Opel's Little Trooper

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Automotive tastes of the 1930s tended to be either safely conservative (your Austins, Morrises and so forth), extremely dramatic (airline coupés, for example) or boldly and genuinely futuristic. The Opel Kadett of 1936 fell very much into that last category. In its styling, it stepped away from straight edges and wholly embraced curves, and the enclosed headlamps were a more serious exercise in aerodynamics than the various pseudo-streamliners could boast.

The small sidevalve might not have been anything radical, but the Kadett’s two party pieces were its unitary construction – it was Germany’s second ever unitary production car, beaten only by Opel’s own Olympia – and its highly advanced Dubonnet independent frontsuspension, which had already been enthusiastically adopted by General Motorsacross its various American marques.

For all its sophistication, the Kadett was not expensive, either, and sold strongly in Germany. Some even found buyers in England, like this pretty right-hand drive cabriolet, though its more traditionally-styled relative, the Vauxhall H-type of 1937, was more in keeping with British tastes.

The remarkable Kadett was, says Ian Tisdale, a car for the future, a trendsetter and a true people’s car. You can read his full appraisal of the clever car in the November issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Text by Zack Stiling, Photographs by Reverendpixel

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