Diesel Dorris is a Opel Rekord 2.1 Diesel from 1974. Lets take it for a drive! #opel #dieselengine Instagram: / seasidegarageyt Patreon: / seasidegarage
In summer 1974 my uncle and aunt bought a brand new Opel Rekord 2100D like this one. We drove around the whole South Norway, stopping 3/4 of the way to visit my grandparents. We were 4 adults and 2 children. I remember that car as a solid and comfortable car. I can still hear the sound of the diesel engine, and feel the relaxing ride. Good memories. 2 years ago I repeated the trip, unfortunately without any grandparents to visit, but it was a great trip down the memory lane.
I find the leisurely pace and the sound of the old diesel engine chugging away quite relaxing . Perhaps there would be zero road accidents if everyone drove these.
That's generally something I love about older cars. Just take it slow, because the cars themselves aren't made to be quick. And because you sit lower down and you hear & feel much more than in a modern car, it isn't boring to drive at a lower speed.
I _love_ these cars, but the era when everyone had one was the era when car accidents were the leading cause of death, ahead of heart attacks and everything else. Roads were different then, but part of the cause must have been people zooming about in cars which were much more poorly equipped to turn and stop. Speed limits have only come down since the 70s.
More driving to actually do in an older car, I like shifting gears etc. why not just cruise along at 45-50 mph and enjoy the scenery with top or windows down. 🐾✌️🇺🇸
I literally just had the same discussion about diesels with my best friend the other day. How when we were kids, if you heard a diesel, it was 99% certain that it was a Mercedes taxi, and since then diesels have become really popular, and now they’re unpopular again! Really nice to see a survivor car like this. My grandfather was a huge Opel fan right from when he learnt how to drive right up to his death, and has owned several vans and estates, for example Olympia. I don’t know if he ever had one like this, but it’s very likely!
Thanks for a great review of a very interesting car. I daily drive a diesel Mercedes from 1969, it is a 2.2 and has a four speed manual. It is ultra reliable and is surprisingly good to drive with disc brakes all round and will cruise at 65mph all day.
there's one in my local scrappies, not sure of its fate; but it's not being stripped. 220D. Complete but with severe tin-worm, everywhere. Found myself thinking it must've been a tough sell back in 1970. Ran an XUD Peugeot for 15years, now moved onto Ford
@@julianlangdon3456 I have had two xud powered peugeots, they are good cars. The Mercedes W115 was the best selling Mercedes prior to the W123. Even with a premium price tag they sold nearly 2 million units 1969-1976. Mercedes stock nearly all the parts even now, the demand for these parts is a testament to their longevity.
I've always thought, "Am I normal for loving old normal car from 70s"? I guess not really. When I have a job. I'm definitely will going to buy just one Mitsubishi Galant 74. The design is just so unique and simple. I love old cars because of the driving experience, they just feel so good and satifying. Especially saving prehistoric cars from enxtinction.
In the day they were concidered crude and underpowered. The engine was actually to tall to fit under the bonnet...but they are actually quite underrated. The powerfigures weren't that bad compared a mercedes 200
The answer to "why would you save that?" is usually "Because nobody else will!", there's plenty of cars that during their time were utterly awful, and thus they "went away", and a lot of them, there's no examples left, only the words of those who had them and had their bad experiences with them, so there's no proof as to why they were bad, or whether it was just user error...
Column shift were popular on 50s, 60s and 70s Peugeot: 203, 204, 304, 403, 404 and 504. Renault 16 also popularised it. So great to see and hear again this excellent Opel Diesel engine.
Column shift were popular on 60s and 70s Peugeot: 204, 304, 404 and 504. Renault 16 also popularised it. So great to see and hear again this excellent Opel Diesel engine.
I was quite surprised to see that this car has a column shifter. Column shifters were common in European cars, but they fell out of favor by the late 60s, so they can be only seen in very old cars and the Wartburg, which retained it even in the 80s. I really love column shift and diesel estates, so this would be a perfect car for me!
Opel Rekord D was the last model with the column shifter, but only in the 1700 petrol and the 2100 diesel. All other models had the traditional gear leaver…
@@Jakob_Leth That's why it surprised me, I have only seen Rekord Ds with the "normal" gear lever. Good to know these two models still had column shifter!
I love Doris! I have a 1992 Vauxhall Senator. I know what this man means. It has told me lots stories since I bought it. I have found old pay and display parking tickets, I have the original bill of sale I even found an old dry cleaning ticket. Brilliant!
The old ones have their charm, but more recent vehicles are clearly better in almost every way. Having said that, if you lack the knowledge and understanding for diagnosing and maintaining the modern electronics, they can be difficult once they brake down.
Here in Ireland the last model Opel Rekord diesel was the archtypicial farmers car! The bonnet bulge needed to clear the diesel engine looked good too! After that model, the Isuzu Aska was popular, and about that time (1984 or so) the Nissal Patrol with the straight six diesel took over farmers work from car models.
The diesel Rekord's in Ireland in the 80s had the same engine as the 2100D in the video. The only difference was the engine was modified by fitting liners in the bores to downrate to 2000cc so they would be cheaper to tax. Road tax on 2.0 litre was about £240 in 1982 and on 2.1 litre it was over £300. Opel did this mod to the engine to sell the Rekord. Of coarse the mod was a disaster cause you'd be lucky to get 25k miles before the liners wore out. You then had to go to your Opel dealer and get a new engine fitted under warranty every time your engine gave up. I knew people who used to have 2 engines a year as long as they had the car.
My Dad bought a yellow one in 1977 and it was a great car. Very good on fuel. It was a floorshift though, I don't know if we got a column shift in Ireland. The whole car shook when he revved the engine and the back end was covered in soot after a couple of weeks driving. I remember that the Dealer showed us the 6 cylinder Commodore when we first picked it up. It was very cool 😎.
I remember my Dad had Vauxhall Victors ( the GM UK equivalent of the Rekord ) during the 70's and early 80's. Rot boxes but by heck they were reliable and he loved them - drove all over the UK in them
Opel/Vauxhall always had very good and (for the most part) bulletproof engines during the 70s/80s/90s. In fact, they were the biggest manufacturer of cars in Germany for some short time in the 60s/70s (even before Volkswsgen). But they often had problems with crappy steel and rotting bodies. I drove an Opel Kadett E Caravan (the German Version of the Vauxhall Astra E Estate) for many years as my daily. It was a fantastic car and was really big for a compact estate. However, its body was not the best. The E's were known to have a "K.O-spot" on their front axle, where the axle connects to the body. Most of the scrapped ones probably went because of the rust issues on this spot, which was extremely hard to fix.
thank you for uploading, didn't know Opel used a column gear-shift in the 70s and never heard about an idle adjustment before! Except for some cleaning, the car has everything what's necessary to do it's job, love the simpliciity and mechanical robustness of these brave workhorses 😇
Slow, noisy, stinky, perfect…love old diesels like this. A bit later, but I have a Volvo 940 with the VW D24TIC straight six diesel lump in it which is based on mid ‘70s technology. 310,000 miles and still pulls well. Has a bit of punch thanks to the turbo but makes more noise than power! I love it though. Bought it for £200 years ago with an MOT but in a real state of disrepair. I’ve used it as a daily since then and treated it as a rolling resto. Have spent a fair bit on it but it’s in great shape now and has never let me down. These old dervs must be saved!
I live in UK. I don't remember any Diesel cars in the 70's, it must be EU only. I did have a petrol Opel Kadett C in ealy 80's, It was 79 car, My first car, so reliable, never had a day's trouble with it.. I have now found one again (79 Kadett C) last month, in the Netherlands and looking forward to driving it in the sunny days - Thank for sharing your video.
I was born in 1967 and have been interested in cars from my early childhood. Back in the 1970s European cars were made to last about 62,000 miles (100,000 km). Almost nobody considered to keep them beyond it, people just bought a new one. Today most of the survivors are way beyond their '95k date of expiry', so having multiple issues with them is not uncommon. I always liked the old, loud diesel engines, btw
I’ve not grown up in the 70’s so I didn’t know that Opel had a Rekord estate car. And it could be a great project or keep it as it is. 4 speed on the steering column I think it’s going to be a lot of work fixing it if it breaks down. But nice to keep the car running for so long.
My 2006 Peugeot Expert has a big clock where you'd expect to find a tachometer, and I love it. It's way more useful, especially when driving between customer sites for work.
My grandfather had one and I drove it regularly in 84 to 86. Diesel was about 60 % of petrol and red diesel ( untaxed) half that. As there were very few diesel cars the police and excise never bothered to check the tank back then. This changed within about 5 years.
In 1974 I had my second vehicle after getting my licence, it was a Bedford CA van with a Perkins diesel engine and three on the tree gear shift ie it had three forward gears with changing done with a lever on the left hand side of steering column. Bedford was part of Vauxhall which like Opel was part of the GM group.
I had a Vauxhall Victor estate from roughly the same time, it’s amazing. How similar they look it looks pretty much like the shared a lot of the parts. Also, I had a Vauxhall Victor, 101 from 1965 and it had exactly the same column gear
@@kieferngruen This model shares the same floorpan as the Vauxhall Victor FE (launched in 1972), but they have totally different bodywork on top. The Victor FE was the last Vauxhall made in this way - it was replaced in 1978 by the Vauxhall Carlton, which is almost identical to the Opel Rekord E.
You are talking about how people react well to very ordinary cars from years ago. In the UK we have a car show called festival of the unexceptional which is only for very ordinary cars that were seen everywhere but have mostly disappeared now. The cut off date is year 2000. It was amazing seeing all the cars that I hadn’t seen since the 70’s when I was a child and the cars of the 80’s when I was in my teens
My parents had a 1900cc Rekord C series Car-a-van (estate). Five door with bench seats front & rear. That had 4 speed column shift. We were in Zambia in 60s & 70s. 🇿🇲
In the 70s/80s, my brother in law hated column shifters because they were so vague. Seeing you had trouble finding first gear, I finally see what he means! I love 60s and 70s car interiors too. :) They feel airy and I like the minimal transmission tunnel. Hmm... now I realise I might be reacting to pollutants in the later plastics.
Got my first speeding ticket in a 2.3d Sierra 🤣 67 Raging BHP new after 170k it didn't feel anywhere near that, Was utterly unstoppable never had a problem with it .
My dad owned one and he took the 1.9 petrol engine out and fitted it with a 1.5 bmc diesel engine and gearbox out of a j4 van. Every time we drove up a hill the inside filled up of smoke. It needed a can of easy start to get it goin in the morning. 😂
I had one of these.Mine had 4 on the floor though, not on the column. It also had a pre-heat button that you had to hold in until your finger went white before it would start! Also the rear diff needed replacement - managed to salvage an entire rear axle from a scrap yard. Altogether, a bit of a beast with zero traction in the snow.
Cars back then were better in some ways because they were simpler. I'm only in my 40's but my parents and grandparents had cars from the 70's and early 80's and they were just basic things doing one job. Moving people around. I love modern cars too but sometimes I get in mine and remember that I don't need a LCD TV connected to my phone and a billion safety devices to have fun.
back in the 70s we, children, used to play on the sidewalk, and once in a while there was this guy, taking out this very car from the garage; In these occasions I used to stay still, mesmerized, looking at that car (the only one) that sounded like a truck...
I couldn't agree more with your philosophy regarding the story of the car, and how cars that most people find unattractive sometimes are the most interesting ones
Hello! Great Car. Nice Patina! The shown Shifter is the standard offer for this car. But the most Customers didn´t want it... So its very rare. By myself drive a 1973 Limo 1700 Petrol in green metallic. A 4 door sedan with the 1700S Engine (83PS) and L Interieur. That means heated Rearwindow and headrests... Haha 😂 😂 Always have a good trip!
What a beauty!! And a Diesel!👍Our family used to have the Opel Ascona Voyage mark 1 as i was a kid. To me it looks nearly the same instat of the frond, ours got the round headlights.
The oldest diesel I've driven was back in the late 80s.. I had a company car, a Vauxhall Cavalier (Opel Ascona) diesel estate, which had a 1.7 Isuzu NA diesel if I remember correctly.... that was horridly agricultural... I can't imagine how bad that Rekord is!
I worked on the production of the Cavalier MK3 at the former Luton plant, all N/A Diesel cavs were the mighty GM unit putting out a barn storming 57 bhp! and mostly found on the poverty spec models, the only Isuzu powered Cav was the 1.7TD putting out 87bhp, there was also a "low blow" tiny turbo GM unit that went in the Astra mk3 along with the higher powered Isuzu TD. Are you sure it wasn't an Astra estate you had as the MK2 Cavalier was the last of the model with an estate option powered by horrendous GM 1.6d? They definitely never made a mk3 estate.
When I lived in the UK as a child, my father bought an Opel Rekord 1900s Coupe. It was the very car that had been on show at the Earl's court motor show in london in 1973. Would be nice to have it now! it was a lovely car although the black vinyl seats were too hot in summer and the engine block cracked putting an end to the car in around 1987.
everybody smart bought a peugeot 504 estate diesel in that era , fixed a lot of these opel diesels , rotary perpendicular injector pump , still have nightmares over them
Great attitude to old cars - its easy for people to save an SRI or top of the range, that why i have a 1.8 mark 3 cavalier and a 1.8 vectra b. I would love this rekord
My stepfather had an exact same diesel Opel and the same red color. It was my first car that I got to practice drive with before I got my driver's license. From what I remember, this car was extremely sluggish.
I run 15w 40 Movil oil with Lucas thickeners helps stop oil consumption on old motors . I also found Synthetic oil does not make blue smoke cloud either. Nice channel 👍
"I have to overtake some cyclists, hope I don't kill them with the smoke!" I was gong to say: Yes, but each only once. 😆 My parents always drove Opels. My mother had that Rekord model with a petrol engine back in 1980/81, also the estate body. It was a good family truck for the dirty jobs after we bought our house, but so generic, even my mother who really didn't give much of a damn about what her car looked like and handled like got bored. I remember the smirk on her face when the TÜV put their thumb down for it and expensive repairs would have been due.
