The history of the Opel Ascona A as a rally car begun in the early seventies of the last century. The Ascona A was homologated in group 2 on April 1st, 1971 with homologation number 5398. This car was built in 1972 by the renowned Opel tuner Steinmetz in Germany for Greek Johnny Pesmazoglou, the owner of Elfinco and winner of the 3rd Acropolis Rally 1955. It was driven with dealer license plate E2 (yes, very short!) for Elfinco. This is the short name of Hellenic Financial Company, which was over decades the Greek importer of Opel cars, which had in these times the biggest market share of all car brands in Greece.
First event was the Rally Acropolis 1972 and later in the year Rally Skra-Kilkis.
1973 events were Giros Peloponnisou (dnf, wheel) and Skorpios Rally, followed by Rally Acropolis (dnf, cooling). Due to the oil crisis there were no events in 1974. The next year started with Rally Attiko Voiotas, followed by Rally Acropolis 1975 where Johnny Pesmazoglou / Dimitris Iorgitsis achieved 4th overall, 3 places after winners Walter Röhrl / Jochen Berger in a works Opel Ascona A 1.9 SR.
Directly after the event the Walter Röhrl car was sold to Johnny Pesmazoglou. He preferred to drive his new car, so this car was driven only occasionally, for example in Rally Voiotias 1978 und 1987; Giros Peloponnisou 1979 and 1985; Levou-Lesvos Island Rally and Mauro Rodo Rally 1979. 1980 were 3 events added with Stereas Ellados Rally, Earino Summer Rally and Olimpou Mount Olimpos Rally. Completed was the event list by some circuit track races in Greece, for example 1978 at the aerodrome Tatoi.
After his death on October 22nd, 2002 the car came back to rallying. On the 3rd Historic Acropolis Rally in 2004 the car was driven with starting number 8 by Nikos Tomazos / Ioannis Theodorakopoulos and came in 7th overall. On the 4th Historic Acropolis Rally 2005 Nikos and Panayiotis Tomazos achieved 17th overall. This was the last event for the car in Greece and it was stored for more than ten years in Athens.
2015 the current owner had the chance to acquire the car from the grandchildren of Johnny Pesmazoglou in Athens.
Technical data:
Body shell: reinforced by Matter and equipped with a roll bar
Output: 190 HP (140 kW) at 7.000 rpm
Torque: 205 Nm at 6.000 rpm
Displacement: 1.990 cm³
Cylinder head: Cross flow
Bore/stroke: 94,5 x 69,8 mm
Fuel tank: 70 liters in the trunk
Carburetors: 2 x dual Weber 45 DCOE
Oil supply: dry sump lubrication
Gear box: ZF S5-18/3 5-speed-gear box
Drive line: rear wheel drive, limited slip differential
Brakes: 4 discs with AP Lockheed calipers with 4 pistons
Tires: Pirelli
Rims: 6J x 13 Fuchs, 7J x 13 and 8J x 13 ATS
Kerb Weight: 950 kg without drivers and fuel
Dimensions: length 4,124 mm, width 1.730 mm
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