Friday 7th August 2015

Opel Omega Evo 500: PH Blog

The homologation special you've never heard of gets a PH special mention

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Yes, this car is an Omega. But as Vauxhallists in the UK we'll consider it a Carlton as they are the same. Saves any confusion, right? It's also not a Lotus Carlton, as the discussion about fast Vauxhalls will inevitably lead to. More discerning Vauxhall fans may think it's a GSI 3000. Not that either.

You wait for one homologation Carlton...

It's an Opel Omega (Carlton) Evo 500. It was built for DTM homologation in the early 90s to battle Merc 190s and BMW E30 M3s on track and off it. It was bigger than both and, um, less successful too but it's a homologation car and therefore pretty cool in our books. It was unknown round these parts until the other day and, quite frankly, we thought it deserved some wider recognition!

The Evo 500 was built with Irmscher - not just terrible grilles for Corsas then - and features loads of fantastically nerdy details that we love about these types of cars. Power was only up to 230hp (at 6,700rpm) from 204 of a GSI but the Evo had a new forged crank with eight rather than 12 counterweights; reciprocating masses are of course best kept low for the racing version spinning to 10,000rpm. The pistons were lighter by nearly 150g each and the conrods were modified too. Lots of tweaks for a racing application in a road car. It even had a different engine code.

Does the DTM get any cooler?

That spoiler is electrically adjustable too, which is an easy way to make any homologation car more appealing. And what's a racing car without downforce? All 500 made were Nova Black, Recaros were added in and the wheels were new too. The Evo cost 40,000 Deutsche marks more than an Omega 3000, which sounds a lot. And also a guarantee for extreme rarity.

Obviously finding an Omega Evo 500 for sale is incredibly difficult, but I will certainly be on the look out from now on. Perhaps a GSI 3000 will have to suffice; looks like someone bought a bargain with this 24v GSI making just £748 at auction last year... The point is cars for competition are always cool (as well as very expensive at the moment), but they become even more interesting when you've never heard of them before. So if anyone does have any more information on the Omega Evo 500 I would be really intrigued to know. Yes, really.

Matt

 

[Sources: Opel Omega Evo 500, Senatorman.de, Carfolio, Silverstone Auctions]

[neil-935ql]

Loving this Vauxhall , which is a little unusual not normally big on them but this is one cool car , very low front splitter may cause some problems on road use !

[JamesyBoy75]

"The point is cars for competition are always cool (as well as very expensive at the moment)" try telling that to the market for Celica GT4's....

[Monty Python]

That rear "wing" looks like it's mounted on springs....and I'd still have a Lotus Carlton.

[n3il123]

JamesyBoy75 said:

"The point is cars for competition are always cool (as well as very expensive at the moment)" try telling that to the market for Celica GT4's....

This is a good thing, at least until I can get one, then they can go up as much as they like

[neil-935ql]

I guess the lotus is the one to get , but how much are they these days, still look amazing though what an amazing car , simply brilliant

[JamesyBoy75]

a friend of mine sold his Lotus Omega for 9K about 2 years ago, I think he under priced it. the advert was posted in the morning and he'd already sold it before he'd got to work.

Regarding GT4's they can't really get any cheaper, ST185's are noticeably drying up in the classifieds, and most ST205's are at least lightly modded, there is a reason the OC members call them faff's - can't stopping fiddling with them.

[Baryonyx]

JamesyBoy75 said:

"The point is cars for competition are always cool (as well as very expensive at the moment)" try telling that to the market for Celica GT4's....

Don't mention the fact that they were more expensive than the Escort Cosworth at the time either.

[CampDavid]

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=...

There you go. About £6000.

[soad]

I was half expecting 500bhp...

[Oilchange]

Me too a whopping 230 hp, up from 204. What a complete waste of time...
Ugly back end too.

[JamesyBoy75]

My current favourite forgotten homologation special, and instantly added to the 'want' list.

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-mitsubishi-pajero-evo...

[scubadude]

Matt wrote- "It was unknown round these parts until the other day"

This guy works on Pistonheads as a writer?

I honestly wonder sometimes... is some of this stuff just written because it sounds good or do these people really not know their subject matter.

[soad]

JamesyBoy75 said:

My current favourite forgotten homologation special, and instantly added to the 'want' list.

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-mitsubishi-pajero-evo...

Nissan March R is worth a shout.
http://jalopnik.com/is-this-twincharged-nissan-the...

[vtecyo]

JamesyBoy75 said:

My current favourite forgotten homologation special, and instantly added to the 'want' list.

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-mitsubishi-pajero-evo...

Love those. Strong money though.

[NotNormal]

Rumour has it that Irmscher were a tad irked that Lotus got to build the "flagship" Lotus version so then created the Evolution 500 linked to the racing programme. The cars were all built in the Irmscher factory and of the 500 built for road use, 463 had modified 3.0 litre 24V engines pushing out around 230bhp. 36 of the cars had the optional 272bhp 4.0 litre Irmscher conversion and one car that was not sold had a prototype 3.6 litre 24V engine. The car also features an Irmscher EVO 500 bodykit (of which those larger arches are an all steel affair when compared to the Lotus's glass fibre items) and 8 x 18" 10-spoke alloys front and rear. All of the vehicles were originally manufactured for the German market.

The Omega Evolution 500 was also used in the DTM championship in 1991 through to 1993 and was raced by teams sponsored by Opel Works/Irmscher, Commodore Computers, Tura, Dekra, Jägermeister and Cricket by drivers such as Engstler, Niedzwiedz, Strycek, Oberndorfer, Delcourt and Reuter.

Oilchange said:

Me too a whopping 230 hp, up from 204. What a complete waste of time...

Really?? I believe the other manufacturers of similar "EVO" models made similar, or even less of a difference in bhp gains for their equivalent road cars.

[DuckAvenger]

One for sale in Finland
http://www.nettiauto.com/opel/omega/5346880

[neil1jnr]

I like it.

not quite a Lotus Carlton but it ain't trying to be either, 230bhp seems pretty good to me for an early 90's saloon.

[Vee12V]

Pass the eye bleach.

[JamesyBoy75]

soad said:

JamesyBoy75 said:

My current favourite forgotten homologation special, and instantly added to the 'want' list.

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-mitsubishi-pajero-evo...

Nissan March R is worth a shout.
http://jalopnik.com/is-this-twincharged-nissan-the...

Chapeau for that link, it's like the Diahatsu GTti only much much more!

[L100NYY]

CampDavid said:

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=...

There you go. About £6000.

I believe that is a replica going by the description.