https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicl...i_auto#!engine

So, far far rarer than the Lotus Carlton - still a few hundred of those

I had a Holden VR Berlina (specced up Commodore) back in the day which had its body based on the Senator (but about 6" wider). Press at the time stated it was based on the Carlton, but the side profile is clearly Senator (I expect the Senator is a 'luxury' Carlton anyway).
Had a 5 litre V8 in that one (165kW/385Nm):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-m...%2Blowered.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8...a%2BEngine.jpg

My very first car back in 1958 (I've put the 19 'cos of the comments about the Crimea War) was an Opel Kapitan, big heavy lump of shiny deep marroon. It was a 53 model and finally sold it to a German Taxi driver.
My first English vehicle was a white Ford Zephyr (like in "Z Cars" for those who remember black and white TVs). Everybody slowed down for some reason when I followed them.

The Mark III, like this?: https://i.imgur.com/YMAQ4xd.jpg

My Dad had two of those when I was a kid ... had a long horizontal/rectangular speedometer, if I remember correctly.

I think it was probably those cars that started my love of big cars.

It all went downhill a bit after that though; we had family cars like Ford Escorts, a Hillman Imp and even a Metro (urgh!) later.

Nice one Mark,
Mine was white like this one, iirc they labelled them Zephyr Zodiac.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1500149332

We had a white one too. If I remember correctly, the white one was the first one we had, which was stolen (and never recovered). Then we got a black one to replace it.

There's a reason why that is so

The Zodiac was different to the Zephyr. A bit like the Senator was to the Carlton

You are quite right - people daren't drive the Lotus Carlton because almost no part of the engine (especially the timing chains) can now be replaced, so they sit in garages all around the country and occasionally go to the odd car show where the owners parade around like Jack the biscuit because they are completely oblivous to the fact that almost any S8 is quicker!

As you were...

I wanted a Lotus Carlton back in the day!
Very high performance practical large 4 door saloon car... Sound familiar?

It would have also been pretty unique down here (while erily familiar to early Commodore fans!) and would have been much faster than any (unmodified) Holden Commodore V8!

I was also into Holden's at the time, so it was very appealing! And the Carlton shared a couple of Holden parts - it had the Holden V8 LSD (GM had nothing else RWD with a high enough torque rating at the time) and the same gearbox as the VN SS Group A Commodore (Homologation special like the Sierra Cosworth and R31 Skyline GTR 'Godzilla')

I spent 2 ½ years in the UK from '99 to '01 and had a serious look at them as the prices had bottomed out!
...Ran out of cash and gumption though!
Importing was a hassle at the time - the SEVS scheme (for 'significant' cars never sold here) makes it a lot easier now...