Guest Richard D Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 I just saw a gt sell for 10k and the paint and interior looked very good and stock. What really got my attention was that it had working a/c! I have always liked these cars since I saw one at a Buick dealer when I went with my dad to pick up his new car. While I was sitting in it I asked the salesman how much more a/c would cost. He said a/c was not available and told me to look at a Mercury Capri if I had to have a/c. This is Miami, a/c is a must. Wound up buying a Plymouth Cricket, more on that lump later. Any opinions on a gt with a/c? I know it won't be fast and at 6 foot 3 it will be tight.Thanks allRichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwight Romberger Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 Richard. We must be close to the same age. I have nearly the same memory. My guess is that salesman didn't have any GT's with AC in stock at the moment. but he had a boatload of Mercury Capri's that he could give away!This place apparently has complete AC units for GT's http://www.opelsunl.com/opel-gm.htmlAnd Wikipedia says they were comfortable for people over six feet tall. Of course six feet was shorter back then than it is now.Dwight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Buick/GM had a factory kit to add a/c to the Opel Mantas in the early 1970s. I had some work associates who had a few of those cars with said a/c and they said it worked pretty good. Odd thing was that it used the GM A-6 compressor, which was about 1/2 as long as the engine block it was mounted against. At the time, I suspected that that "power hog" compressor would severely decrease the car's performance, but it was claimed to not have that much affect upon it. When I drove my uncle's '74 Manta couple, with automatic transmission, I found it to perform pretty well, especially when I determined that manually-shifting the automatic trans to raise the shift points several hundred rpms suddenly made it much more lively and quicker!In more modern times, there's a substitute compressor which has less power-consuming "guts" which is a direct bolt-in for the GM A-6 compressor. Sanden also has a "back plate" for their compressors which is configured for factory GM hose connections, as the A-6 has!In those earlier times, many import cars were imported without "factory a/c", but there usually was a "factory a/c kit" which the importer or dealership might install. All the way up into some of the later Chev GEO models, too. I believe a pre-cursor of the Manta coupe was the Opel GT coupe? Or was the Opel GT coupe the Corvette-style performance Opel? If the former was the case, then I know there was a factory kit for a/c. If the latter is the case, then it might have been more of a packaging issue than anything else . . . just as with the Plymouth SuperBird/Dodge Daytona cars not being available with factory a/c (due to air intake/flow issues for the radiator).Just some thoughts,NTX5467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TCDave Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 (edited) Yes they did make the GT with air. Stock setup had a kind of funky looking addition to the center console for vents. Those are getting fairly hard to find! Pretty sure there are a few making an aftermarket unit that will work. Hope so...would like to add it to our 73...but not quite to that point yet. Edited October 16, 2013 by TCDave add pix (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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