Opel Geländesportwagen is an off-road racing car by

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

made from 1934. It has been cited as the first

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

. It was an open 2-seater with an aluminium body on a steel chassis. The bodywork was originally made by Kühn. From 1936, the chassis was made more suitable for off-road driving with shortened frame and more robust details. Autenrieth in Darmstadt made the bodywork for those. The engine was originally the same as the standard cars while the mk2 got the 2.5 litre 6-cylinder engine from the Super Six. From 1938, Opel also used the larger engine from the Kapitän. The reason for building the Geländesportwagen may have been that car trials were popular, but also that Germany was secretly training for war. Fifteen were originally built, with only one still surviving.

References

{{Opel timeline 1919 to 1950 Cars introduced in 1936 Geländesportwagen