Couple of the days ago i become a proud new owner of a Opel speedster 2.2.
I've wanted one of these lightweight Hethel machines since the first time they appeared on the pages of performance car magazine. It really didn't matter to me if it was Lotus/Opel/Vauxhall.
In my country there are one lotus s1, one s2, a red speedster 2.2 NA and two speedster turbos. The s1 was crashed a couple of time and in probably in some garage waiting for a new body, the s2 isn't for sale and has suffered a side impact from an SUV, the NA speedster has a small front crash, one turbo was being rebodied in to a custom classic shape and the other turbo is painted ivory pearl, has 19" chrome turbine wheels and has not yet been trough customs.
Importing a car would be to costly since I would need to pay another 30 to 40% on top of the buying price since were not in the EU. The only reasonable option was to wait for the one speedster that was in a better shape that the rest, the NA one, to be put for sale, and after two and a half years it was finally happened. I didn't think twice about buying it, the next day after I saw it in the classifieds I had arranged to see it and bought it on the spot after an compete checkup.
The speedster has led a difficult life, I'm still not sure where it was first bought but it ended up Maribor Slovenia before being bought buy its last owner in 2009. It wasn't really abused as a track car, bit it has suffered a lot of small indignities. This is how it looked at that time.
It had an Rs badge instead of the Opel lightning logo, the calipers were painted blue and had small chrome light bulbs on the tires and a cracked front clamshell.
In the past 3 years it has been painted matte black, badly, and then wrapped in carbon fiber. It was in a light front end collision with a parked car. It windshield was and still is cracked, the suspension has been swapped for hard core stiff gaz coilovers and the last time the geometry has been check was probably in 2006. The left rear wishbone has been cracked and welded and the right one in barely connected to the chassis. There a lot of of others problems, but I won't bore you with them.
I postponed driving the Speedster for an hour after we finished with the paperwork, but I couldn't wait any longer. The moment it started moving i knew it was something else, it felt so alive I could read everything on the road just by holding the wheel. There was no slack, as your muscles moved the wheel so did the car move instantaneously. The ride was painfully hard, but you could fell the rigidity of the chassis immediately. And I didn't just climb out of any car before getting in to the speedster, half an hour before that I was driving my daily driver m3 e30 in original condition. The differences were stark, even thou the m3 is one of the best balanced cars with perfect steering and low weight it just was not as good as the speedster. The only thing that the m3 does better is hooning. It's much easier and more fun to slide the m3 than the speedster, but it think I can address that shortcoming of the Opel.
In the next couple of days I'll start with the restoration of the speedster. First I'll try to setup the gaz coilovers, if that doesn't work im going back to the original Bilsteins. The carbon wrap is going to the thrash can first, after that the body panels will be taken of the car and prepped for painting. I'm still not decided on the paint, but it probably going to be petrol blue, although frozen gray is still a possibility. While the body is being painted the chassis will be checked and the drivetrain dismantled and reconditioned if needed. The wiring will probably need attention and the carbon wrap has to be removed from the dashboard.
I plan to order an LSD, windshield and an hardtop first and enjoy it as soon as I can finish with the restoration.
I'll keep you posted on all the work that will go in the Speedster.
I'm not sure if I'll upgrade the engine soon, if I can steer it on the throttle with the horsepower it's got I'll leave it standard.
welcome
