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The Chevrolet Opala was a mid-size car sold under the Chevrolet brand in South America from 1969 to 1992, by General Motors do Brasil. It was derived from the German Opel Rekord Series C and Opel Commodore Series A, but used USA-sourced engines. Two four-cylinder engines: the Chevrolet 153ci 4-cylinder from Chevy II/Nova, which later got a new crankshaft stroke and cylinder bore, changing its size to 151ci (usually mistaken for 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 variant, the Opala Caravan. It was replaced by the Chevrolet Omega in 1992, also an Opel spinoff. It was the first passenger car built by GM in Brazil by the General Motors do Brasil division. It was used by the Brazilian Federal Police for many years. The military government issued Opalas to its agents through the 1970s. Its reliability and easy maintenance made the Opala the choice of many taxi drivers and was also popular on racetracks. The Opala's long-lived 250-cubic-inch (4.1 L) engine was also used in its replacement, the Chevrolet Omega (which featured electronic fuel injection in the GLS and CD trims) from 1995 to 1998. Some of the Opalas components and chassis were used in other Brazilian cars such as the Santa Matilde, Puma GTB, and the Fera XK (a Jaguar XK replica). ==Early history== Founded in January 1925, General Motors do Brasil originally only assembled, and later, manufactured, light trucks and utilities until the mid-1960s, when they decided to produce their first Brazilian-made passenger car. The options varied between the traditional, large, more expensive American-style cars that GM was already selling in the United States line, such as the Impala, and the lighter and more economical models from German GM-subsidiary Opel (such as the Kadett, Olympia, Rekord and Commodore) which were already imported to Brazil in small quantities. After wavering between the small Kadett and the somewhat larger Rekord/Commodore line, GMB opted for the latter, but later introduced the Kadett as well. On November 23, 1966, in a Press Conference at the Club Atlético Paulistano in São Paulo, GM publicly announced the existence of "Project 676", which would become the Chevrolet Opala. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chevrolet Opala」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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