The Opel GT as a summiteer
08/11/2014
In the autumn of 1969, the tire manufacturer Firestone invited five importers, each with a vehicle, to a unique event on the Swiss Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Oberland (altitude: 3,454 meters) for a winter tyre test. I was the one chosen to take part on behalf of General Motors SA, Biel, with an Opel GT 1900.
The event was held from September 28 to October 3, 1969 on the Aletsch Glacier in the Jungfrau region. The team consisted of a Ford Capri, Renault 8, Simca 1100, Austin and the beautiful red Opel GT 1900.
After we had loaded all the vehicles onto the wagons of the cog railroad in Lauterbrunnen, it was off to the heights. Larger vehicles were not allowed to take part in this test, as the connecting tunnel from the Jungfrau mountain station to the Aletsch Glacier, through which we had to push the vehicles, was too narrow.
Our beautiful GT could not pass through the tunnel gate, and so it was quickly broken out of the rock by some workers with a hammer, chisel and compressor - this provided the crucial centimetres for free passage.
When all the vehicles were finally on the glacier, the carburetors had to be completely readjusted - because of the thin air at this altitude. We stayed the whole week in the old "Jungfrau" hotel, which burnt down to the ground a few years later.
The winter tires were tested extensively, but we had to spread huge amounts of snow cement to solidify the snow again, because the weather gods were too kind to us and let the sun shine every day.
On the penultimate day, journalists from all over Europe came to test Firestone's new winter tires. It was certainly not a meaningful test, but it was unique! Never before had a car been on the Jungfraujoch, and the reactions to the many press reports were correspondingly strong. It called the conservationists into action, and you could read that the authorities would no longer approve such actions.
But nothing lasts forever, and so the new Bugatti Veyron was presented to the press on the Jungfraujoch some time ago - but the Opel GT was the first!
(This article first appeared in the club magazine "Der Zuverlässige" of the Alt-Opel-IG)
