To those who don't know much about cars, it's easy to mistake a bright red Corvette Stingray for a Ferrari. That's why we were happy to see that GM gathered inspiration from the Corvette's long front end and the 1968 Opel GT when it came time to design the new Opel GT concept. With a low-slung roof, rear-wheel-drive powertrain, and a turbocharged three-cylinder engine, we think that the Opel GT looks great. We loved it so much that we wrote an article asking GM to build it.

Now it seems that the car may actually see the light of day and we couldn't be happier. Speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Vauxhall managing director Rory Harvey told Autocar that the GM subsidiary is looking at the concept for production, meaning that it has a chance at becoming a production car that would compete with the Mazda MX-5 Miata and the Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86. It would undercut the Mazda right where it counts, too, because engineers have managed to squeeze 145 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque out of a small 1.0-liter turbocharged engine. The minuscule engine should help the coupe stay under 2,200 pounds, about 100 pounds less than the Miata.

If the lightweight machine drives anywhere near as good as it looks, it should be a winner. The only problem is that the Vauxhall team is decently busy and a small two-door coupe isn't exactly high on the totem pole of priority at the moment. Unlike Ferrari, Opel can't just sell a small coupe and make a huge profit. For now the GT concept will be used as a design parts bin where engineers will pull off attractive details like the grille and body bits to use on other production cars. Like all Vauxhalls, if the GT is made, it won't be coming to the US unless it's packaged under a new name. But with looks and performance as good as this, we don't see why this wouldn't happen.