The Opala was one of GM Brazil’s most popular models having been produced from 1969 through 1992. Over the years it evolved and changed but through it all, people loved the cars. As has happened with every mass produced automobile made since the turn of the 20th century, enthusiasts were able to get their hands on older models cheaply and test their mettle at modifying and racing them. It is only natural that the contests of speed would turn to drag racing scenarios in Brazil as they did in North America and elsewhere around the world.
As the years have progressed in Brazil more and more of these cars have been hot rodded to higher and higher levels of performance and as of right now, if you want to find the quickest steel bodied Opala in the land you need look no further than this machine, aptly named Opala Metal. The car is in bare steel with the grinder marks to prove it and we are guessing this was done to keep the naysayers at bay when claims of an “all-steel” car running the numbers that they do turned up. Pretty genius idea if you ask us!
In the video below you will see Opala Metal running a record pass of 5.33 seconds and 215 kph through the eight mile traps. This run was made at the Speedway Music Park and it is all the more impressive when you consider that this is the equivalent of an 8.27 second quarter mile run made on a surface that is actually the straight on a road course and not a dedicated drag strip. The 133mph speed at the eighth is pretty healthy and while we do not know the exact combo we’re pretty much guessing that this car is powered by a 250ci (based) in line six with a turbocharger on it. The looks, the sounds, and the culture lead us to believe that.
Outside of all this, though is the shutdown area of the “strip”. Opala Metal goes cooking down the track, the driver throws the ‘chutes BEFORE the finish line, is all over the brakes, and he still manages to plow through the sand trap and end up on the beginnings of a trail that looks like it leads into thick jungle. To the driver’s credit it looks like the kind of planned it that way. His right hand never left the parachute lever and the car went where it looked like he wanted it to go but just…wow.
If it seems like I have recently become obsessed with the drag racing scene in South America it is because I have been. They are fast, they are scrappy, an they are hardcore down there. It makes you appreciate what we have here when you watch stuff like this. I would love to see this bad mother of a car on a fully prepped American quarter mile. It is one BAD hombre! Watch below –
