He won the Italian Rally Championship in 1976 and 1979 driving a Lancia Stratos HF, and then again in 1981 behind the wheel of an Opel Ascona.
The Ascona took its name from the lakeside resort of that name in Ticino, Switzerland, and already in the 1950s a special edition of the Opel Rekord P1 was sold as an Opel Ascona in Switzerland, where the name was again used in 1968 for a locally adapted version of the Opel Kadett B into which the manufacturers had persuaded a 1.7-litre engine borrowed from the larger Rekord model of the time.
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Tuner Steinmetz developed a special version of the Ascona SR, with two single-barrel Solex carburettors, lifting power to 125 PS (92 kW).
Opel | Opel Corsa | Opel Senator | Opel Astra | Ascona | Fritz von Opel | Opel Blitz | Opel Ascona | Opel Admiral | Ronco sopra Ascona | Opel RAK.1 (plane) | Opel Kadett B | Opel Combo | Steinmetz Opel Tuning | Opel Tigra | Opel's | Opel Rekord | Opel Manta | Opel Insignia | Opel GT | Opel (album) | Opel Agila | -opel | Nancy Opel |
The platform was intended to replace both division's J-cars, the Opel Ascona C and the Vauxhall Cavalier Mk.2, although the platform eventually branched out to Holden, Chevrolet's Latin American branch, and even Saab and Saturn.
After he stopped driving, he became founder of the British Dealer Opel Team (DOT) as well as the self-willed but successful director of the Opel Motorsport Team in Germany, for which Walter Röhrl won the World Rally Championship for Drivers in 1982 with an Opel Ascona 400.