Sorry its been quite a while since I last posted anything up on this lip spoiler topic but I wanted to be 100% sure that I was right with my original statements and I also had proof available about this
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler before I continued with any further TC posts....
So, I now must admit to everyone that I got this statement below wrong!
This bodykit was available from all European Vauxhall/Opel Dealers until December 1989 when it was discontinued because the Lotus version was exposed to the public and the facelift Omega A went on sale too.
This Vauxhall/Opel
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler was not discontinued like I said earlier but instead it was just not very well advertised to the general public. It was still available to buy as late as 1997 and may even still be available now today but the only place you'd find it is in one of these old Factory sourced Dealership only parts brochures!
Even in these brochures they were not exactly advertised to be very catching or pleasing to the publics eye....
Just a random part number on a page would not encourage me to part with my hard earned money on a pictureless part!
Even the written descriptions of the Vauxhall
"Sportstylers" bodykit was vague....
because maybe Vauxhall really wanted you to buy the more expensive newer facelift cars bodykit instead!
I've gotta thank Chris for providing me with this Vauxhall part number of 90273348 as without his picture of it in his earlier post on this topic, I would never have found out what exactly this part number was for. I only had the old Opel part numbers for it!
Now for the bad news Chris. Irmscher GmbH do not recognise that i 43 01 001 Omega-A part number because as I've said before, It was never officially available directly from them and now hopefully I can show you all the proof. I have now been in touch with my German buddies and I also personally checked all the Irmscher price lists I could get my hands on from the last 20+ years to try to find this number on your Vauxhall
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler in any form of official Irmscher document.
The earliest Irmscher price list that had Omega-A parts listed in it was the June 1986 German one because the Germans had these cars for sale a whole year before we in the UK did....
but to save on any possible complication, this is the only German Irmscher price list I used to be posted up on this forum because its much easier for me to use the Irmscher UK English versions to show our members this proof because not only are these in our language but these UK price lists timed their price guides alongside the release dates for UK Vauxhall Carlton/Senator models that we are all used to. So these pictures below are of some of the other Irmscher documents I've used as research material....
and rather than me continuing on forever posting up pictures of this year on year Irmscher price list theme, I will limit the rest to a couple of random price lists to represent the past two decades, if thats ok with everyone.
I'm not totally sure how good these scans will be for our TC members to read but here goes.....
Here is the December 1989 Irmscher price list. I've used this one specifically because I've also aquired a Vauxhall Car & Van Accessories price list from March/April 1990 which is easy to get hold of 20 years after it was released but its as close as it gets for a direct comparison of what tuning products were on offer at this time for the Vauxhall Carlton from both Vauxhall and Irmscher.
Page 2 of the December 1989 price list shows the first
"i43-Omega A" Irmscher part number being
i43 01 002 which is the very next number after Chris's i43 01 001 part number.
The reason why Chris's Irmscher number is completely missing is simply because Irmscher GmbH didn't market these
"Sportstyle" Lip Spoilers for themselves as it was not their product to do so. Irmscher GmbH was instead pushing their own unique bodystyling products while also making a profit manufacturing the
Sportstyle" Lip Spoilers for Vauxhall/Opel which made lesser Omega A's look like the then top of the range Omega 3000! It was a total "Win-Win" situation for Irmscher as how could they possibly loose??
Just to prove that this Irmscher price list I've chosen isn't a one off fluke that I've fixed to win an arguement, here below is the February 1998 Irmscher price list that on page 6 again shows the
"i43-Omega A" official part numbers starting with the
i43 01 002 part number...
and on page 5 of a copy of the freebie photocopied April 2009 Irmscher price list that was available to everybody who attended the V.B.O.A. car show at Billing Aquadrome during July 2009.....this also shows exactly the same thing with Omega A/Mk3 Carlton Irmscher body parts starting with part number
i43 01 002.
So where does Chris's Irmscher manufactured Vauxhall
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler now fit into the scheme of things? Well, if I can now draw everyones attention back to the March/April 1990 Vauxhall car and van accessories price guide...
on page 13 of this document we can see part number 90273348 which is the part number allocated to this
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler.
Printed next to this part number is the price Vauxhall wanted for this item in 1990....
If we now were to do an exact comparison with the Irmscher i43 01 002 official lip spoiler price from around the same period 20 years ago....
We'll see that the official Irmscher promoted and endorsed lip spoiler at £175.73 would cost nearly double the £94.25 what Vauxhall were asking for their Irmscher made
Sportstylers" offering. Even in 1986 when both the Vauxhall
"Sportstylers" and the official Irmscher lip spoilers came to market at the same time, the genuine marketed Irmscher item cost £137.24 which is still more that the 1990 price for the
"Sportstylers" item was nearly 4 years later.
Even today Irmscher GmbH will still sell you their i43 01 002 lip spoiler if you want one....
But don't expect it to be cheap though as it cost £241.92 ten years ago....
and in the April 2009 Irmscher price list its risen to a whopping £306.00!!!
Before I end this post, I'd just like to mention the original box with GM part number that Chris's
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler came in. Genuine official Irmscher endorsed products do not come boxes like this....
Only Vauxhall genuine parts arrive like this and sometimes they can arrive in plastic bags as we all know too....
but all of these Vauxhall parts have the familier blue & white GM label with a
"90000000" part number that we are all used to that shows these Vauxhall parts have a real and genuine OE authenticity.
Brand new official Irmscher parts always come in boxes like these....
and the older Carlton/Senator genuine fully endorsed Irmscher parts may have stickers like this pictured below displaying their part numbers which is nothing like the blue & white GM labels.
If you are buying any tuned parts that are supposed to be OE Irmscher items and they are also supposed to be new & unused but do not come boxed like these pictures I've posted.....then you really should question their value/worth and authenticity because all Irmscher parts that have left the Germany factory are boxed just like these have been.
I'm really sorry if I have bored people to death with this really long post but I couldn't think of any other way to get the point across that Chris's Vauxhall
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoiler is not the rare and valuable item that modern eBay sellers think it is.
It is a shame really because Chris's Lip Spoiler is a good quality item but it lacks any real provenance because it was never available to buy directly from Irmscher and so became just another anonymous Vauxhall item. These
"Sportstylers" Lip Spoilers were always half the price of the pukka Irmscher stuff that was for sale at the same time and their true meagre worth and low value reflects this with us Irmscher enthusiasts even to this day.
Now if Chris had the i43 01 002 Irmscher lip spoiler and the rest of the matching full Irmscher bodykit for the pre-faclift car in his possession.....
Then he'd be sat on a small fortune in the eyes of us Irmscher enthusiasts!
HTH!
