Opel - Opel Speedster 2.2

Opel Speedster, excellent collector car

Dream Garage is presenting this great Europe Blue Speedster. This is one of the first cars that hit the market back in 2001. Of the relative small production batch this is number 48. Probably the first Speedster to be registered in the Netherlands as the press car of Opel Nederland. This car was used for promotion purposes at the introduction of the Speedster in the Netherlands. The car could be seen in car magazines like Autoweek. After the introduction the car was bought by a dutch Opel dealer. This dealer placed the car in his private car collection.

Only 7.207 cars are produced in the 2001 to 2005 period.  5.052 LHD cars and 2155 RHD Vauxhall VX220s. 1.000 of the 5.052 LHD cars are the rare 2.0 Turbo versions. In the Nederlands 187 Speedsters were sold when new.

The great light weight technical concept in combination with the low production numbers make these Speedsters absolute collectable. 

• 2 original keys
• Electronic start blockinhg system
• Instruction manuals
• Maintenance manual

The Opel Speedster is a UK-built mid-engined, targa-topped, 2-seater sports car from the German automaker Opel introduced in mid-2000.

It was built in both right-hand drive and left-hand drive versions at the Lotus Cars plant in Hethel, Norfolk, England. It was sold as the Vauxhall VX220 in the UK, as the Opel Speedster in the rest of Europe and the Daewoo Speedster in the Asian market.

The car shared much in common with the Lotus Elise, yet Opel claimed few parts were interchangeable. Both cars are characterised by strong performance and sharp handling.

Produced by Lotus at their Hethel, Norfolk factory, the Speedster carried the Lotus internal model identification Lotus 116 and the code name Skipton for the 2.2N/A version and Tornado for the 2.0 L Turbo.

The chassis utilizes an aluminium chassis tub that weighs only 150 lb (68 kg). The car also features bodywork made entirely of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). The entire car weighs only 2,050 lb (930 kg), much lighter than most small sports cars.

The normally aspirated version used an Opel Astra all aluminium alloy 2.2 L Z22SE engine giving 108 kW (147 PS; 145 bhp) in a car weighing 870 kg (1,918 lb) – originally designed for Opel by Lotus, it arguably gives the Speedster more mechanical Lotus content than the Elise. The Turbo model, introduced in 2003, used an Opel designed cast iron block 2.0 L Z20LET engine, producing 147 kW (200 PS; 197 bhp) but weighing 930 kg (2,050 lb).

The Elise S2 was designed by Lotus to have 16-inch front wheels and 17-inch rear wheels. Opel decided to fit 17-inch wheels front and rear to the Speedster.

A removable hard-top can be fitted as a factory or aftermarket option.

The turbo version was able to reach a top speed of 242 km/h (150 mph) and accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds.

The car was hailed by the motoring press as a great drivers' car and won several accolades, including Top Gear's Car of the Year in 2003. The 2.2 NA (naturally aspirated) version was considered the easier drive of the two standard variants, and some journalists recommended that the Opel/Vauxhall car was better value for money than the Lotus.

Speedsters were displayed with the Daewoo badge, although only one was built to be used for marketing purposes. A final version, the track-oriented Speedster, based on the turbo model, was tuned to give around 220 hp (164 kW; 223 PS) and used 16 in (406 mm) front wheels that allowed the fitting of smaller front tyres to give sharper handling.

Production ended in 2005, with the successor being the Opel GT.