Opel Compass and Opel Vizor, some design concepts for its future models

Concept cars serve to visualise the ideas that car manufacturers have about the future. Many of them end up in a dead end, waiting for a future that never comes, while others are dismissed because they were not liked or failed to attract the interest of both automotive specialists and the general public. But, in any case, all of them offer clues and nuances of what the future designs of the brand will look like.

This is what happens with the Opel GT X Experimental, the concept car presented in Paris by Opel at the still recent Mondial de l’Automobile. A concept car that contributes to the new philosophy that the German brand, now part of the PSA Group, is developing for its future, and whose models will incorporate two of the elements presented on the Opel GT X Experimental, identified as Opel Compass and Opel Vizor.

Both elements recreate concepts closely linked to iconic vehicles of the brand, such as the Opel Manta in its first generation of 1970, while also anticipating a full statement of intent for the future development of electric and autonomous driving models that the manufacturer plans to launch from 2020 onwards.

Opel is “preparing” all its models for the future to accommodate the ever-growing number of sensors and cameras that modern vehicles require, and it will do so without losing the important identity traits that link it to its best creations of the past. In the GT X Experimental, Opel has used the Opel Manta of 1970 as the main source of inspiration for setting its proportions and defining its main design lines.

The brand has sought to offer the same striking simplicity and purity of line as its iconic model, creating a very clean front end in which the wide front grille with the double headlights framed by chrome rings integrated into it stands out prominently. This ensemble also recovers the habitual central fold of the bonnet as the vertical axis of the whole front, combined with the aforementioned headlights that form the horizontal axis of the traditional cross composition of the original Manta. A virtual cross whose axis or centre proudly holds the Blitz with the traditional brand logo, a lightning bolt crossing the orb that already then anticipated the bright electric future that awaits Opel.

This front design scheme will be one of the master lines of the design of the brand’s future models, as the German manufacturer, now integrated into the PSA Group, has just confirmed. It is what is known as the Opel Compass, the concept from which the front ends of the brand’s future models will be organised.

Likewise, the wing-shaped daytime running lights already characteristic of Opel will be another of the elements that will give the family look to the brand’s future models. At the rear, as at the front, the scheme of the vertical axis joined to the horizontal one, formed by the rear lights, also wing-shaped, is repeated once again with the brand’s Blitz as the link between both. Here, the vertical axis falls from the fin-shaped antenna at the rear of the roof until it reaches the accentuated and well-defined crease in the car’s bumper.

Opel Vizor, innovative solutions for autonomous cars

Together with the stylistic concept of the Opel Compass, the designers at Opel have also developed the Opel Vizor, a new concept that will bring a new style to the face of future Opel. The Opel Vizor is a unique, integrated element that will frame all the car’s high-tech elements, and which will become as specific and identifiable to the brand as its own emblem. In future models the Opel Vizor will replace the classic grille, and will have different functions while meeting various requirements demanded by future mobility.

Among the elements the Opel Vizor will house is the new and original LED Blitz of Opel, which will allow the car’s operating status to be displayed by lighting up in different colours. It will also integrate the LED matrix headlight system, the wing-shaped daytime driving lights, and the cameras and sensors required by the various driver assistance and driving aid systems, which will favour both greater safety in driving and greater comfort on board and during the journey, as well as the various autonomous driving functions of the vehicle. All these elements will be located under a darkened plexiglass cover that elegantly runs across the whole front of the car just below the line of the bonnet. The Opel Vizor will be a recurring and distinctive design element of all the Opel that arrive during the decade beginning in 2020.