Opel Olympia

This article covers the Opel Olympia model , which was manufactured from 1935 to 1953. Other models with similar names are listed under Opel Olympia (disambiguation) .

Opel Olympia (1935-1937)

Opel Olympia as a two-door convertible sedan (1936)

Rear view

Opel Olympia as a four-door sedan (1939)

Opel Olympia convertible sedan (1950–1953)

Opel Olympia panel van, built in 1951

The Opel Olympia was the first mass-produced German automobile with a self-supporting body made entirely of sheet steel. As the successor to the Opel 1.3 liter , which remained in the Opel range until October 1935 , it was named after the Olympic Games in Berlin and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 .

By October 1940, by order of the Reich government, the production of civil vehicles at Opel had to be stopped, 168,875 Olympic cars had been built. After the end of the Second World War , production of a revised model was resumed in December 1947.

Model history

The Olympia was presented in February 1935 at the 25th  International Automobile and Motorcycle Exhibition (IAMA) in Berlin and was available that same year at a price of 2,500  Reichsmarks , which, adjusted for inflation, corresponds to around 11,000 euros in today's currency.

Because of its self-supporting all-steel body, the car was lighter than the conventionally built Opel 1.3 liter with a separate chassis : 835 kg instead of 970 kg. The reduction in air resistance was achieved through the smaller frontal area and the less rugged underside of the self-supporting body.

For the first time, the Olympic body had a predetermined breaking point in the area of ​​the front fork profile; a forerunner of today's crumple zones . The car was available in several variants, as a convertible sedan or a two-door sedan .

It was available with two different water-cooled four - cylinder in - line engines : until 1937 with the side valve ("upright valves") of the predecessor Opel 1.3 liter with 24  HP (17.7  kW ), later 29.5 HP (22 kW) with 3600 / min; from the end of 1937 newly developed 1.5-liter engine with an OHV valve control ( "overhead valves"), four-bearing crankshaft and 37 horsepower (kW 27) performance, even in the developed NSU Kettenkrad the Armed Forces was used. With the exception of the Kadett A four-cylinder engine , this design was the basis for all four and six-cylinder engines from Opel until 1964 . About single dry , four-speed gearbox with helical toothed ( "noiseless") third speed and propeller shaft were rear wheels are driven .

The front independent suspension on pushed swing arms ( Dubonnet spring knees ) was combined with a rigid axle on leaf springs at the rear. This type of front suspension was newly introduced in early 1934 with the Opel 1.3 liter and Opel 6 models and was called “ synchronous suspension ” at Opel because, according to Opel advertising, the natural frequencies of the front and rear axle suspension should be the same.

In the first two years the Olympia had drum brakes operated mechanically with a cable and from 1937 hydraulically operated so-called "oil pressure brakes" from ATE (license Lockheed ). The steering gear consisted of a worm and gear segment. The 6-volt electrical system came from Bosch ; the starter battery had a capacity of 70  ampere hours .

The 1.3-liter Olympia reached a top speed of 95  km / h and consumed nine liters of petrol per 100 km; the 1.5-liter car reached a top speed of 112 km / h and was therefore " suitable for the motorway ". The tank capacity was 28 liters.

The Olympia, which was built from the end of December 1947, now had, instead of the front Dubonnet suspension, a double wishbone suspension , similar to that found in the first Opel Kapitän from 1938. The Olympics cost in 1948 after the currency reform 6785  DM (equivalent adjusted for inflation in today's currency 17,600 euros) The 1950 model was there with a modernized body as a combination or vans that of coachbuilders such as Autenrieth , Meanies , Rappold, Dello u. a. were manufactured. The Opel Olympia Rekord , which was produced until 1957, followed in 1953 .

Opel later used the name Olympia again for the Opel Olympia A built from 1967 to 1970 .

Technical data of the 1951 model

Stroke 74 mm, bore 80 mm, compression ratio 1: 6.15, 39 HP (28.7 kW) at 3700 rpm, Opel downdraft carburetor, maximum torque 9 mkp (88 Nm) at 2000 rpm, three-speed synchronous gearbox with steering wheel gearshift , Steering wheel with 435 mm diameter, 6-volt battery with 75 Ah capacity. 35 liter tank in the rear, braking area 578 cm², super balloon tires 5.60-15, wheelbase 2395 mm, track width 1203 mm / 1262 mm, ground clearance 183 mm, length 4050 mm, width 1564 mm, height 1580 mm, dead weight 920 kg, permissible total weight 1270 kg, top speed 112 km / h, standard fuel consumption 8.2 cL / km, price of the two-door sedan 6400 DM, price of the convertible sedan 6600 DM.

In the 1951 model, the rear section has been heavily revised, thereby improving rear view. The enlarged trunk was now accessible from the outside.

literature

• Hans-Jürgen Schneider: 125 years of Opel - cars and technology . Verlag Schneider + Repschläger, Weilerswist 1987 (without ISBN)
• Werner Oswald : Our test: Opel Olympia 1951 . In: Auto Motor und Sport 28 (1951), No. 20, pp. 685–686
• Carl Otto Windecker: Better to drive with the Olympia . A manual. Klasing, Bielefeld / Berlin 1951, 232 pages

Web links

Commons : Opel Olympia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Opel Olympia: Revolution from Rüsselsheim on Spiegel Online , accessed on September 27, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} This figure was based on the template: Inflation determined, rounded to 100 euros and applies to the previous January.
2. ↑ Technical data 1.3-liter Olympia, model 1937 ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , General Motors Antwerp brochure (Dutch)