For the last few weeks I dove deep into the Omega B, its history and development and tried to learn as much as I could about the car.
From the beginning I was always more of a fan of the B1 (PFL and MFL in the UK) than the B2 (facelift). It seems many share the same opinion here.
There is nothing wrong with the B2. It is still a nice looking car. It reminds me a lot of the Astra G. But that’s fine. It looks like an Opel product because it is.
But this is where the B1 is so special. It barely looks like your typical Opel. It has a unique design somehow. Not only among the other Opels of its day, but also among its competitors. Now there were many unique designs in the history of cars. But normally unique tend to mean bizarre or odd. Like a lot of the Fords such as the Sierra with it’s odd looking rear or the very odd Scorpio. But in the case of the Omega B1 uniqueness means beauty. I even see some of its design in later cars. This is probably why even though the B1 is older than the B2, the Omega B2 (FL) somehow looks more dated at this point in my opinion. The Omega B1's lines still look quite modern. If clear LED headlights and taillights were available for the B1 it would blend in with the new cars no problem. The lights are the biggest sign of its age.
So I wanted to start a thread to discuss the Omega B1 (PFL/MFL) design.
I think Opel clearly put all its eggs in the basket when working on the Omega A/Carlton’s replacement. They really went all out. I feel like if it had a 3-point star logo on the grill instead of the blitz (or Griffin) it would have been taken much more seriously, even if it was exactly the same car. But since it is an Opel it got overlooked and has always been underrated in my opinion. Badge snobbery is a real thing and as pathetic as we know it to be.
With its clean and elegant lines and yet somehow futuristic (for the time) I feel the Omega B1 could become a classic, if it had ever had a noteworthy version like the Carlton did with the Lotus. There is the Steinmetz but I guess it is just to rare and probably not impressive enough performance wise to do it.
But any time somebody says the Omega is bland I can never see it when I look at the PFL B1.
Let’s first take a look at how the other Opels of its time looked:
As you see, the Omega B1 looked like none of them. Today all Opels basically look the same. Just different wheelbases and roof lines. The same can be said for VW, Audi, Porsche, Ford or Jaguar. I can barely tell the difference between a XE, XF and XJ if the picture is small and it’s not a rear or profile shot. BMW somehow manages a bit more difference as does Mercedes. But still very similar to one another. And although it has gotten worse and worse, this corporate look tendency started long ago. The Carlton/Omega had the same front as the Astra/Kadett. Taillights were very close too and so on.
But as you see the Omega B1 is a curious case. With the FL I guess they felt the need to bring it closer to the rest of the family.
Now I'm not saying the B1 is un-Opel. It naturally has the cues. But it's not the copy-and-paste job you usually see.
So is the Omega B1 bland? Compared to which of its contemporaries? A Lamborghini Diablo? Then maybe. But compared to the other cars in its class?
Well:
Sorry I don’t see it. Not only it is not bland but it also looked better and more ahead of its time than any of the above. Badge snobbery is a powerful thing indeed.
And not even the tuned versions of the competition looked better. To anybody who says an Omega B is bland, they must have never seen the Steinmetz Omega Kompressor or Turbo Steinmetz:
So let’s discuss the B1 design. Why do you think Opel went far out? And why do you think they then did the opposite with the facelift car and made it so close to other Opels?
Did the B1 not sell as expected?
Did they think it didn’t look like an Opel product after all?
How do you think the B1 stacked up against its competition from a design point of view?
In forums we always see a lot of help threads and posts complaining about the cars. In a way this is what forums are mostly for. A kind of secondary support channel. I myself benefited immensely from the kindness and help given by the knowledgeable members here. So I wanted to have a different discussion about these great cars for a change.
Author
Topic: The Opel Omega B1 (aka Vauxhall Omega PFL) Design (Read 12193 times)