![Opel’s Rekord 1700 L cabrio, Rekord Sprint and Commodore 6 Coupé Classic & Sports Car – Off the Rekord: forgotten Opels](/sites/default/files/styles/article/public/2020-08/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Car%20%E2%80%93%20Off%20the%20Rekord%20%E2%80%93%20%20forgotten%20Opels%20%E2%80%93%2013.png?itok=EpixHyI_)
Projecting American tastes and proportions onto European-sized cars has not always delivered happy results, but it was an art that General Motors had mastered to near perfection by the mid-1960s at its German outpost in Rüsselsheim.
Thus, there is an elegant confidence about the Rekord C range – built between 1966 and ’71 – that is as easy on the eye as a Herb Alpert tune is on the ear.
The world has rather forgotten these competent, unpretentious yet stylish middle-range Opels with their curved hips and neatly resolved detailing.
In West Germany, the Rekord C and Commodore A were so ubiquitous they became mobile street furniture – produced to the tune of 1.2 million examples for a home audience that wanted something more glamorous than a VW but couldn’t stretch to a Mercedes-Benz.
![Driving this Opel Rekord Sprint Classic & Sports Car – Off the Rekord: forgotten Opels](/sites/default/files/2020-08/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Car%20%E2%80%93%20Off%20the%20Rekord%20%E2%80%93%20%20forgotten%20Opels%20%E2%80%93%2018.png)
The Sprint handles tidily on its well-located live rear axle
In the UK, they represented most people’s first awareness of the Opel marque, and come from a long-forgotten time when almost any foreign car was seen as upmarket.
When GM started importing the Rekord C in 1967, it carefully picked variants that wouldn’t harm sales of the superficially similar Vauxhalls.