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Little sports cars are great fun. They’re small enough to really take by the scruff and toss around, light enough that their little engines make the most of what limited power they make, and they’re usually very affordable to buy and run. These two go even further and add quirkiness and rarity to that shortlist of positive attributes.
Our first contender hails from Germany—a ’72 Opel GT. Looking all the world like a 3/5th scale C3 Corvette, it’s an attractive little thing bursting with character. Manually-operated fliplights and HVAC vents seemingly thrown about at random are just a few of the interior’s idiosyncrasies. RWD with a small four cylinder and manual trans, there’s tons of fun on offer here in a sub-ton package.
From Sweden comes the Saab Sonett III, a ’74 model, which was last of the breed. Translating to “So neat”, Sonetts are fiberglass bodied and of a similar size, shape, and weight to the Opel, but with FWD. This particular car uses a Ford-sourced V4, though earlier versions had Saab’s traditional two-stroke three. Though many came with a column shift, this one’s equipped with a floor-mounted stick. Again, there’s big bags of good times to be had in a tiny package.
1972 Opel GT
Click here for the Opel details.
1974 Saab Sonett III
You may take a look at my “strato blue” 72 GT if you like at http://www.desotodesign.net I think the Opel is more of a complete car where the Sonett was more of a bunch of parts “somewhat” integrated. The Sonett never looked like it was orchestrated as a design, but a series of tests to see if things worked or not. Clare McKichan’s design from Bill Mitchell’s studio seem to coalesce the German love of aerodynamics and the American’s love of beautiful surfaces as typified by GM at the time. The 1.9 Liter engine is strong, robust and has a lot of abilities for further performance. I find it exhilarating to just toodle around in it; it makes all the right mechanical sounds and the steering is very direct. I love the look over the hood seeing that little teardrop over the carburetor.
Even though I’m fond of SAAB and that two-stroke engine noise is awesome, I’d have to go with the Opel. There’s basically two reasons… One, GT looks much better, never liked the Sonett (any of the three). Secondly, although not a rocketship, it’s faster with the 1.9 that most buyers went for.