VBOA Update 20.01.08

[Tom Williams]

Dear All
Pitch requests for the March 9th VBOA Spring Parts Day and Autojumble are building well so please don’t delay giving us your requirements or you may not be able to get what you want. Latest clubs/members to take space are the Cav Mk 2, Vauxhall Sports Car Club and the Vauxhall Owners Club. Vauxhall dealer Motor Bodies from Luton will be attending for the first time and a number of other Billing regulars have already taken space for the first time.
John Ankerman tells me that the Opel GT club are planning to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the GT at this year’s Billing. My apologies for not spotting that one in my earlier notes, so to make partial amends, here’s a taster of what you will see. The “mini Corvette” Opel GT, is a beautiful 2-seat coupe developed from a 1965 Frankfurt Show car using a Kadett floor pan and available in left hand drive only. Launched in Europe 1967 it was imported the following year by GM Limited as part of the UK Opel range offering. It features flowing curves with a kicked up rear lip to the “Kamm” style tail and pop up, or roll over to be more precise, headlamps. Body production was carried out in France by Brissonneau et Lotz and it certainly turns heads as well as being a nimble performer with the 1900cc power unit. When the contract with the French company ended in 1973 so did production, with over 100,000 sold, 60% of which went to the States where they were marketed through the Buick franchise. The GT was a truly landmark car for Opel and GM as it took the Opel brand into exciting image building territory and paved the way for designer Chuck Jordan’s Manta and coupe variants of the regular production saloons which in turn gave Opel the products to enter motor sport at the highest level.
The next VBOA Committee meeting takes place on Sunday February 3rd. This is also an EGM and we want to be able to ratify proposed changes to the VBOA constitution, primarily in the area of membership eligibility. Therefore it would be appreciated if every club ensured they were represented on the day. We will lay out the room differently to accommodate everybody so we look forward to seeing a full house on the 3rd.
Kind regards
Ian