The Lotus Carlton – “one of the world's most exclusive cars"

What Car thought it was "The world's most exciting saloon, but surprisingly refined too!" - they also compared it to a prop from The Terminator. Its speed was such that in 1990, questions were asked in the House of Commons. It was, of course, the Lotus Carlton, the saloon with a top speed of 176 mph, capable of 0-100 mph in 11.1 seconds and 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds.

The idea of the Lotus Carlton dates back to September 1988, when a meeting took place between General Motors Europe and Lotus. A prototype was a star of the Geneva Motor Show in March 1989. Over the next 18 months, the project underwent considerable development. Lotus dispensed with plans to use 4WD and the Geneva Show car's automatically adjustable rear wing.

The public launch was in 1990, and Vauxhall's chair, Paul Tosch, informed the press, "We wanted to show what we could do. It's an image car". The plan was for Lotus to build 1,100 examples at their Wymondham plant in Norfolk. UK customers were offered the Lotus Carlton; in other markets, it was the Lotus Omega.

The Rüsselsheim plant dispatched a batch of Carlton 3000 GSis to the UK. Lotus engineers stripped out the original power plant, wheels, transmission and brake assembly, which were returned to Germany. This may initially seem a bizarrely complicated process, but it apparently resulted in less disruption at the Opel factory and allowed Lotus greater quality control.

The Lotus Carlton boasted a 3,638cc straight-six engine with four-valve heads and two Garrett T25 turbochargers. Car Enthusiast wrote: "The engines were built up from all new parts by a small team, with one engineer assigned to each engine, Aston Martin style". There were "new Mahle pistons, new connecting rods and a new crankshaft". Autosport noted: "The original objective had been to extract 100bhp per litre from the engine - in the end, the final figure betters even that goal".

The Lotus Carlton further gained a body kit, speed-sensitive power steering, Ronal alloy wheels, a leather-trimmed cabin, and modified suspension to cope with the weight of the new running gear. The six-speed manual transmission was from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 combined with a Holden Commodore V8 rear differential. To bring your Lotus Carlton to a halt there were three-channel anti-lock brakes. As for the paint finish, it was any shade you wished, providing it was Imperial Green

The conversion process took 150 hours and around 1,000 components. Some 440 Lotus Carltons were reserved for the UK via only 17 of Vauxhall's 620 dealers nationwide. Staff dealing with the latest model had to undergo an advanced driving course at a race circuit. Of the remaining cars, 440 Lotus Omegas were destined for Germany, with 220 for other European markets. What Car observed:

But, despite its looks, the Lotus Carlton is no bare-boards racer, far from it. Inside, you are treated to handcrafted Connolly leather trimming, subtle Lotus badging, extensive sound proofing over the standard 24V Carlton, plus every electric gismo under the sun - all for a 'mere' £48,000. Nevertheless, it still feels very much like an every day Carlton inside, which is a touch disappointing considering the price. Yet any disappointment vanishes the instant you turn the key and fire up the engine

The Lotus Carlton's price included a course of high-speed intensive driver training run in conjunction with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the Jim

Russell Driving School. However, such performance from a car that bore a resemblance to the sort of large saloon favoured by solicitors and accountants inevitably encountered controversy. Sue Baker argued in The Observer:

I suspect what really inflamed the critics is the fact that this high-speed car is a Vauxhall. How many senior policemen or senior lobbyists protested when the 201 mph Ferrari F40 made its debut, for example? Yet they did when the Lotus Carlton's 176 mph top speed was revealed.

When production ended in 1992, the Lotus Works had converted 950 cars, including 286 right-hand-drive Vauxhalls. This example, sold by Sasso Automotive - https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1717201, is one of 192 remaining in this country. And, as the brochure stated: "Few people will be fortunate enough to drive the Lotus Carlton – one of the world's most exclusive cars".

With thanks to https://sassoautomotive.com for their time.

With thanks to https://sassoautomotive.com for the permission to use the images in this blog.