Photo: Jussi Koskinen
The Lotus Carlton was born during the days where General Motors owned Lotus, before Proton bought them. It was based on the 1986 Vauxhall Carlton/Opel Omega Mark 2 3.0GSi, a family saloon sold in the US as a Vauxhall and in Europe as an Opel. The Carlton earned the European Car Of The Year award in it’s year of launching.
Lotus basically took the Carlton, added a rear boot spoiler, air intakes on the bonnet, Lotus badges, and souped up the engine. It turned the 3.0 inline-6 into a monster twin turbocharged 3.6 litre inline-6 making 377 hp at 5,200 rpm. The car came in only one colour; Imperial Green – a colour which looked like black except under very bright lights.
General Motors originally had a sales target of 1,100 units, but only managed 950 (320 Vauxhalls and 630 Opels). This was due to the early 1990s recession, not many could afford a £48,000 car.
Look after the jump to watch Tiff Needell review the Lotus Carlton.
Video: Top Gear Lotus Carlton Review
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
Wow! A driftable family saloon!
acbc: there's many driftable family saloon.
this is cool twin turbo car.
paul…jz want to ask…izit they called it as a lotus omega too???or jz lotus carlton???as i knoe they called it as a vauxhall/opel omega…and for lotus is carlton…jz to confirm..
buy it already paul. what're u waiting for?
Lotus Carlton in the UK and Lotus Omega in the rest of Europe.
Vauxhall Carlton in the UK and Opel Omega in rest of Europe.
(edited)
where do u gets parts for tis car now?
i think this video is from 'fifth gear' instead of 'top gear'.i've seen it b4.
maru: tiff clearly says top gear in the video just before he brings the carlton onto the track.
tiff hosted top gear on bbc before he hopped over to channel 5.
Paul, I once saw a video of which I suspected, a Lotus Omega, has out ran a Swedish highway patrol. The police tried to give chase, but the Omega was like "lipas kudung" you know. Drop a gear, floor the gas, and whoosh! It dissapeared in just a few seconds. I saw the video like 5 or 6 years ago. I don't think there was anything called N.O.S back then on a road going saloon. Would you like to see the video?
Since it involves Lotus, I cant help but to wonder what our Waja would be like if Proton gives them the same task to Lotus like what the GM did then? A 350-400hp horsepower Lotus Impian? Im sure from what they did to the Lada's lousy handling, they can improve the Waja's way better!
I think that they'd avoid Proton like the plague
Lotus Carlton in the US and Lotus Omega in Europe.
Vauxhall Carlton in the US and Opel Omega in Europe
Eh paul… its not the US, its UK
The vauxhall is never sold anywhere except UK. The vauxhall and opel are basically the same cars except for the badge. FYI the normal Opel Omega was sold here in Malaysia in the early 90's
Well i would love to see a Lotus Gen 2 with 4wd and turbo to bring the fight to the scooby Sti's…the brits would surely love to get their hands on a "lotus" impreza fighter!!! or a Lotus PRM (perdana replacement model)
wow!this car can drift very well!
da car looks familiar .
Look at that Carlton drift… wow… nice handling…
driven this beast 13 yrs ago. simply magnificent!
Now, I want that car!
wots the name of the music just before the comedian comes on?
i like love music
i had dis car last time, quite a decent car at that time/era.
decent engine power &
handles quite well but today it is outdated.
i had this car last time, decent engine power & handling.
but all this was during that era time.
its outdated now.