Almost 35 years since its introduction, still no super-saloon quite hits the mark like the Lotus Carlton
Pretty much all of the words that are overused these days can be easily applied to the Lotus Carlton. Kids will be ‘obsessed’ about a new song for a fortnight; this four-door saloon has turned grown adults into quivering wrecks for more than 30 years. Cars will be declared ‘iconic’ after a YouTuber does another two-second run to 62mph; here’s a car based on a Vauxhall family saloon, with no direct predecessor or replacement, that can be recognised by its paint colour alone.
We all know plenty about the Carlton, but not everyone is aware that the original Vauxhall that was going to get the Lotus glow up was the Senator. Eventually it was decided that that car would never be sporty enough, even with the input of a legendary sports car maker, so the project was moved to the Carlton - which already had some pedigree with the GSI in the UK as well as the Evo 500 DTM homologation car.
Imagine a saloon from the Stellantis empire launching now with more power than an M5. Barmy, yet that’s exactly what the Carlton achieved, and so began its journey to performance car icon. The BMW had a 3.6-litre straight six in 1990, and so did the big Vaux, but two Garrett turbos helped it to 382hp and 415lb ft where the BMW could only muster 315hp and 265lb ft. It wasn’t so much top of the class as a league of its own, back when nothing conveyed proper prestige like a super fast saloon.
But because of the changes undertaken by Lotus, with bigger brakes and a focus on high-speed stability in the suspension tuning , the Carlton never felt overawed by its power. That was perhaps the LC’s most significant achievement ; it was monstrously fast, yes, but decent to drive as well. The ultimate ‘bahnstormer, just as 155mph limiters were being introduced. With fewer than a thousand Carltons hand-made in Hethel more than 30 years ago, they’re becoming harder and harder to find.
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