The 2009 Opel Corsa OPC is the hot supermini almost everyone overlooked, and that is precisely why it belongs in these pages. A three-door, front-wheel-drive hatch built around a turbocharged 1.6 and a six-speed manual, it emerged from a marque that has since faded into the sprawl of Stellantis. It arrived the same year the financial world folded in on itself, when landfill indie was still ringing out of tinny phone speakers. This Bresles-listed example deserves a second look.
The Nürburgring's smallest graduate
Built by the Opel Performance Center — established in 1997 as GM Europe's in-house answer to Ford's ST division — the OPC was the high-performance flagship of the Corsa range. The Corsa D itself, launched in 2006, was developed with Fiat and shared much of its architecture with the Punto. Opel made no secret of the OPC's ambitions: built to fight the Renault Clio RS, Volkswagen Polo GTI and Ford Fiesta ST, and developed on the Nürburgring. Aggressive scoops, a roof spoiler and a triangular centre-exit exhaust announced the intent.
The substance backed the styling. The 1.6-litre turbo makes 192 hp, dispatches 0–100 km/h in 7.2 seconds and runs to 225 km/h, with a standard overboost function briefly lifting torque by around 15 percent to 266 Nm. What modern equivalents have lost is here in abundance: a proper manual, standard Recaro seats, Brembo front brakes and a mechanical limited-slip differential. Testers found the steering firm, precise and quick, needing barely a quarter-turn to place the car. The mid-range pull is its signature.
The car for sale is a 2009 example, sitting mid-way through the D-generation OPC's run, finished in the emblematic blue with a genuine 16,000 km showing and a technical inspection valid until October 2026. The seller cites recent expenditure with only splash guards outstanding — encouraging, if it checks out. At €7,900 it sits within the model's usual asking band rather than below it. Buyers should be thorough: piston four failure is common on this engine, driven by full boost pushing the injectors to their limit, and far more likely on remapped cars. Also inspect for M32 gearbox bearing failure and rear arch corrosion, which sets in quickly on three-door shells.
Buy the body, check the block
These cars have reached the depreciation trough that catches most ordinary machines around fifteen years old, and interest in late-2000s hot hatches has been firming as the analogue driver's car becomes an endangered species. A genuinely low-mileage OPC from a brand in retreat is exactly the sort of thing enthusiasts reappraise. At this price it merits inspection rather than dismissal — but verify the history, confirm the engine has never been tuned, and commission a proper PPI before committing. Small, angry, and increasingly hard to find honest.
