Paris Show: Opel's GTC, Hot New Concept 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
General Motors is showing a number of vehicles based on its Delta II platform at the upcoming Paris Motor Show. The latest to be announced is Opel's stunning GTC Paris concept, a preview of Opel's future two-door hatchback.
"We wanted to express the most emotional side of the Opel brand and we believe this vehicle creates an appropriate visual impact to reinforce our dynamic sporty character," Opel vice president of design Mark Adams said.
Adams' team succeeded in its goal and produced a stunning car. The clean and emotional styling features carefully sculpted body lines that exude elegance. The front fascia features typical Opel styling cues, with its three-straked hood, standard Opel grille, and headlights taken from a production Astra. The bumper is bespoke to the GTC Paris, but the rest of the car from the A-pillar forward looks to be taken straight from production Astras.
Moving towards the rear of the GTC Paris concept, you see the Opel "blade," a stylistic hockey-stick shaped character line that runs from the front fenders to the rear fenders. It was first introduced on the Insignia sedan, but can be seen running the opposite direction on production Astras. A second character line begins just above the door handle and curves into the taillights.
Designed to be a swoopy coupe, the GTC Paris' roofline curves beautifully into an integrated rear spoiler and curvaceous rear hatch. Despite the dramatically sloped roofline, there is still enough room for three, likely small, rear-seat passengers. The rear hatch is completed with dramatic rear glass and a small lip spoiler, shaped to mimic the rear bumper. Dual-exhaust tips complete the shapely, sporty hatch.
The GTC Paris concept is likely to join the Astra lineup as the Astra two-door hatchback. The only revisions we can see, in the process of turning the concept into a production car, would be slight alterations to the shape of the rear hatch and glass to make production less expensive.
Further hinting at the car's production potential and likely performance variant is its powertrain: GM's 2.0-liter, turbocharged, direct-injected I-4 that normally produces 255-260 horsepower and a similar torque figure coupled to a six-speed manual transmission. A range of less potent engines, likely including GM's new 1.2-, 1.4-, and 1.6-liter I-4 gasoline engines (and the not-for-us 1.3-liter diesel) might power the production car.
We hope that GM brings this car our way with a Buick badge to truly make it an attainable dream car rather than forbidden European fruit.
