Opel Kadett (1936)

Opel
Opel Kadett (1936-1937)
Cadet
Production period:	1936-1940
Class :	Lower middle class
Body versions :	Limousine , convertible sedan
Engines:	Otto engine : 1.1 liters (17 kW)
Length:	3765-3840 mm
Width:	1375 mm
Height:	1455-1545 mm
Wheelbase :	2337-2340 mm
Empty weight :	757 kg
Previous model	Opel P4

The Opel Kadett was a car of the lower middle class of Adam Opel AG with water-cooled 1.1-liter four-cylinder - inline engine and rear-wheel drive . It was produced  in the Rüsselsheim plant from autumn 1936 - initially together with its predecessor, the Opel P4 .

Due to the war, production of the first model in the Opel Kadett / Astra series ended in May 1940. It was not until June 1962 that a vehicle of the same name was available again with the Opel Kadett A.

history

After the Olympics had been presented in February 1935 and the Opel P4 in September 1935, the technical advisor to Opel sales management Heinrich Nordhoff (from 1948 General Director of the Volkswagen factory ) presented the Kadett to the public in December 1936.

After the Olympics, the Kadett was the second Opel model to have a self-supporting body with two or four doors. The technology was adopted slightly changed: The side-controlled four - cylinder engine came from the P4, while a simplified version of the Dubonnet spring knee from the Olympia was adapted for the independent suspension of the front wheels ; at the rear there was also a rigid axle on leaf springs . (Opel advertised the "synchronous suspension", which means that both axles are sprung with the same natural frequency ). With hydraulically operated drum brakes , fully instrumented and standard direction indicator ( Winker ) were the two-door and convertible sedan for the same price of 2,100 Reichsmarks offered (RM). From January 1938 a four-door model was also in the sales program at a price of 2350 RM.

For 1795 RM there was also a two-door "normal" sedan with the designation KJ 38 from 1938, without vent windows, hubcaps, bumpers and chrome trim, which was equipped with the simpler rigid axle on the leaf springs of the Opel P4 at the front. The car was brought onto the market in response to the upcoming " KdF-Wagen " ( Volkswagen ), which the NS leadership did not like.

Based on the KJ 38, the prototype of a two-seater Kadett convertible with the name Kadett Strolch was made. Although only photos were left, car enthusiasts reconstructed the car true to the original in 2009 and exhibited it at classic car events. The “Kadett” was a great success for Opel: in 1938 it had a market share of 59 percent in its class - 107,608 vehicles of all versions had been sold by 1940.

After the war, the production of the Kadett, unlike that of the somewhat larger Opel Olympia , could not be resumed because the production facilities from Rüsselsheim and Berlin (tools for body production at Ambi-Budd ) went to Moscow as a reparation to the Moskovsky Savod Malolitraschnych Avtomobilej plant (MZMA), which continued to build the Kadett in hardly changed form from 1946 to 1956 as the Moskvich-400 . During the war, Opel had the production facilities of the normal sedan modified for the production of a four-door, which is why the Moskvich-400 was never built as a two-door car.

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  Opel Kadett (1937-1940)

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  Opel Kadett Tramp (1938)

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  Moskvich-400
  (1946-1956); an external resemblance is evident

literature

• Hans-Jürgen Schneider: 125 years of Opel - cars and technology. Verlag Schneider + Repschläger, Weilerswist 1987, 472 pages, numerous illustrations, without ISBN
• Eckhart Bartels: OPEL Vehicle Chronicle 1887–2000. Podszun Verlag, Brilon 2000, ISBN 3-86133-146-2 , (two-wheelers, cars, trucks)

Web links

• Kadett model 1936/37 at the old Opel IG
• Kadett model 1938–1940 at the old Opel IG

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Unfortunately, Opel never built this beautiful car" , Die Welt , July 31, 2009
2. ↑ The Opel Tramp
3. ↑ http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/b/budd/budd.htm