Opel Unveils Adam Customized by Valentino Rossi at EICMA

Opel revealed the “Adam & Vale for Charity”, a fully customized version of the city car designed by multiple MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi and Aldo Drudi, a designer who has collaborated with Valentino on his bikes, racing overalls and helmets for a long time. The unique Adam will be on display at the EICMA international motorcycle exhibition (November 7-10) in Milan, Italy.

Rossi and Drudi have put their mark on the Opel Adam, which has been customized from roof to wheels. The car features drawings from The Doctor’s graphic universe, including Valentino’s most widely known images and the symbols most treasured by him.

The car’s intricate livery was designed, redesigned and applied on the bodywork over the course of three months by a team of four people, as Rossi and Drudi changed their minds rather often.

The psychedelic theme of the exterior is continued in the cabin, where Dainese leather was used to trim the seats and doors. No word on performance upgrades, though.

“To tell the truth, the design phase took a very long time,” said Aldo Drudi. “It took us hours of hard work, but then you know Valentino, he is hard to please. And so am I. Scores of drawings were produced, phone calls were made and every time we decided to change everything and started all over again. In other words, it was exhausting but it was worth the effort,” he added.

The car will be put for auction during a fund-raising event next December to support a charity initiative sponsored by Opel: the Meyer Children’s Hospital Foundation

By Dan Mihalascu

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New Opel / Vauxhall Adam Debuts at Paris, Priced in Germany and the UK [86 Photos]

The stylish, highly customizable city car niche has just welcomed a new member. It’s the Opel or Vauxhall in the UK, Adam, a three-door, four-seater hatchback that will fight the Fiat 500 and the Mini.
Featuring a distinctive styling and what Opel calls a “floating roof” that can be ordered in two different shades that contrast the bodywork, the 3.7 m long Adam is counting a lot on the “more than a million” possible customization options and its lengthy equipment list to make a name for itself in the premium subcompact market.
Opel’s president of design Mark Adams claims, “no other car in this segment can be individualized as much as the Adam… It’s very unlikely that you’ll find two identical Adams out there”. Now, this certainly brings a sense of déjà vu – but let’s not name names…
At launch, the Adam will be available with three four-cylinder petrol engines: a 1.2-liter with 69HP (70PS) and two 1.4-liter units producing 86 or 98HP (87 and 100 PS respectively). Later on, a new generation of small petrol engines with forced induction and direct injection, as well as a new six-speed transmission, will join the range.

Meet the Adams Family: Buick's Waterfall Grille Plastered on Opel's Premium Mini

Knowing that GM has rebadged a number of Opel models as Buicks since its restructuring in 2009, including the Astra and the Insignia, there was no doubt in our minds that sooner or later, someone would turn Opel's new Adam premium city car into a Buick.
'Automotive manipulator' Theophilus Chin replaced Opel's French mustache-styled chrome piece with Buick's trademark waterfall grille, and well, that's all that was done to the car.