Bergrennen Opel

Swiss computer scientist Marco Geering grew up liking old cars, it was something he got from his father. In fact his father actually competed himself in his younger days so you can see where Marco got his competitive genes from.

That started the competitive juices flying and Marco got into running in Swiss hillclimbs and slalom Championships in 2014. (Circuit racing was banned in Switzerland after the 1955 Le Mans disaster) Editors Note: THe good news is that only four weeks ago a Swiss-wide ballot it reversed that descision and circuit racing is allowed again. Marco believes that the current situation won’t change much as he doesn’t think will see a racing circuit built in the next few years. Marco noted that he had a huge learning curve, getting to know the tracks and the limits of the car itself, which eventually lead to him obtaining a “NAT” licence in Switzerland.

The past years have been very successful for him, with him lowering his personal best times consistently in every new season, cumulating with a 5th place finish in the Swiss Slalom Championship in 2021 (Covid cancelled the Hillclimb Championship). The current season continued that success with Marco taking a 2nd place (0.06 seconds to the 1st place) and three wins)

For fun and keeping his seat time hours up, Marco still participates in two to four trackdays per year on different tracks like: the Hockenheimring, Dijon, Anneau du Rhin and Bresse.

Marco’s current ride was initially road legal for about 30 years and used by the previous owner in various motorsport disciplines. It has then been upgraded step-by-step until it was not really road legal anymore. He bought the car start of 2016. He already had another Kadett C GT/E for hillclimb, but the “New” car was a lot more advanced so it made sense (because of cost reasons) to use it instead of the one currently being used. It already was fitted with 10x15” Wheels and a 2 Litre 8v Engine (based on the original CIH Engine) with Individual Throttle Bodies (ITBs), making around 220HP . The original 4-speed gearbox was fitted with straight cut gears making it a more robust piece more fitting the job. Aerodynamics were updated with a front and back spoiler made from Carbon Fibre. The inside was gutted to reduce weight and a welded rollcage installed for safety.

In his first year with the new car Marco had to deal with small issues like repairing some stuff, cleaning up the wiring, visual stuff like repainting some things, etc. All the safety equipment needed replacing as it expired after 5 years. That meant a new seat, harness & fire extinguisher. It came to a reasonable amount of money but Geering is safety conscious and was adamant that the car was as safe as possible.

Every year Marco made a point of adding little updates to the GT/E until 2020, when he stepped it up and bought an almost new 2 Litre 16v engine to keep up in the championship as he was moving up into a higher class. There was a lot of custom work involved in fitting the engine in the engine

it took a lot of time and expertise to find the actual problem, nad now it finally it works as expected) as it’s an engine from the 90’s in a 79’s car. The exhaust is “on the wrong side” compared to the original so that involved a lot of planning and fabrication but in the end it all went together well. The addition of a dry sump system also involved some fabrication to find a place for the dry sump tank. In the end everything fittted nicely and he was pleased with the result.

The aero updates were already installed when Marco bought the Opel, he just improved it. With wide eyes to told us, “I tested the car once without the back spoiler. It was undrivable and a bit scary under braking, so you can guess it went back on in a hurry.”

You will notice in the build list that there is quite a bit of carbon fibre components on the car. “Luckily I know the guys at NP-Carbon” he said. “The owner drives a Kadett himself in the Swiss Championship and is the man to go for reasonably priced carbon parts. And even with their nice designs and I can get them to customize a part to suit my needs.”

One update Marco would like to do is fit a sequential gearbox, but he told us, “As long as I can keep up and win with a H-pattern, I will keep it. There is no point spending money just for the sake of it plus it may sound odd but I just really like oldschool H pattern shifting. I would also like to add a FIA fuel-cell for additional safety.”

When asked about any amusing or interesting anecdotes that have happened during his racing career Marco said, “Well I’ve never had any crashes, bumps or anything (which you get easy in a slalom). The car is pretty quick and fits like a tailored suit for me. It is great to see that it can win with what is

basically original oriented technology compared to a Porsche GT3 Cup car or similar which run in the same division as me.”

Another amusing anecdote was around 2018 at the Bergrennen, Hemberg, Marco stated, “I drove with the 3 year old training slicks and I was “by far” the fastest in my category and already a lot faster than the year before when I won the race. A competitor came to me and said hey great run, etc.” and I was like “thank you, tomorrow I hope I’ll be even quicker as I will fit my new slicks”, he said “stop joking, you were already faster than last year, etc.” and I was “no, it’s no joke =) In the end I fitted the new slicks next morning during the race and set a new class record for this hillclimb track.”

Typical of all racers, Marco has a lot of support to enable him to do what he does. He would like to thank the following

Garage Fehr Volvo Motorsport Industriegarage AG Paragon-Tattoo Houseofcut Carecci Braumanufaktur Schlachthuus Roadrunners Club Rägi trust & real estate JRS Inclusive GmbH

And most importantly thanks to my wife Katia for all she puts up with; a special thanks goes out to my dad who is my biggest fan (he always pushes me hard, but in a good way) and my mom. Also to my friend Michael who puts a lot of time into helping me on the car. Marco is also thankful to have access to Fritz Erb who initially built the car around 30 years ago and is a great resource when needed. “I go to him if I need some special things which goes over my carknowledge. He always takes time for me and he still tries to improve the car with little details he sees.”