Check out this perfectly restored Vauxhall Carlton

Back in the GM days, the Carlton was everywhere - now Chevrolet Vintage is rejuvenating them

By Matt Bird / Monday, 15 December 2025 / Loading comments

A few manufacturers have embarked on factory-spec restorations of late, taking classics and giving them a new lease of life with the skills and resources only available from an OEM. We’ve seen it from Porsche (and a Cayenne of all things), Mazda with the MX-5 and Nissan with classic Skylines. Now there’s one more unlikely recipient of a ground up rebuild: indeed it’s the first such restoration from Chevrolet Vintage: complete with some Irmscher goodies, it’s a Vauxhall Carlton. And absolutely fabulous it looks, too.

Only it isn’t, actually. Technically speaking, this is a Chevrolet Omega, as it was known in some markets, and it’s been lovingly redone in Brazil, where they loved the Carlton as much as we did. According to the press release that was issued with the Omega, this is ‘Chevrolet’s most iconic national luxury sedan’; combine that with the fact that this is Chevrolet Vintage’s first such restoration and they really have pulled out all the stops. Carltons probably never looked this good in the first place.

This 1994 CD was actually a pretty special Carlton before GM got to work. See, 31 years ago, some legend specced it with an Irmscher kit that increased the size of the straight six from 3.0-litre to 3.6, and that configuration is retained today. Apparently it was lightly used in period, ferrying a ‘high-ranking executive in the financial sector’ from meeting to meeting, but nevertheless the Carlton was completely disassembled and each bit of it assessed individually. Parts that were still good were spruced up and protected for future, elements such as lights were restored, and where brand new parts were needed original replacements were obtained. Talk about a labour of love. Apparently even the ‘nostalgic scent’ of the fabric interior was recreated.

Now the Omega has been sold, leading an auction at the CARDE automotive design museum that celebrated 100 years of GM in Brazil. It made $80,000, or £60k - told you they really loved a Carlton. “Launching the Chevrolet Vintage auction with the Omega at CARDE has a very special symbolism, as it unites three sources of pride for Brazil: the manufacturer with the longest local operation, the most revolutionary national luxury car in history, and a museum that surprises the world with its innovative and curatorial approach,” said Santiago Chamorro, president of GM South America. More restos like the Omega are going to follow; let’s hope someone at Vauxhall can follow suit and do the same here…