Why isn't everyone building awesome Opel Manta Bs?

Saw this one at a show in Belgium yesterday, bloody fine car!


To answer your questions, my take it on it is that the Mantas are getting rare and pricey now. They used to be everywhere in Germany but always had a bit of stigma because they used to be driven by weird people. But they have pretty much died out in normal traffic and most of them are in the hands of die hard Opel fans and collectores. Prices have really risen a lot as well.

It's a shame. I always dreamt of building one, but I fear they'll soon get out of my price range forever.

Well, this is what 3500€ gets you in Germany right now:






To be fair, that's a pretty extreme example, but scouring the for sale ads, it seems like anything below 5 grand is either utter curse word or seems too good to be true.

I know if an RB25-powered Manta B which is currently nearing completion, which will be an absolute weapon on the roads!
I suspect a lot of UK Mantas have headed across the water to our Irish cousins - might be worth investigating what those guys are building!

Built this one a few years ago, 300hp Cosworth. When I came to sell it, I couldn't give it away. Ended up selling the rolling shell for the price of the brakes fitted to it, and even then I had to twist the guy's arm...

they've mostly rusted away??

We have had our Escort in the family for 3 generations, it is like triggers broom, and is the family pet scruffy dog. I bought a 1976 Manta 1600 auto coupe in 2015, it was knuckle bitingly pretty, I loved looking at the car, on a motorway it was extremely comfortable, and it was mint. I sold it after 5 months because I was going to be out of driving action for 3months following hand surgery,
I also could not love the car no matter how I tried, it was like a super model with no one at home, it didn't have soul. I think it was too well thought out, the CIH engine is a boat anchor and the bonnet is way too long, it felt like turning a canal barge.


BUT,

I wish I still had it though as it made a Capri look like the ugly mate which always comes with the fit lass. It is one of my rare regrets I've ever had about selling a car.

Always wanted a manta back in the day but couldn't afford the insurance so went for the cavalier sri, one of my mates had a white GTE on a B reg when I was in the army and I loved it, also one of my sergeants had an early one and was well sick when we went on a live firing exercise for Northern Ireland training and one of the targets was one, he was a bit better when he got permission to take the manta ray badges off of the front wings.said they were really rare back then.
Ps really love the orange cosworth one.

Love it

It's not just the Manta that's missing out, even the venerable Nova and Corsa B are getting to be a less common sight now. Then there's the real rarities, the ones you only see hidden away in the dark corners of forums like the Monza, Royale, VX490, Viceroy and 2300 to name just a handful. When was the last time you paid attention to a Tigra or a Calibra? When was the last time you saw a Nova in the wild, or a Mk1 Astra? Even the Chevette and Cavalier that used the same styling queues as the Manta have all but disappeared now.

Throughout the 80s and 90s I saw a grand total of 3 Mantas in the wild. A faded red one with quad lights, a white one with quad lights and a metallic blue one with a vinyl roof, fishtank headlights and headlight wipers. That's it. You'd see one or two in printed media or on the telly (usually racing) but they were rare even in their day and what's worse, they never jumped out as being particularly special, just as being a smart looking car. They didn't pop up at car shows either. They fell out of the public consciousness, at least in the UK, and what few did survive succumbed to the most horrendous varieties of hidden rust and parts support issues. They weren't valuable and they weren't valued so they disappeared.


Do we need a Vauxhall appreciation thread? I'm beginning to think we might.