cos500

I thought i would look these up with a view to buying one in the future as a daily entertaining work hack, i remmember it being quite a machine back in the day, would have thought £2000 would have covered it for what is really a vauxhall carlton with a cheap nasty interior.
£13000 for 140k miles etc, are they having a laugh, lower miles they get more expensive, ok the engine was its only good point and at 140k has had its day so how the hell is it worth that when the entire car is going to need an overhaul.
I also know it was the most powerful production saloon ever built, but surely that cant justify the price tag for a knackered carlton.
Anyone ever had one of these?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Not had one, no, but drove a Carlton taxi for years. It was THE most forgiving big car I've ever driven, handled well and gripped like I don't know what.

I think the price reflects rarity value as well as enthusiast value. You only have to look at the price of 1982 Ford RS200's when/if they come up. Ford sold them for £45000 on the road, they change hands now for over £100,000

Alcazar

cos500

A mate of mine had one years ago, 3litre 24v or something like that, was a good car, he didnt have any problems with it but suely the lotus isnt a great deal different, has twin turbos bolted to it, maybe different suspension, brakes etc but still, 140k miles and 15 years old.
Bet you can pick up a normal carlton for £200 now.
Im an RS man but never got the RS200, dont remmember it winning much, no idea why anyone in their right mind would pay that.

NotoriousREV

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

foofin eck, just had a quick ganger on parkers.

377bhp. is that through the front wheels?

christ almighty. for a standard production saloon that is... erm... well... erm...

BRILLIANT

cos500

Rear wheels mate

rigga

iTrader: (4)

Engine totally different from the 3.0 24v version that the normal ones had,lotus overbored the unit,fitted twin turbos and they never held together for to long,every time i went down to vauxhall in luton for a training course there was a row of them sat outside with engine problems....... at 140k i cant see that being any better...... drove one when they first come out,and it was awesome,so much power than we had seen in the dealership before.

mgcvk

These are rare though so mint models are going to hold their value.

Mikkel

Yeah, they are pretty much a collectors item now. Vauxhall's answer to the 22B, the Cortina GT etc etc.

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Buy the latest EVO mag - there's an Omega (lexus engine..) in there with 1055 bhp, fastest car EVO have ever tested.

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Which has now been crashed according to the Evo mag I got yesterday.

DaveD

iTrader: (2)

IIRC 6th gear was so tall, it would allow the Lotus Carlton to cruise at 140mph at something like 3,000rpm!

A supercar in a saloon body.

Shark Man

With a name like cos500 one would thnik they would understand these car's value.

They are as rare as rocking horse poo. One that hasn't been molested is even rarer

Compare to trying to find a GENUINE RS500 and your looking at paying the same amount of money. (And the Carlton is a way better car as well )

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Evo mag tested the M5, RS4 etc a year or two ago & brought along the L Carlton to see if big mega cars had improved over the years. Turns out the Carlton can still cut it hence the £14k price tag you see before you!

TX.

cos500

Yes ive had an RS500, just sold it, pics in another thread somewhere, an RS500 has proper racing heritage and won countless races in the british and world touring car series, the british series was changed in the early ninties so as to stop the 500's as nothing could catch them. the bmw m3's only won when the 500's crashed out etc.
For me a vauxhall carlton with a lotus badge doesnt even compare.
My car was valued at 26k.

Scoobymart

You no what LOTUS! stands for guys. LOADS OF TROUBLE USEUALY SERIOUS.but still great cars anyway.

big_wig

its a COMPLETELY different car to a vauxhall carlton,and is as has been said the same as saying that a cossie should be the same price as a pinto!never gonna happen.and as good as it sounds that your 500 was valued at 26k,you say you just sold it,i bet it made at least 10 grand less than that,no one pays 26k for any 500.

[Davey]

A daily work hack? Are you having a laugh???

A set of brake discs cost more than most peoples daily work hacks, that is if you can find someone kind enough to sell you some!

Fooking AWESOME cars! You'll need to sell your soul to the devil and re-mortgage your street to run it though..




There are only a handful of good examples left, £14k is a low price and the condition will reflect that.. For a MINT low miler your looking at up to £25k..


.....A work hack....

[Davey]

WRONG WRONG WRONG...

C36GET IS exactly the same block to the C30SE in the 3.0 24v GSi other than obviously better bearings and some extra oil ways (similar to what STi did).. It has a longer stroke crank, (to give it 3600cc) and low comp pistons that are harder than a Terminator on PCP, the head is also the same other than some metal work machined from the center of the combustion chamber..

Two T25 turbos are bolted on the side, a charge coller, bigger oil coolers and it runs a custom management system. Its all bolted to a Corvette ZR-1 gearbox that feels like it came from a tractor!

The engine is VERY reliable, but it has two major flaws! 1) the gearbox bell-housing is prone to cracking around the clutch pivot pin, due to the strain plased on the mechanism by the multiplate clutch (there is a fix for this though) and 2) The GSi simplex timing chain setup was never upgraded and they used to snap on a regular basis causing lots of vavle train damage.. There are stronger chains available though.

Bodgit

My local vauxhall dealership had one for sale for £29,995. It was mint had about 8k on the clock and was a 1 owner car as it belonged to the dealer principal.
The sales guy said they would not budge on price as he wasnt fussed if he sold it or not. I get the impression the wife was getting annoyed at it taking up space at home.

[Davey]

Sounds sick but thats cheap too for the mileage! no wonder he wouldnt budge.. Its disgusting amounts of money to spend on a 15 year old car BUT you'll get a pretty exclusive motor

Shark Man

So you should understand that a UK Lotus carlton is as rare as a RS500 then (only 320 RHD uk cars...the rest were all export)


Nothing to do with it being a mere homologation car. The value is the rarity not what it did (or didn't do) on a race track.

Point example was the Jag XJ-S troncing the opposition in the ETC during 1984...Yet you can buy an XJ-S for £200, because there are still shed loads of them, and in road going form its pants

[Davey]

Dont worry Shark Man, he hasnt got a bloody clue what he's talking about

johnnywrx

Fast i think they are rated at 185mph top end all this in a saloon awsome car

[Davey]

The official the top speed at release was something like 174mph, but they actually do 186+ if you can find a long enough piece of road lol. Its the amazing drag co-efficient that gives the top speed, its quite astounding that a 377bhp car can go that fast! The Lotus Carlton looks like a brick but its one of the must areodynamic production cars ever produced.

Maz

iTrader: (34)

176 mph was the fastest recorded speed at the Nardo track. Here in Blighty Richard Noble managed to wring 163 before running out of road. Sixth gear was good for 44 mph/1000 rpm rendering it totally useless, many felt the car was overgeared in fifth never mind sixth! The top speed was attained in fifth.

Maz

iTrader: (34)

0.31 Cd wasn't that phenomenal especially compared to it's smaller sister the Calibra that boasted 0.26.

cos500

I take it thats a picture of your own car then, u sound so keen so you must have owned one.
Yes some of the examples ive seen would have been fit for nothing more than a WORK HACK, the last one was a rhd version at the nurburgring this year, ive seen taxis in better condition.
You cant describe it as awesome unless you have owned one, my cossie cost me £3000 in the first year of ownership, everyone else thought it was awesome but i was abit pissed off.
How much do you think that lotus carlton will cost you then having already covered 140k, still worth 13k?

Will

did they only make 22 lotus carltons?? and did they have air suspension??

[Davey]

Yeah thats my old car..

I wouldnt go near one that had done 140k miles unless it was EL-CHEAP! 140km I'd consider though

I do know someone whos selling one a RHD at the moment but he wants more than 13k and its a minter!

Its actually 0.28..

The calibra was designed from the offset to be areodynamic, its got front and rear pans under the car to help with areodynamics too I think the carlton was more of a fluke, with its barge like features and massive body bodykit you'ed think it had the areodynamics of a house!