125 YEARS AGO: OPEL CELEBRATES ITS FIRST VICTORY IN MOTORSPORTS

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Tom Doyle Motors

Published 26th March 2026

Just a few days ago, Opel announced that it will be competing in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship for the first time in the 2026/27 season. The brand is thus opening a new chapter in its long and successful motorsport history, a celebrated history that began 125 years ago. On March 31, 1901, Heinrich Opel won the hill climb race up the Königstuhl near Heidelberg in Germany in a modified ‘Motorwagen’.

This event marked the start of Opel’s successful motorsports history, which continues to this day across a wide variety of racing and rally series. Over the decades, the brand’s journey has taken it from its first hill climb and road races, through the European and World Rally Championships, to circuit racing with Formula Opel, Formula 3, the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) and the International Touring Car Championship (ITC).

As early as May 1899. Heinrich Opel, the second-youngest son of the company’s founder, Adam Opel, took part in the first international motor race in Germany, the ‘Aachen–Coblenz’ long-distance race, driving a Patent-Motorwagen ‘System Lutzmann’. The Opel brothers then took part in subsequent races, and although they had to wait a little longer for their first real success, these early experiences laid the foundations for the first victory that was soon to follow.

On March 31, 1901, the moment finally arrived. Heinrich Opel took to the track in a modified ‘Motorwagen’ for the first ‘mountain road race’ at the Königstuhl. The race near Heidelberg organised by the Rheinischer Automobilclub is thought to have been the first in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and one of the very first German hill climb races.

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The 5 hp Opel vehicle was characterised above all by its light weight: the mudguards, running boards, lights and trim had been removed. Heinrich Opel completed the 4.5km mountain route, with a 450-metre elevation gain and sections with gradients of up to 16%, in 23 minutes in the optimised ‘Motorwagen’, leaving his competitors far behind.

The motor car’s reliability was particularly impressive. Unlike today, when racing cars are transported to the circuit, Heinrich Opel already made the journey to and from the event in his own vehicle back in 1901. He covered the 180km route in just four hours, achieving an average speed of 45 km/h which was an outstanding average speed in those days.

The Opel brothers quickly recognised the potential of motorsports. Success not only boosted the image of the young brand and its products; the development work also had a positive impact on the reliability of the entire range of cars. Opel proved the following year that this initial success was no fluke. A new partnership with the French manufacturer Alexandre Darracq gave the Opel team a fresh boost. The newly developed Opel-Darracq motor car was in a league of its own. At the second hill climb race on the Königstuhl on October 26 1902, Heinrich Opel crossed the finish line in just 10 minutes and 15 seconds, more than four minutes ahead of the next fastest competitor.

The winning streak continued: in the following years, Opel secured further podium finishes with its racing cars. In 1921, the Opel team made history at Berlin’s AVUS. More than 200,000 people came to the opening race on the legendary city circuit. Fritz von Opel set off in a fiery red Opel 8/25 hp racing car. To the cheers of the crowd, he fought his way forward lap after lap. In the end, he left his competitors far behind and won after seven laps with a time of 1:04:23 hours, corresponding to an average speed of 128.84 kilometres per hour.

These ‘early years’ marked the beginning of Opel’s long motorsport tradition. In 1966, the Swede Lille-Bror Nasenius won the European Rally Championship in an Opel Rekord B, securing one of Opel’s first major international rally titles. The brand’s rallying history is inextricably linked with the name Walter Röhrl. In 1973, Röhrl and Jochen Berger finished as European vice-champions in an Opel Ascona. In 1974, the duo then dominated the European Rally Championship with six overall victories and 120 points, the highest points total ever achieved at that time and were crowned European Drivers’ Champions with three rounds still to go. The 1974 European Championship title marked the start of a further rallying career for Röhrl and Opel, which, together with his co-driver Christian Geistdörfer, culminated in the 1982 World Rally Championship title in a 191 kW (260 hp) Ascona 400.

Opel went on to enjoy great success on the circuit as well. In 1996, Manuel Reuter and Opel secured victory in the International Touring Car Championship (ITC) with the legendary ‘Cliff’ Calibra, a 500 hp 2.5-litre V6 racing car. In 2003, the team comprising Reuter, Timo Scheider, Marcel Tiemann and the then head of motorsport Volker Strycek clinched a thrilling victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in an Opel Astra V8 Coupé.

And today? The future of motorsport is electric, but no less thrilling. For the past five years, Opel has been demonstrating just how electrifying and thrilling locally emissions-free motorsport can be with the world’s first electric rally one-make cup, which is set to enter its next season in a few weeks’ time with the new Opel Mokka GSE Rally. Meanwhile, customers can also experience the exhilarating GSE driving pleasure, as Opel brings the all-electric rally feeling to the road with the 207 kW (281 PS) Mokka GSE road series car.

With its factory team, the Opel GSE Formula E Team, competing in Formula E, the German brand is now taking its commitment to electric motorsport to the next level. Taking part in the world’s fastest-growing racing series marks a milestone for Opel on its journey towards an electric future – a future whose roots stretch back to its first motorsport victory 125 years ago.