Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 CDX!
 

Yet another classic presents itself to us!
First car I went over 100mph in! My friends Dads company car.

haha. Yeah I remember them well. They were pretty stable at high speed too.

At the beginning of the 90s, aged around 20, I was working for a small Audio Visual company, mainly workshop-based as an electronics design engineer. My two bosses both had Carltons -- pretty high-spec they were too, complete with fitted car phones.

Whenever an urgent job came up, and all the site engineers were out (in their vans) working on installations, it usually fell on me to go to site and fix any problems. The inconvenience of having to drop everything and go was somewhat alleviated when I asked the boss "which vehicle should I take?", knowing full well that all the vans were out, and trying not to grin as he passed me the keys to his brand new Carlton.

I remember how driving at 120mph+ seemed so effortless and luxurious. Though to be fair, compared to the banger I had at the time (a Morris Ital), anything was an improvement.

That reminded me of the first car I drove "quite quickly", a P6 Rover 3500. The infamous 4-door 2-seater.

Took it down to Cornwall in that baking summer of 1976, the only problem was finding the 5-star petrol it demanded. :ROFL:

Pretty sure it didn't have aircon, we just drove around (from stone-walled pub to stone-walled pub as they were cool) with the windows all down. Some pubs ran out of beer! :eek:

Soon after that I bought a brand new Dolomite (1850 not Sprint) and that was pretty sprightly too!

Big brother to my Cavalier Turbo!

Great cars. Step Dad had a Carlton and a Senator with the 3.0 straight six. The Senator had great spec, great smooth silky and powerful engine but GREAT amounts of rust. Was a shame to get rid of it.

Still have fond memories of my 1988 Senator 3.0 CD. I miss the dark blue sort of puckered up velour seats. Way more comfortable than leather in hot or cold weather. Excellent stereo, ate the miles in comfort. And visually.... similar to a D3 :D

Everytime I saw one of those on the road I slowed down... plod favourite!

Maybe that's why it felt faster than anything else on the road :ROFL:

I still have a Carlton 2.6i Diplomat Auto, with working AC (hence user name)
It is incredibly stable at speeds well over 100mph. It averages over 30mpg too, although around the town that goes to 23/24. I'd recommend them as a good daily runner, except when I last looked there are only 5 roadworthy 2.6 Diplomats available.

To me, the point of a Carlton is that they don't cost any more to run than a Fiesta, except fuel. Parts and any job you could ever tackle are all incredibly simple.

I'd put some pictures up, but the Photobucket account has suddenly decided they want to charge me.

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...