Around the Nordschleife with a foxtail
05/29/2017
What would the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring be without the Kissling team's legendary Opel Manta B? On the weekend of May 27/28, 2017, the team led by Olaf Beckmann once again relied on the car with the foxtail.
The Manta is a legend on the Nordschleife. This model from Rüsselsheim took part in the 24-hour classic for the 23rd time in 2017. The Manta B has been a regular participant since 1998, with one exception in 2005, when the car could not be repaired in time after a training accident. The overall victory in the SP3 class was also targeted in 2017.
The car also had a matching start number, so in 2017, as always, it started with the number 122.
The Manta is known like no other by the numerous fans at the side of the track. When it comes round the bend, it is applauded loudly. The Manta, which weighs just 930 kg, is always correctly equipped with a foxtail and is powered by a 1.8-liter engine with 255 hp that has been boosted to 2 liters. "We didn't keep a record of the number of foxtails," laughs Olaf Beckmann (70). Beckmann is owner, driver, chief engineer and chief mechanic all rolled into one, and he turned the standard Manta into a rally car at the end of the 1980s, with which he then took part several times in the Tour d`Europe long-distance rally, which took him and his Opel as far as Morocco and Istanbul.
After the end of this rally, the question arose: what now? A friend brought the rally driver to the Ring, where he competed in the VLN for the first time on April 23, 1994. "I still have to grin today when I think of the astonished faces when I turned up there with my high-legged rally car," Beckmann recalls. It quickly became clear that the car was not suitable for the circuit, so the conversion to a racing car began. In the meantime, the Manta has completed 82,296.692 racing kilometers (2017 not yet counted in the kilometers) in its 23 starts on the Nordschleife. There were two class victories (2002 and 2015) in the 24-hour race. Unfortunately, the team was not as successful in 2017, retiring after 71 laps.
But they won't be stopping any time soon, because: "I really want to complete the 100,000 km," laughs Beckmann.
We wish the team continued success!
