10% off your first order — create a free account

Create free account

Opel Speedster Orange Maisto 1:18

Opel Speedster Orange Maisto 1:18
Current price: £33.00
Out of production

This model is currently sold out. Enter your email and we'll let you know when it's back in stock.

Browse Opel models
Pay securely with
Specifications
Car Brand
Opel
Model Manufacturer
Maisto
Scale
1:18
Material
Diecast
Model Condition
Used Model
SKU
31615
Genuine articles Sourced from manufacturers
5-layer carton Foam-filled interior
Hassle-free returns 14-day no-quibble returns
Secure payment Bank-level encryption

About the Opel Speedster Orange Maisto 1:18

TL;DR: Maisto's 1:18 diecast Opel Speedster recreates the 2000 lightweight roadster in orange, with opening doors and bonnet over a compact cabin. Built on the same aluminium chassis as the Lotus Elise, the Speedster gave Opel a genuinely lightweight sports car years before badge-engineered platform sharing became commonplace.

Opel wanted a proper lightweight sports car without developing an entirely new chassis, so it partnered with Lotus and built the Speedster on essentially the same underpinnings as the Elise. This orange example wears that shared engineering plainly.

Maisto's Reproduction of a Badge-Engineered Roadster

The Speedster's low, compact proportions and simple, purposeful bodywork are reproduced accurately in Maisto's tooling, and the orange paint gives the roadster a genuinely eye-catching presence that suits its lightweight sports car brief. Doors and bonnet open on simple hinges to reveal a tight, minimal cabin styled after the real car's stripped-back, driver-focused layout, since weight-saving mattered more to this platform than luxury trim. Wheel design leans toward a simple, functional look rather than exaggerated styling. Panel gaps and interior detail sit toward the accessible end of the market, an honest trade-off, but the compact, low-slung stance reads clearly and correctly against larger, heavier sports cars displayed alongside it.

Sharing a Chassis With the Lotus Elise

Opel partnered with Lotus to develop the Speedster around an aluminium chassis nearly identical to the one underpinning the Elise, letting the German manufacturer offer a genuinely lightweight, mid-engine-inspired sports car without the enormous cost of developing a bespoke platform from scratch. The resulting Speedster, and its Vauxhall-badged VX220 sibling in the UK market, brought Lotus-level handling characteristics to a wider, more accessible price point than the Elise itself commanded. Few mainstream manufacturers of the period pursued quite so direct a technical partnership with a specialist sports car maker. For a collector interested in platform sharing rather than only headline sports car names, the Speedster tells a genuinely interesting story.

0