Lends wings - Opel Commodore B Jumbo 6000
10/23/2013
Opel introduced the Commodore B Coupé in the spring of 1972. As a 2.8 GS/E, the car could also appeal to performance-hungry buyers, but nobody took it as far as the Steinmetz team, who presented a fundamental conversion in 1973.
Widened fenders, monstrous front and rear spoilers and a small-block Chevy engine with a displacement of six liters and over 500 hp made the 1,020 kg car, which was appropriately called the Jumbo 6000, over 300 km/h fast, certainly fast enough to easily outpace the Ford Capri and BMW CSL Coupés that were present at the time.
Unfortunately, however, there was no suitable racing series for the fast Opel and, at the end of the day, there were no racing successes to speak of. The car is said to have been scrapped in the seventies. What a shame!
And this is what the Automobil Revue wrote in issue 49/1973:
"Opel tuner Klaus Steinmetz (Rüsselsheim) has come up with a special gag for the next season: he took a "slimmed-down" Opel Commodore and fitted it with a 510 hp Chevrolet V8 engine with a capacity of 5990 cm3 (engine from the Diplomat). A Formula 5000 engine was also installed on request (485 hp). In order to keep the car, which weighed a round ton, well on the ground even at high speeds (top speed 300 km/h), it was fitted with oversized spoilers or stabilization wings. The monster was christened the "Jumbo 6000".
Steinmetz hopes to be able to use his Silhouette Car (a vehicle category that may emerge) in Interseries races. The Jumbo is not allowed to compete as a Group 5 sports car because it has a displacement of over three liters. The Jumbo is for sale: the super thing costs DM 118,000 or around CHF 145,000. Steinmetz also built a tamer road version without a "tail unit" with a 3.4-liter six-cylinder engine (208 hp), which was offered for DM 29700. We will be reporting in more detail on the new high-performance vehicles from Steinmetz."
The high-resolution photo can of course also be found separately (as always) in our archive.
