Introduced in 1991 for the 1992 model year, the Astra was originally available as a three-door hatchback. Opel kept this body style alive for the GTC, the sporty model that never managed to steal the Golf GTI’s thunder. Previously owned by General Motors, the German automaker couldn’t make a case for three doors for the fifth gen from 2015. The same can be said about the all-new Astra, which features a French vehicle architecture and oily bits from Groupe PSA even though it’s still made in Deutschland.
If coupes were still popular today and if the Stellantis group would’ve given Opel a little more leeway for experimentation, the Astra may have been gifted with two doors on the sides and a liftback rear end. Something like the 2023 Nissan Z sports car, which brings us to the featured design study.
Penned by pixel wizard Theottle, the rendering is more than meets the eye. By reducing the dash-to-axle distance of the Z to accommodate the Astra’s body panels and FWD chassis, the virtual tuner has invertedly created a successor of sorts for the Calibra. Marketed as a Chevy in South America and as a Holden in New Zealand and Australia, the Calibra was introduced in 1989 as a response to the increasingly popular Japanese sports coupes.
It had, however, a small problem shared with the Ford Probe that was originally intended to be the fourth-generation Mustang. As mentioned beforehand, Opel had to settle for front-wheel drive rather than rear-wheel drive like the Omega. Worse still, the German automaker didn't sell too many. A total of 239,118 units were delivered until 1997, of which 12,015 were fitted with V6 mills and 3,385 were equipped with four-wheel drive.
Turning our attention back to the Astra, the sixth generation will play the practical card rather than the sporty card with a family-oriented station wagon. For the time being, the Astra is offered with a three-cylinder turbo, a four-cylinder turbo plug-in hybrid, as well as a four-cylinder turbo diesel.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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