Chevrolet Opala

The Chevrolet Opala was a mid-size car sold by General Motors do Brasil from 1969 to 1992. It was derived from the German Opel Rekord and Commodore, but used GM USA sourced engines, two four-cylinder engines: the Chevrolet 153 4-cylinder from Chevy II/Nova which later got a new crankshaft and cylinders changing its size to 151 (usually mistaken as the Pontiac Iron Duke engine and the six-cylinder 250 from the contemporary line of North American car/light truck production. GM manufactured about one million units including the Opala sedan, Opala Coupé and the station wagon variation, the Opala Caravan. It was replaced by the Chevrolet Omega in 1992, also an Opel spinoff. Before this car, Chevrolet only built light trucks and pick-up trucks, so, the Opala was its first passenger car made by GM in Brazil.

It was used by the Brazilian Police for many years. The military dictatorship used the Opala for its agents through the 1970s. Its reliability and easy maintenance made the Opala the choice of many taxi drivers and also popular on racetracks.

Its 250 cubic inch engine (4.1 L) was used in its replacement, the Chevrolet Omega, but making use of Electronic Fuel Injection, in GLS and CD trims from 1995 to 1998. Some of the components and chassis were used for some exotic cars as Santa Matilde, Puma GTB and some replicas as the Fera XK (Jaguar XK) and .