Retrospective: 1990-92 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton

There are a lot of things you can say about GM.  They've been around for a long, long time and made a whole lot of cars. Like any big prominent brand, they've accumulated a set of sayings attached to their reputation.  One is "A GM car runs poorly longer than most cars run at all."  Everyone still driving an Oldsmobile Aurora can tell you that; I have a personal favorite, though.  "When GM does things wrong, they do them really wrong.  But when GM gets it right, GM gets it right big."

There are a lot of examples of this.  For the first part of the statement, see: X-Body's like the Citation that blew up and fell apart at will.  The original Fiero.  Oldsmobile diesels.  Cadillac V-8-6-4.  The last of the minivans.  The last Grand Prix.  The Chevy Aveo, and the Pontiac Grand Am at least since I've been alive, J-bodies...  You get the picture.

But when they get it right, boy do they get it right.  See: Corvette ZR1 (both the original Lotus-engined twin-cam 32v version, and today's supercharged 638bhp version), GMC Syclone, CTS-V, 1994-1996 Impala SS, the Corvette in general, Grand Prix GTP's, the Cadillac Northstar, the very existence of the Solstice, the G8 GXP and the 6.0L GTO, and... The Grand National, of course.  But there's one that most people forget, and I've never known why - the Lotus Carlton was the 600 lb Gorilla locked in the cage with a high school thug wannabe's.  It was so fast the government of at least one country threatened to intervene, which means it has the makings of a true classic.

It came from some rather humble roots, though.  The "Carlton" part of "Lotus Carlton" came from Vauxhall's rather pedestrian Carlton sedan, a traditional front-engined rear-drive large sedan, which was mostly driven by either old people or the police.  Or it was occasionally used as a taxi.  The hottest version of the regular Carlton, the 3000GSi 24v, had a 3.0L 24-valve Inline 6 with 204 horsepower.  It was no slouch, capable of a 7.7 second 0-60 sprint and 146 top out, which is why it was popular for police use.

But GM had just flexed it's financial muscle and purchased the entire Lotus group, and they wanted to show off what they could do.  So they looked at the Carlton, and then set Lotus at it with their wrenches.

The first thing to go was the stock 3.0L, replaced with a longer-stroke 3.6L Inline 6, called C36GET.  The bore remained the same as the GSi 24v (at 95mm) but the stroke was increased to 85mm from 69.8mm.  They also bolted up twin Garrett T25 turbochargers on separate 3-branch exhaust manifolds, and other supporting modifications.  The result was 377bhp@5200 rpm, but more importantly, 419lb-ft (569nM) of torque at 4,200rpm.

This monster twin-turbo six was mated to the same ZF-sourced 6-speed manual transmission as used in the 32-valve ZR1, which debuted at about the same time.  The car had serious brakes, too; 330mm calipers with AP Racing 4-piston front calipers and 300mm rear rotors hauled things down in a hurry.  The dowdy-looking Carlton was treated to a rather aggressive bodykit and aerodynamic side skirts, as well as 17" Lotus wheels.  It was quite primal looking by modern standards, but back in 1990 the flashy bodykit was kosher.

The performance was serious: 0-100km/h took only 5.1 seconds, and at the time (and for quite a few years after) the Lotus Carlton held the record of fastest top speed on a production four-door sedan, at a rather absurd 178 miles an hour.

And that's where the trouble started.  The media went mad over this "dangerous" weapon of a car, citing it's top speed as being socially irresponsible.  While this wasn't a criticism levelled at cars like the Lamborghini Diablo, which had a slightly higher top speed, that sort of irresponsible capability was expected of ultra-exclusive supercars.  For a four-door family sedan, it was the public equivalent of shooting Bambi.

In the end, it didn't matter anyway.  There were a grand total of 950 Lotus Carlton's produced, including right-hand drive Vauxhall Carltons and left-hand driven Opel Omega's, with the ratio about 2:1 towards Opel production.  The Lotus Omega/Carlton went out of production in December 1992, 150 units shy of the original projected production.  £48,000 super-sedans weren't selling well in the recession, and the demand faded quickly.  But there's something to be said for a 4-door GM sedan that accelerates from 30-70 faster than a Ferrari Testarossa.

The recession and the controversy killed the Lotus Carlton, and it would be many years before a faster production sedan existed.  Insurance on the Carlton in the UK was insane because they were stolen so frequently, just like the home-baked Sierra Cosworth.  The Lotus Carlton was a high-mark in the history of GM performance, despite being roundly ignored by GM fanatics.  If only GM had the gumption to make something like that today, and sell it in the US.  Like the G8 GXP.  Well, that brings me to another addage about GM:  right when they start getting it right, they kill it off.  It's a shame.