This is one car, above all others I'd love to have a drive in. Don't suppose I'll ever get a chance though.
Anybody out there been in one, driven one, or even owned one?
Would love to hear any tales about them...
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I haven't, I'm afraid, but it's on my short list! Shouldn't be too difficult to track one down, though - they should be relatively affordable by now...
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1991 LOTUS CARLTON
100,000 miles, Imperial Green. Full Black Leather, Cat 1 Alarm And Immobiliser, Full Vauxhall Lotus History. Totally Original RHD Example Of The Truly Awesome Lotus Carlton. £14,995.
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Whoa there, I don't want to buy one!
What do you think I am, made of money...
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My chum inherited one as a company car in 1995-ish. From a passenger's point of view it seemed taut, comfortable, spacious and went like the proverbial. For such a big car it seemed astonishingly agile. To chum's irritation, I would wind down the back window the better to hear the magnificent straight 6 yowl. He complained that the fat tyres (Pirellis I think) made car tramline. Overall impression was that of a fast, practical executive express with a high fun factor to be enjoyed solo. (I bet it would have made a wonderful towcar :-o)
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Nearest I ever got, was when we had to signwrite a customers van... & touch up the Lotus lettering on the sill scuff plates, on his one, at the same time.
Guess I should have ran it up the road to dry the paint!!
VB
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a customer took me for a ride in his, he was a racing driver and knew how to drive it...it was way fast and handled like nothing else,i was well impressed
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have driven one in my crazier younger days very good very fast car i didn't get caught but you could see the fuel gauge move at speed
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not driven one but have had dealings with one (you know who you are) couldnt get near him in a b road skirmish. they are unbelievably rapid for such a big car, and just when you think "ah ill catch him in the bends" no no no it doesnt slow for bends ..... uncatchable. so yep good cars.
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Never been in one, but one of a few cars I ever fell in love with.
I can remember a What Car twin test with a Sierra Cossie and it was just men against boys with truely awesome figures (0-100 below 10 seconds).
Used to see one around Carshalton circa 1992 in dark green and was bezotted.
A classic if ever there was one.
Woody
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Turning the colour of mushy peas after hearing about you guys who've been in one!
Now, if I remortgage the house or do a Reggie Perrin...
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Drove one, but didn't own one, and up until last year it as the most powerful road car I'd ever driven. It was a demonstrator with the Vauxhall dealer at the Pentagon Island in Derby
If you think about it, it's not that difficult to imagine what it was like. This is the period when Quattro meant that four-wheel drive was the performance must-have, and out came Vauxhall with a car that had six-cylinders, turbocharging, 377bhp...and rear-wheel drive. None of that nancy-boy traction control, either.
The Carlton GSi 3000 looked pretty stealth bomber, but when you put a Lotus Carlton alongside it suddenly became a seven-stone weakling with nothing but a digital dash to brag about. Cosmetically, they got the Lotus Carlton bob-on, though the ruched leather inside was a tart's boudoir add-on.
But who cared? Performance-wise, it was a monster which would spin its wheels in third when the road was damp (and I seem to recall the gearchange being quite laboured). I wouldn't call it crude, but if you think Lotus involvement meant a chassis that danced with finesse, forget it. In all honesty, I was just too scared to try anything other than straightline squirts with it. It wasn't mine, it attracted too much attention, and in the two days I had it one mild sideways moment in the damp was enough to make me drive like a pansy.
I had a Sierra Cosworth 4x4 at the time (G29 DWC anybody?) and it was far easier to flatter yourself in one of those than it was in the Carlton (which was also pricy when you consider the lack of face-saving kit). Frankly, it was madness for Vauxhall to do it. But barking cars can sometimes be a laugh.
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"it was a monster which would spin its wheels in third when the road was damp"
I remember a couple of years back I tootled round a midly damp roundabout near Reading and came upon a sorrowful sight. A Lotus Carlton nose down in a drainage ditch, rear end pointing skywards, about 50 yards beyond the roundabout. Sheepish looking man in garage overalls standing next to it, plastic seat cover visible on the drivers seat. I guess no one warned him!
Came past again more than an hour later and a tow truck was still struggling to pull the beast back out again.
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If you like the Carlton.... a site with lots of tech info and pics.
www.autobahnstormers.co.uk/
Chad.
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Cheers Chad.
Drooling like a rabid dog....
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Come to the annual All Vauxhall Rally in Billing, Northamptonshire (this year 18th/19th September but normally in July) you can usually get up close to about 6 perfect Lotus Carltons all together. Fantastic!
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My former boss worked for Lotus in the early 90s; had a Lotus Carlton to play with at weekends. On one occasion he used it to pick up a carpet he?d ordered from the local DIY barn : had to be the fastest carpet delivery van ever.
15 grand seems pretty cheap for a good ?un?.mind you IIRC brake pads are something like 300 quid a set :-((.
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0-60 in 4.8 seconds.
Still a Vauxhall though ;)
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