Last week I was in Germany and Austria for a work trip that you’ll be hearing more about soon, and local carspotting got me thinking about how in less than a month, we’ll be able to import cars from the year 2000. That’s right, the turn of the millennium happened 25 years ago, bringing a new era to the cars that are importable into the United States under our annoying laws. So, what 25-year-old car do you want?
For me, it’s an easy answer. The year 2000 saw the debut of the Opel Speedster, a roadster based on the Lotus Elise with fantastically turn-of-the-century styling that has held up surprisingly well. Unlike the early Elises, which had a 1.8-liter Rover motor (and later a Toyota one), the Opel used General Motors’ Ecotec 2.2-liter inline-4. The Opel made 145 horsepower, about 25 hp more than the Lotus, and the lightest versions of the Speedster weighed just over 1,900 pounds, only a bit more than the Elise. OK, I’d really want one of the 220-hp turbocharged Speedsters, but those didn’t come out until 2004.
The Speedster’s performance isn’t what draws me in, though. I just love how they look. It was always one of my favorite early cars to race with in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, with blocky styling that was well-suited to PlayStation 2 graphics. The stacked exhaust tips are awesome, and its big cat-eye lights give it a distinctive face. The Opel’s totally stripped-out interior is a lot more interesting than the Lotus’ cabin, too. You know what I really think would be awesome? An EV-swapped Speedster.
Now I pose the question to you who is reading this. What car from the year 2000 would you import to the U.S. next year? It could be a new model that debuted that year, or a new version of one that already existed. Sorry for making you feel old.
