Mystery Holden sports car emerges

Speculation has surrounded the identity of Holden's new performance flagship ever since senior GM executives first promised to deliver "a true Holden sports car" at the Detroit motor show early this year.

Now a new report from Europe claims GM's German subsidiary will resurrect the Opel GT Coupe, which would be a global model odds-on to wear the Holden badge in Australia.

Respected German website Autobild.de this week cited an unnamed source as confirming Russelsheim is developing a new-generation Opel GT following news from Opel's CEO that the company will unveil "a real highlight" at the Geneva show in March.

Opel boss Karl-Thomas Neumann, who Autobild says recently purchased an old GT himself for classic rallying, said in his last video blog for 2015 that Opel will use the Swiss show to debut a "a concept car which you would probably not have expected from us".

According to the German outlet, the born-again Opel GT is due on sale in 2018 and will be based on the same D2XX platform as Opel's new Astra hatch, which goes on sale in Australia later in 2016. But it says the new sports flagship, which will be in addition to a new-generation Astra GTC Coupe, will bear no resemblance to the Astra family.

Instead, design cues of the original Opel GT will be reinterpreted via sleek and modern coupe as previewed by the 2013 Frankfurt show's Monza coupe concept, which also previewed the sleeker new Insignia mid-size sedan.

Similarly, while the first Opel GT of the mid-1960s was powered by small four-cylinder engines, the third-generation model is expected to come with turbocharged four-cylinder power and front/all-wheel drive, like the Astra on which it's based.

Performance outputs could be as high as 242kW/410Nm, as produced by the 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine in the Astra TCR race car, which was revealed at the Frankfurt show in September ahead of its release to European customer race teams.

Nevertheless, that will make it a far cry from Holden's current performance flagship, the 300kW-plus 6.2-litre rear-drive V8 Commodore SS, which by 2018 will be replaced by a turbocharged six-cylinder OPC/VXR version of Opel's next Insignia sedan.

Apart from the new flagship SUV already promised by Opel before the end of this decade, Autobild insists Opel is also readying crossover versions of the next Insignia and Astra wagons, which would also be odds-on for Australian release as Holdens.

Holden has said more than a third of its future model range, including 24 new models by 2020, will be imported from Europe, with the remainder to be sourced from Asia and North America.

The last Opel GT was a convertible based on the Pontiac Solstice and sold in Europe between 2007 and 2010. It was built in the US but not manufactured in right-hand drive.

The original Opel GT – a compact front-engined, rear-drive coupe – was produced in Germany between 1968 and 1973. Weighing well under 1000kg, the affordable 2+2 sports car was powered by 1.0- and 1.9-litre petrol engines.