeing this or you want more detailed photo,s of these stronger area,s just ask.

grtz, Jorg

 

[88GreenVN]

I have some pictures made of my 1984 E2 rekord and then of my 1991 south african rekord 2.0..they have the same mods made as these holden,s.
The south african rekord is very different and a lot stronger build than a european model, as the series went over from E1 to E2, opel did no changes at all.
Somewhere on this site i have made a photoalbum ,i can,t give you a direct link to it because i,m not too good at this.

If any questions remain after seeing this or you want more detailed photo,s of these stronger area,s just ask.

grtz, Jorg

There is some photos in your profile album.... will go for a look now

 

[Wesuri]

Hey 88GreenVN, I got the DVD you sent open with another machine, I guess mine was a bit outdated then. Tons of pics and other info there, thanks mate.

Krijnen! Howdy Jorg. How did you manage to get a South-African Rekord on your hands? Interesting pics, viewing them right now...

...ok. From what I saw the S.A. Rekord floorpan has an extra support behind the front stabilizer and along the driveshaft tunnel and on the front shock towers. I get the feeling that these are not very "deep" structural changes but rather something that can be welded to the euro Rekords as well. The basic geometry looks to be identical (floorpan, rear) with the exception of larger room for gearbox in the S.A. unit. Different rear diff and gearbox are another thing, they should be replaced on the euro Rekords. Commodore has a slightly larger diff than Rekord but it's still far from bomb-proof.

 

[krijnen]

differences in body strenght

Hey there,

I first replied to your question to the wrong guy..but still..

I have both a german and a south african rekord and guess what..the latter has the bodychanges factory done you are wondering for..

So..i took some pictures of both the cars and put them in a album here with some text..

Hope you,l find them (they are under VC model..not under miscellanious..very stupid i know) and get the info you want.

Greets ,Jorg (the Netherlands)

 

[woodywoodpeckerin02]

ive seen a 2door vk on ebay was a inport very funny looking at a 2door