Saturday 13th January 2018

Lotus Carlton: Spotted

Turn your friends Imperial Green with envy thanks to this Man Maths bargain

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The Lotus Carlton needs no introduction, but articles do, so here we go. Produced for a short while in the early 90s, just 950 examples of the Lotus Carlton - all of them wearing the same shade of Imperial Green - saw the light of day, some way short of the 1,100 originally planned. Of those, a large proportion weren't Carltons at all, but left-hand drive Omegas for Europe instead, leaving depending on whether you ask PH, Wikipedia, or Vauxhall themselves, either 285/6, 320, or 440 right-hand drive versions for the UK. As with many such revered things, it seems the exact facts have passed into myth and legend; perhaps a PHer in the know might clarify...

More important than the production figures - to us, at least - are the performance ones. The Lotus Carlton producing 382hp from its twin-turbo 3.6-litre straight-six engine, propelling it, according to most sources, from 0-62mph in just over five seconds and on to a top speed which saw it crowned the world's fastest production saloon.

That performance soon saw it making headlines for the wrong reasons, with the press branding a 176mph family saloon as immoral and the existence of the Carlton even ending up the subject of a parliamentary debate.

It's highly desirable then, and, as with most things that cause outrage amongst the establishment, it's become incredibly cool; but £50,000 for a 27 year-old Vauxhall with almost 40,000 miles on the clock will always seem steep. Time to bring the full force of our Man Maths to bear.

In 1991, this Lotus Carlton would have cost £48,000 - an E34 M5 was £43,500 - instantly making that £50,000 figure appear rather less offensive; it's pretty much just its value. Then there's inflation though, which, through its magic, makes that £48,000 RRP the equivalent of around £105,000 in today's money. All of which means that, at this price, you'd essentially be getting a Lotus Carlton for less than half price, thanks to nothing more than the passage of time and it being nicely run in. Sounds like reason enough to us!

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SPECIFICATION - LOTUS CARLTON

Engine: 3,615cc, 6-cyl twin-turbo
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 382@5,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 415@4,200rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1991
Mileage: 39,558
Price new: £48,000
Price now: £49,995

See the original advert here.

[samoht]

Yum, yes please. These somehow have a real mythology to them that transcends the Vauxhall badge; the Lotus connection and consequent promise of being a really good drive, not just a tuner special is the main part, with pissing off the Daily Mail being the cherry on top. They also have mega presence with the chin spoiler, wide arches and green metallic, way over any regular Carlton.

However... I'm given to understand that these rust even worse than a regular 25-yr-old Carlton due to the body mods, and that some spare parts are rarer than rocking-horse poo. So I'd want more than a few photos against that premium white-sheet background before shelling out my £50k. Also, the car being sold is a LHD Omega, which is fine if you do a lot of Continental driving I guess.

But yeah, I would see a RHD car in rust-free condition as worth the £50k, indeed.

[The Leaper]

Back in the day I had a fire engine red Vauxhall Carlton 3.0 GSI with, I seem to recall, 201 BHP, which was great car. Had it 5 years and did 130,000 miles. The Lotus Carlton was always something else to lust after, very desirable always cool, and always outside my price range. Used to see them occasionally on the road, awesome presence.

If I had the spare cash I'd go for this car based on the ad.

R.

[VR6 Eug]

To give an idea of how much these cost in 1991, I brought my 1st house that year and that was £33000 opposed to a car that cost £48000!
My friend brought one in 1997 for £21000 and its still in his garage now but with a blown head gasket and at the moment and no way of fixing it as that part isn't available anymore from anyone he's tried, lotus even have some cylinder heads for them left but no gaskets, if anyone knows how to get one made, a post on here would be appreciated thx
P.S. I believe one lotus carlton was silver, owned by the director of opel but I could be wrong

[anonymous-user]

Back in ‘98 I was offered one of these as a straight swap for my my then new Fiat Coupe 20vt. I turned it down. What an idiot!

[NotNormal]

PH article said:

...themselves, either 285/6, 320, or 440 right-hand drive versions for the UK.

I can confirm there were 286 RHD cars built, includes UK and Singapore. The split of where cars were originally sold is as below.

Germany 415
United Kingdom 284
Italy 70
France 59
Austria 50
Switzerland 41
Belgium 24
Spain 5
Singapore 2

VR6 Eug said:

My friend brought one in 1997 for £21000 and its still in his garage now but with a blown head gasket and at the moment and no way of fixing it as that part isn't available anymore from anyone he's tried, lotus even have some cylinder heads for them left but no gaskets, if anyone knows how to get one made, a post on here would be appreciated thx

All the parts to swap out the head gasket can be obtained, just not through dealerships. I suggest your friend joins the dedicated club for LC's, the Autobahnstormers whereby access to information, parts and knowledgable people is readily available.

VR6 Eug said:

P.S. I believe one lotus carlton was silver, owned by the director of opel but I could be wrong

That car came out of Lotus just like all the rest in green. It was then subsiquently sprayed silver. A poor job too as last time I saw that car the engine bay and door shuts were still green.

Edited by NotNormal on Saturday 13th January 10:12

[swisstoni]

I never really got these cars when they came out. And still can’t see the attraction today.

But very cool that they decided to make them all in such a subtle shade of dark green.

Doubt it would happen today.

[dmcrobin]

VR6 Eug said:

To give an idea of how much these cost in 1991, I brought my 1st house that year and that was £33000 opposed to a car that cost £48000!
My friend brought one in 1997 for £21000 and its still in his garage now but with a blown head gasket and at the moment and no way of fixing it as that part isn't available anymore from anyone he's tried, lotus even have some cylinder heads for them left but no gaskets, if anyone knows how to get one made, a post on here would be appreciated thx
P.S. I believe one lotus carlton was silver, owned by the director of opel but I could be wrong

Exactly the reason I sold mine, couldn’t get a clutch for it unless I had one made, could get cam chains but no guides - I enjoyed owning it, had it for 5 years and about 15,000 Miles but couldn’t bear the thought that one day it’d break and it couldn’t be fixed because so many LC specific parts are completely unavailable, so I sold it.

[s m]

[mikey P 500]

They nearly made a lotus cavalier too, when I was about 12yrs old I had a ride in the prototype one (nextdoor neighbour was Roger Becker), had the similar performance in a smaller car. Still have memories of how fast it was. I assume the lotus Vauxhall link finished before it made production.

[J4CKO]

With a lot of the stuff that gets presented, we tend to scoff at the price but with this, 50 grand doesnt seem that daft, it was an utter thug of a car, and it pulled off being quite upmarket despite being a Vauxhall, the premium brands werent so established across the market like they are now and a Carlton was still quite a posh car so a super fast one with a big bodykit didnt seem such a stretch. They tended to be owned by company directors, probably the last time people like that bought a vauxhall.

The fact it looked so different to a normal Carlton helped, as did the headlines and performance figures, it is still pretty rapid today but there was nothing to touch it back then short of Ferrari's, High end Porsches and Lambos, getting on for double the power of a Sierra Cosworth is what astounded me back then.

380 bhp is hot hatch territory now, but this might be a bit more challenging to drive quickly, no electronics whatsoever and a big boosty straight six driving the rear wheels only.

Some might not get it nowadays, its a Vauxhall, doesnt win Top Trumps any more but the problem is, your opinions of things tends to be created at the time you first encounter something, I personally cant get past the frisson of excitement when I see one, same as back in the nineties, just looks so right, so mean and moody, so cool.

[soundman_cripps]

If this one was RHD and I had the money this would have been sold by now.

[fullleather]

The mention of a silver one in a previous comment above....there was a Police TV drama mini series many years ago, it featured one of these cars in the silver finish. Cannot remember what it was called?

[blade7]

That dealer isn't far from me, they've had some interesting metal but I've never visited due to the ridiculous prices they ask. Makes me wonder why that car is only £50k .....

[GingerPixel]

One of those cars that looks infinitely better in the metal than in photos.

[ZX10R NIN]

Very fast car it's a shame the engine wasn't the most reliable, my friend had one & it was regularly getting worked on but it was an epic car to go in when it was running right.

[Hairymonster]

Some chancer has one up for 3 x that price £150,000 on autotrader: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Dunno if link works.

Edited by Hairymonster on Saturday 13th January 11:10

[oobster]

fullleather said:

The mention of a silver one in a previous comment above....there was a Police TV drama mini series many years ago, it featured one of these cars in the silver finish. Cannot remember what it was called?

Spender? If so it was a Sierra Saphire Cosworth.

[rossybee]

oobster said:

fullleather said:

The mention of a silver one in a previous comment above....there was a Police TV drama mini series many years ago, it featured one of these cars in the silver finish. Cannot remember what it was called?

Spender? If so it was a Sierra Saphire Cosworth.

Jimmy Nail certainly had the silver LC at some point too.

A friend knows the Henderson chap in Inverness - it was £50k when they were going for £20k....

[NotNormal]

fullleather said:

The mention of a silver one in a previous comment above....there was a Police TV drama mini series many years ago, it featured one of these cars in the silver finish. Cannot remember what it was called?

It was a series called Sharman


Car has since been returned to the original green

[406dogvan]

I know a chap who's spent the last 10-years "using and improving" a Carlton (not a Lotus one) of this model/vintage - and he's had a NIGHTMARE of a time trying to find some parts (and what's he's found, he's bought which means he's now got most of them!)

We're talking trim parts and cosmetics mostly (they eat dashboards, displays and window regulators in particular) but some things like headlights/sidelights are hens-teeth now too.

That's just for a regular car - the bespoke parts for the Lotus version must be literally rocking-horse-st at this point so whatever bargain you strike with yourself, USING the car isn't going to be a regular occurence I suspect.

Nice looking paperweight tho