The tester was enthusiastic: The new Kadett D, wrote the FAZ colleague after a driving test, is an offer that is highly attractive for many buyers: for the first time a forward-looking front-wheel drive, 20 centimeters longer than the Golf, first-class handling and a "fast Slanted rear: "Kadett versus Golf: It will be a gripping duel, and the Opel should cut a very good figure in it," said the 1979 driving report.

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The front-wheel drive in the Kadett was revolutionary for Opel at the time: compared to rear-wheel drive, it not only allowed more space for passengers and in the trunk, it was also cheaper to produce.

The then chief engineer Friedrich "Fritz" Lohr pushed it through, which is why the anecdote was told in Rüsselsheim that the abbreviation "FWD" did not stand for "Front Wheel Drive" (front-wheel drive), but for "Fritz wants that".

First catalytic converter in Germany

With the Kadett D in the early 1980s, Opel was actually able to make up some ground on its big competitor from Wolfsburg.

However, it is only one of several models for which Lohr, who was soon promoted to Chief Development Officer, was responsible: Kadett E, Omega, Vectra A, Calibra and the Kadett successor Astra are associated with it.

In 1985, under Lohr, the first in-house catalytic converter was installed in a German production car, the Ascona.

Only months earlier, the federal government had decided that the catalytic converter would be mandatory - but only from 1989 onwards.

Lohr worked in Rüsselsheim for more than 50 years.

Born in Trebur (district of Groß-Gerau), he started as a toolmaker's apprentice in 1940 at the age of 13.

After the war, the obviously talented man received a scholarship from Opel to study mechanical engineering in Friedberg and Darmstadt.

In the years that followed, he quickly made a career for the manufacturer, which rose to become Germany's second largest car manufacturer in the 1960s and 1970s.

resignation from the supervisory board

From 1980 onwards he was responsible for the development and construction of all passenger car models of the General Motors Group in Europe as a member of the Management Board and head of the Technical Development Center.

This also included Polo's competitor, the Corsa A, which rolled off the production line in Spain from 1982 - and three million units of the first generation were sold.

After retiring from management in 1991 at the age of 65, he was appointed to the supervisory board, but resigned in the summer of 1995 following allegations of corruption against him and 64 other Opel employees.

Soon after, the public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt dropped their investigations against him: the construction work in his house was not paid for by Opel or Hochtief, but by him correctly.

"With his extraordinary commitment and consistent, trend-setting decisions, he had a decisive influence on Opel vehicle development in the 1970s and 1980s," said the company magazine Opel-Post in recognition of his work.

As has now become known, he died on August 9 at the age of 95.