Group B Manta 400 4WD Prototype information

[KevinBricknall]

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[KevinBricknall]

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[KevinBricknall]

Also have this information on the Road Car as well.

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[KevinBricknall]

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[KevinBricknall]

Think this is the 4WD being tested.

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[RGBS]

Finally some participation in this research!

Of course it is hard to tell what is what and which is which, that car definitely doesn't look like rally prototype of the articles. ^^

I have gotten not much help from Opel Motorsport since they say they do not have any documents pertaining to the 4WD prototype. They did manage to find someone who worked there at the time this car was built but he doesn't remember much except that the only prototype he knows about was a "narrow body" all white Manta.

However, the rumors that "more than one" prototype was built might be getting more serious since you can see in one article that the car lifted up to photograph the undercarriage is indeed an all white narrow body Manta and appears to be RHD! The drivetrain schematic is also in RHD. Then there's the actual rally prototype shots when testing on the tarmac and "wet grass"... it is clearly LHD and sports all the other exterior mods as noted before. This makes it more likely that at least 2 were built (one on a narrow road car, and another in rally spec). Albeit the former could have been converted to the latter but to go as far as switch it from RHD to LHD too? Unlikely in my opinion.

Then there's the whole bickering in the unlikeliest of places... a slot car forum!

http://slotadictos.mforos.com/21954/11259511-novedades-avant-slot-2014/?pag=2

However, it certainly gives some leads to follow as to where these cars might have ended up. I have sent a few emails. Hopefully, that part of the story will help figure out how many there was...

[RGBS]

I was able to identify the magazine for the technical article: Auto Moto and Sport from Germany. I was able to find that very article in their archives:

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/premium/einzeltest-opel-manta-400-mit-allradantrieb-9699030.html

I was able to translate most of it through OCR. Thus I think that the well of information about this car has just about dried up, unless new information comes in! As always, my own article was updated to reflect the new knowledge.

[mitsuevo]

I had a look at the car end of the 90es when it was for sale in England.
If it is of interest, I can send.....

[RGBS]

I had a look at the car end of the 90es when it was for sale in England.
If it is of interest, I can send.....

Of course, why not...

I think that finding out where the cars ended up is the only information left to find. Can you give details as to what the car looked like in much detail? Was it white or with the Rothmans livery? Had it been converted back to RWD? etc...

That in itself is getting interesting since the article mentions two cars (one road, one rally, the road looks like RHD and the rally is clearly LHD, yet there is much discrepancies in the whole thing). Multiple names came up in my research, including that of Mick Quaife, Tony Maslin, Stuart Palmeras, as previous owner of one of the cars. Some say the car is now in Ireland, others say in Spain. Both might be correct, if there was indeed two cars....

Fun times ahead!

[RGBS]

Hi all,

I was confirmed that there were two prototypes built through a contact that worked at FFD at the time (also helping on the Ferguson Formula book).

My own deduction is that one road car and one rally car were built. That is logical since, if that project went forward, Opel would have needed 200 homologation road cars. My info is that the road car was a white narrow body with the basic 144 hp phase 1 engine (the car was most likely RHD). The rally car was in the Rothmans livery and sporting the wide arch kit from Irmscher with a re-tuned 240 hp phase 2 engine (the car is clearly seen as LHD).

If ANYONE has ANY info on the current owners of these 2 cars then please share it with us. We would certainly like to contact them to gain further details and a get a recent picture! (notwithstanding that the cars may no longer be 4WD)