Long live the Opala!

Chevrolet Opala SS. Its scale is aprox. 1:43.


The Opala was the first car Chevrolet built in Brazil, back in 1968.
It was a huge success, and it lived for decades.

During the military dictatorship that started in the late 60's, companies weren't allowed to import cars to Brazil. Every car sold in here should be built in here.
Our market couldn't buy import cars during those years, so there was no way to compare the cars built in Brazil with those sold in other countries.
This caused an increase of life span for some vehicles, including the Opala.
Usually, a car lives for 7, 8 years until a new generation model replaces it.
During the import restriction years, some models lasted for 20 years with minor changes.

The military government ended in the mid 80's. But only in the early 90's, the brazilian import regulations changed, allowing companies to import cars again.

That's when the Opala was retired, in 1992.
24 years after its debut and almost 1 million units sold, General Motors replaced the Opala for a newer model, the Omega.