Not for U.S. Sale.(Brief Article)

Frustration wells up much more quickly in a fast car than a slow one.

The creased old men, bent like commas in matching tweed caps, shuffle across the road, a row of four spaced like an octogenarian Abbey Road. If anything frustrates worse than having to stop for pedestrians, it's-dare we say it-having to stop for old, glacially slow pedestrians.

They slowly glance up at our group of Opel Speedsters. Apparently unmoved by the colorful assemblage of red, blue and yellow sports cars, they just as slowly look away, disregarding the resolute patience we muster in deference to them, obvious elders of this tiny Algarvan community. Their gaits-even and measured and slow-never waver, their cadence never rushes, even when someone from behind had enough of mustering and blips the Speedster's throttle. Encouragement doled out in revs.

These men were, with all due respect, holding us up. We only had one day to flog these tiny two-seaters, and darn it if we would let anyone waste it.

And flog we did. Or tried to. It takes a lot to thrash a car that weighs a scant 2083 pounds-and that includes the driver-and that sticks to pavement like a wet leaf and steers wherever you will it to. Its mid-engine layout, low center of gravity and wide track (57.1-inch front, 58.6-inch rear) make the Speedster a superb handler-and a fairly forgiving one. Barrel into a turn too hot, lift midway through and the car just noses in a bit more. Confidence inspiring stuff, to be sure. It's not surprising that our cornering speeds increased dramatically by day's end.

The Speedster's low weight, thanks to an all-aluminum and composite chassis and body, means only a relatively small engine is needed to motivate it. The all-aluminum, 2.2-liter, dohc inline four sits in front of the rear axle and cranks out 147 horsepower at 5800 rpm and 150 lb-ft at 4000 rpm. Yet that's enough to propel the car to 100 km/h, or 62 mph, in ...