Happy 30th Birthday Elsie - few days late

[B'stard Child]

11th Jan 1991 H746 VVF got registered with DVLA

But not as Lotus Carlton Build number 0000g

First saw Galileo at a Lotus Open day 50th aniversary or some such event (wasn't on display just abandoned in the corner of some dusty garage - probably broken)




A few years later 2001 from memory I purchased the car from Lotus in a sealed bid auction (Fire sale) without even driving it

This resulted in a five figure overdraft for a while - meh.......

It came with a warranty (it was the the time it took the delivery truck drivers to drink a cup of tea (they told me to make it real hot) and go for a test drive)

YOLO as all the cool kids say!!!

Of course I'm a the type of owner owner who washes and polishes the car every weekend, takes her to shows that allow her to sit in fields basking in the admiration of petrol heads who want to ask me questions about living with a "big green taxi" (See note)

Sorry this is the wrong thread for that sort of thing - not my cup of tea at all

Note - "Big green taxi" - "plastic kitted minicab" - she gets called worse but to be honest she has never failed to get me where I want to go........................


It's been home a few times (Hethel obviously)




It loves European trips - Home to Milan in one hit and then on to Umbria the next day




Le Mans Classic 2014 PH Friday Service (Well it was a nice back drop)




At cruising altitude - Le Mans 2019 (Crap pic but you get the idea - 6th gear is stupid long)




No sat nav (or any driver aids for that matter) but I had a navigator for a PH sporting tour



(I do hope when this Rona stuff is over we can do this again it was huge fun)


Regular full alignment is carried out (Tracked)

Silverstone



Snetterton




Looks way better in pictures than it does up close




And finally it always pays to make sure the tyres are warm before using all 401.8 bhp



They weren't all mine




She has a story to tell



But it's not in the book




Anyway Happy Birthday Galileo - thanks for the journey so far

[Sub5]

Never mind Lewis Hamilton. You Sir should be knighted for even having the the cajones to track that legend. I dof my cap.

Such an icon of a car and so nice to see it being driven and not hidden away.

Love the story. Love the csr

[B'stard Child]

Sub5 said:

Never mind Lewis Hamilton. You Sir should be knighted for even having the the cajones to track that legend. I dof my cap.

Yeah you need to read between the lines - it never started life as a Lotus Carlton - it's registered as a Carlton GSi 3000 24V

It started life in white and 1st owner was the Prudential insurance company

Lotus finished the run of 950 cars and then realised they hadn't actually kept one for themselves

So they bought a secondhand 18 mth old Carlton GSi24V from Norwich motor auctions - stripped it to a bare shell and built one with spares they had left over.......

They asked GM/Vauxhall if they could number it 0951G and the request was denied as the last car built went to Monorep who sold the most Lotus Carltons and had been signed by all the team

So they numbered it 0000G

And then lent it to Top Gear

https://youtu.be/EGgdyJKdNqw

It's one of the reasons I've never done a proper thread on the car (It's been in background pics on other threads and had the odd mention but it's a proper b'stard child

Sub5 said:

Such an icon of a car and so nice to see it being driven and not hidden away.

Love the story. Love the csr

Drive it like you stole it is my moto

[beambeam1]

That is proper, proper interesting! Really enjoyed reading that, especially the last post!

[RDMcG]

This is what PH is all about for me....I love cars with long histories and lots of adventures. Congrats of keeping the car for so long and using it the way it is meant to be used. Great story and great car!

[B'stard Child]

beambeam1 said:

That is proper, proper interesting! Really enjoyed reading that, especially the last post!

Yeah it got labelled a rep in the circles I move in - mostly friendly banter but as a result I’ve never felt precious about it......

a replica built by Lotus

Of course back in 2001 I’d won the sealed bid auction (actually I didn’t but that’s another story) and all I needed to do was get insurance cover

Hello can you quote me happy on a gsi3000 24v which did have 204 bhp but now has a 3.6 twin turbo engine and 377 bhp, full Lotus Carlton body kit, brakes and wheels.

Hello

Hello

Oh I seem to have been cut off

When I didn’t get cut off the quotes came back in four figures - cockity cockity cock - I’d bought a replica that I couldn’t afford to insure

Deep fking joy

[B'stard Child]

RDMcG said:

This is what PH is all about for me....I love cars with long histories and lots of adventures. Congrats of keeping the car for so long and using it the way it is meant to be used. Great story and great car!

Thank you - Lotus Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious

What a load of rubbish from 2002 to 2007 it was my daily driver

I know exactly how much I spent on motion lotion and to be frank it was fking scary no that doesn’t cut it it was fking insane....... (spoiler it was more than I paid for the car and judging by the number of letters I got from the bank I was expecting a xmas card from the manager)

Then I broke it - not undrivable broke but not bloody happy broke so I went back to driving a 3.0 24v Senator and started collecting the parts I needed to fix it

[Sub5]

B'stard Child said:

Sub5 said:

Never mind Lewis Hamilton. You Sir should be knighted for even having the the cajones to track that legend. I dof my cap.

Yeah you need to read between the lines - it never started life as a Lotus Carlton - it's registered as a Carlton GSi 3000 24V

I thought it was the prototype with that serial number. Takes nothing away from me. Lotus still built it

It started life in white and 1st owner was the Prudential insurance company

Lotus finished the run of 950 cars and then realised they hadn't actually kept one for themselves

So they bought a secondhand 18 mth old Carlton GSi24V from Norwich motor auctions - stripped it to a bare shell and built one with spares they had left over.......

They asked GM/Vauxhall if they could number it 0951G and the request was denied as the last car built went to Monorep who sold the most Lotus Carltons and had been signed by all the team

So they numbered it 0000G

And then lent it to Top Gear

https://youtu.be/EGgdyJKdNqw

It's one of the reasons I've never done a proper thread on the car (It's been in background pics on other threads and had the odd mention but it's a proper b'stard child

Sub5 said:

Such an icon of a car and so nice to see it being driven and not hidden away.

Love the story. Love the csr

Drive it like you stole it is my moto

Thanks for sharing that. What a great story jthat ust makes the car more interesting. I take she's a keeper till the end

Still even, makes me wonder why Lotus would flog it. Family Jewels and all that.

[JakeT]

B'stard Child said:

Everyone stood behind was really excited to watch a Lotus Carlton go up the hill that year. Me included.

Can't believe it was 3 years ago!

[B'stard Child]

Sub5 said:

Thanks for sharing that. What a great story jthat ust makes the car more interesting.

It's had an interesting history that's for sure

Sub5 said:

I take she's a keeper till the end

I've had buyers for it a couple of times over the years - it's "pedigree/history" means it's hard to price - both times the deal fell through for various reasons - no hard feelings on either side

Sub5 said:

Still even, makes me wonder why Lotus would flog it. Family Jewels and all that.

Fire sale - reasons unknown - they sold everything that wasn't current models - it was parked up in a field!!!!

They were probably fed up with repairing it and parts were getting difficult to source

[B'stard Child]

JakeT said:

B'stard Child said:

Everyone stood behind was really excited to watch a Lotus Carlton go up the hill that year. Me included.

Can't believe it was 3 years ago!

I know - last year was a complete wash out show wise - I was looking forward to taking it round Goodwood too!!!!

[MorganP104]

I would argue that, based on the story, your car's MORE valuable than a "regular" production LC, especially as the Lotus boys themselves did the conversion.

Is it 100% LC in terms of parts and details, or are there still a few GSi bits in place of hard-to-find Lotus bits?

[B'stard Child]

MorganP104 said:

I would argue that, based on the story, your car's MORE valuable than a "regular" production LC, especially as the Lotus boys themselves did the conversion.

The Lotus boys did the conversion on all of them but I kinda get where you are coming from - they did an equally piss poor job of rust prevention in the areas where they plasma cut sections out to fit body kit and transmission

MorganP104 said:

Is it 100% LC in terms of parts and details, or are there still a few GSi bits in place of hard-to-find Lotus bits?

It's 100% LC now (well except the VIN number starts WOL) - when I purchased it there was one specific Lotus Carlton (cosmetic) part not fitted but I resolved that fairly early on in my ownership

[J4CKO]

I loved Carltons as a youngster, always looked better than a Granada to me, and then they brought his out, the power figure was nearly two Sierra Cosworths which was mind blowing as it was the yardstick back then for power in attainable cars.

[Sub5]

MorganP104 said:

I would argue that, based on the story, your car's MORE valuable than a "regular" production LC, especially as the Lotus boys themselves did the conversion.

Is it 100% LC in terms of parts and details, or are there still a few GSi bits in place of hard-to-find Lotus bits?

I was also thinking the same. You could really say there's not another like it.

[B'stard Child]

Sub5 said:

MorganP104 said:

I would argue that, based on the story, your car's MORE valuable than a "regular" production LC, especially as the Lotus boys themselves did the conversion.

Is it 100% LC in terms of parts and details, or are there still a few GSi bits in place of hard-to-find Lotus bits?

I was also thinking the same. You could really say there's not another like it.

Most of them have immaculate paint

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

Interesting story there.

Does anyone know why they decided to do the LC? Was it in celebration of something... As others have said, it was such an extreme vehicle for the period.

[B'stard Child]

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:

Interesting story there.

Does anyone know why they decided to do the LC? Was it in celebration of something... As others have said, it was such an extreme vehicle for the period.

GM owned Lotus (Vauxhall/Opel) wanted a Halo car

[NotNormal]

Getting déjà vu, i'm sure i've read this on here a few times already.. and also lost count of the number of years now you've been saying you are gonna sell it

On a more serious note, its amazing how quickly time fly's by. Proper car and cars of this era are far more appealing than any the electric dross that's offered these days

[crofty1984]

Do you mind if I link to this thread on a "Lotus Remembered" Facebook group in on? Might be one or two of the names on the engine in it.