Opel—Wheels To The World

“Opel—Wheels To The World” by Karl Ludvigsen. 96 pp. 81 in. s 9i in. (Princetown Publishing Ltd., 90, Cleveland Lane, Princetozon, N.J. £6.10.)

Another one-make history gap is filled by this Automobile Quarterly-of-America publication. Until just before the Second World War, When the very inexpensive but spacious, four-speed i.f.s. Opels arrived here, sold from an agency in Brixton and said to be made mostly of tin and compressed cardboard, the make was thought of only in connection with those 1914 Grand Prix Opels that ran at Brooklands after the war. But in recent times the prestige of the General Motors’ Opel has increased to a high level.

So Karl Ludvigsen’s account of this very old German make is most welcome. It could not have been easy to compile, for many Opel models were more utilitarian than interesting. But this author has got it all down, in readable fashion, with a very good chapter on the legendary Opel rocket cars. The book is very largely illustrated in colour and brings the story up to 1974, with a breakdown of production figures from 1899 to that year.—W.B.