{"id":20882,"date":"2026-04-24T06:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/20882\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T06:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:50:07","slug":"uks-rarest-cars-1972-opel-manta-sr-rallye-one-of-only-eight-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/20882\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s rarest cars: 1972 Opel Manta SR Rallye, one of only eight left"},"content":{"rendered":"

By 1972, the SR Rallye cost \u00a31,543, while a Capri 2000 GT XLR was \u00a31,377, although the two had very different images. Some Manta owners dismissed the Ford as a vehicle for \u201cmedallion men\u201d, while they appreciated fine wines and Belgian chocolates. The Sunbeam Rapier H120 for \u00a31,624 was another British alternative to the Manta, but it looked slightly ungainly compared with the Opel.<\/p>\n

There was also the Vauxhall Firenza<\/a> Sport SL for \u00a31,372, a form of in-house rival since Opel and Vauxhall were both part of the General Motors empire, although the two marques had separate dealerships and model line-ups. The Manta\u2019s svelte appearance was known to induce envy in certain Vauxhall outlets, with one salesman complaining that the Firenza resembled a \u201cbubble-top Viva\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Manta B replaced the Manta A in July 1975 after 498,553 units, with more than 170,000 sold in the US. Baker owned two variants of the Opel in the 1980s \u2013 \u201cand I vowed to buy another\u201d. He finally acquired the green SR at the end of 2024, after waiting for its previous owner to sell it for more than a year, and it is possibly the sole surviving automatic version.<\/p>\n

Baker found that his Manta attracts many comments, usually along the lines of: \u201cWhat is it?\u201d He regards the optional automatic gearbox as \u201cvery smooth and precise\u201d, although he prefers the manual box as better suited to the 1.9-litre engine. As for the Opel\u2019s most appealing aspect, \u201cit has to be its appearance\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By 1972, the SR Rallye cost \u00a31,543, while a Capri 2000 GT XLR was \u00a31,377, although the two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6946,9655,453,5152,6208,330,5,5151,6,333,3575],"class_list":{"0":"post-20882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-automotive-industry","9":"tag-car-collectors","10":"tag-cars","11":"tag-classic-cars","12":"tag-ford","13":"tag-standard","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-uks-rarest-cars","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-us-content","18":"tag-vauxhall"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116458358223857919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}