Type 104: the Outlawed Lotus

What happens when a mass-market manufacturer like GM decides to make a parts bin special super-saloon to compete with German performance behemoths? Well, it gives rise to an unlikely legend!

The late ‘80s and early ‘90s were exciting times. Car’s were getting faster, sharper and boxier by the day. And even though the fuel crisis was a thing of the past, people had started prioritizing efficiency and practicality. These factors were paramount to a car’s commercial success (well unless you had a prancing horse or a raging bull on the hood with a V12 strapped to the middle, then those concerns went straight out the window).

The Lotus Vauxhall Carlton and for the Europeans, the Opel Omega was the result of good timing meets great engineering. With fast engines becoming a thing, GM felt a little cornered especially in the UK and European markets where cars like the 5-series and the E-Class were gaining an immense following (ultimately hurting their brand value) and so was their performance-oriented counterparts like the M5 and 500E had already turned into modern icons, and at the time, GM had no contender in a segment that was grabbing all the limelight.

More than sales and turning profits, cars like the M5 and 500E had one job, to paint these automakers as superheroes and these were their poster cars. Everyone knows what an M5 or an E63 AMG is these days, and the story was no different back in the day, which lead to more people coming into dealerships and buying their regular cars. As a marketing scheme, it was simple, straightforward and effective and it’s probably what gave rise to the famous saying “race on Sunday and sell on Monday”. These cars were at the helm of this marketing philosophy, winning touring car championships and DTMs.

Since GM did not have anything that created the same hero car image, consequently their sales figures are starting to take a hit. The only thing they had in that segment was a 3000 GSI version of the Carlton and with its humble 177 hp straight-six, it wasn’t exactly the performance poster car GM needed to grab eyeballs. To take the fight straight to the German’s in markets like the UK and Europe, GM employed the expertise of Lotus engineering which happened to be under GM’s ownership at the time. And they had to make lemonade out of what they had, so Vauxhall handed in their Carlton 3000 GSI, which was the fastest version of the large sedan they made at the time and that marked a historic moment in automotive history. 

Do you see where I was going when I said “great timing”? So in 1990 when the Lotus Carlton was being developed, it happened to coincide with GM’s brief ownership period of Lotus (between 1986-93) who apart from building lightweight sports cars, are a well-known consultancy firm with years of experience and it all took place at a time when GM was run by Top-Shelf Engineers and not Marketing people. This meant the rag-tag team of Lotus engineers were allowed to let their imagination run wild, but the only rule being, their Lego blocks were the parts from pre-existing GM cars and everything else had to be modified or made from scratch. Well, clearly these terms weren’t a limiting factor for Lotus because what they created was a masterpiece.

Under the hood is the stuff from folklore, the block started life as a 3000 GSI motor, which at the time, was the most performance-oriented motor available with the regular Carlton. Lotus took that engine, threw pretty much everything away, and rebuilt it from scratch. The stock block was reinforced and bored out to 3.6L, and it got all new forged crank and Mahle pistons with a bespoke intake and exhaust, and to top it all off, added two Garrett T25 turbos to the mix, just to put this team’s technological prowess into perspective, the first twin-turbo 911, the 993 turbo, came out 5 years later. 

Power figures stood at 380 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque, for some context, let’s take GM’s flagship at the time, the C4 corvette in its beefiest ZR-1 avatar (a thoroughbred sports car) and that made 375 horsepower. The limited-slip diff was borrowed from the Holden Commodore and the icing on the cake was the Lotus tuned suspension. I guess even GM was amazed at the monster that they had created here, but the fact is GM probably wouldn’t have achieved the same amount of success with the Carlton if it wasn’t for Lotus and their single-minded approach to performance that they are known for.

The Transmission, however, wasn’t as inspiring as the engine. Even though the 6-speed unit was borrowed straight from the C4 corvette, it was crammed into a regular Vauxhall chassis and as a result, the clutch pedal felt like a thorough workout and was spongy as hell. But the long gear ratios meant that it had an abundance of torque pretty much anywhere in the rev-range, resulting in its notoriously famous acceleration.

With a price tag of 48,000 GBP, back in 1990, the Carlton was not cheap in fact in today’s money it would translate to just over 110K, but then again the only car that could match its straight-line speed at the time, was the Diablo, or the super rare Vector W8. In the real world, even the Testarossa wasn’t as fast. So it was truly the performance bargain of its day.

The exterior, apart form the Lotus badging in all the right places, felt cheap and very aftermarket, unlike some of its German competitors from the same segment like the M5 and E55 AMG. The understated body kit was the only tell tale, apart from the Lotus badging, even the wheels were the same size as the 3000 GSI, but with beefier brakes of course. 

The interior was nothing but a top-spec Carlton parts special and apart from the badging on the steering, instrument cluster and centre console, it was a very drab and economical interior which wasn’t exactly what one would expect from a car that cost over twice as much as the top-spec Carlton of the day. 

The Carlton was capable of doing 177 mph, from the factory because it had A LIMITER. So a shortcut to bypass this factory limiter was to simply redline the car in 5th gear and then shift up, after which it would go on to reach a top speed of 190 mph, which was faster than most supercars of the time.

What further adds to the value is the sheer rarity of this car and the reason why you don’t see them as often as an E36 or a 964, is because only 950 were ever built out of which only 350 were Carlton’s, the rest were Vauxhall Omegas. So if you manage to get your hands on one now, you’ll be sitting atop a gold mine that is sure to go up in value.

There’s even a bespoke one of one Carlton Estate that many don’t know about which was an extensive conversion project taken up by a man named David to create something that GM wouldn’t. This involved taking a 24V Carlton estate and swapping Lotus parts in its place, to end up with one of the coolest estates ever!

And as far as making headlines was concerned, boy did they one upon the Germans. You see the Germans managed to get spots in magazines or TV for a brief second for winning things like the DTM. But the Carton made the headlines, it was in Talk shows and even the Parliament. At the time, the daily mail, the brit police and even the parliament were against this car, that’s gold. And like they say, there’s no such thing as negative publicity and the Lotus Carlton became a legend overnight without entering a single race. 

The current crop of auto enthusiasts might find it hard to appreciate because we live in a time where people are tearing up the streets in 1200 hp Supra’s which have been made famous by the advent of social media and BMW makes quad-turbo luxury SUVs. But back in the day, this car represented the very cutting edge.

The Carlton was nothing more than a parts bin special commissioned by GM’s top brass in a bid to compete with saloons like the M5. But in a stroke of luck, all the brand’s involvement in the making of the Carlton and Euro-spec Omega, (which included Vauxhall, Opel and Lotus; all owned by GM at the time) conspired to make the best damn super sedan the world had ever seen. 

This unassuming four-door that looked like a quintessential dad car was the very definition of a sleeper and would go down in history books as the car that outpaced the law (especially the 40 RA the one car that was involved in multiple robberies even one where it robed a store right across a police station).