Lotus Carlton/Omega

Mixing one of the world's top sportscar names with a mass-production manufacturer resulted in one of the most striking and fastest sedans with the 1990 Lotus Carlton. Using a standard Vauxhall Carlton GSi 3000 bodyshell, Lotus took it and re-designed the running gear, putting in a multi-link rear axle, twin tube shocks and some of the biggest brakes ever seen on a production sedan with 13-inch (330mm) and 11.8-inch (299mm) discs. For power Lotus started with the 183ci (3-liter) twin-cam straight six and fitted a longer stroke crank to produce 220ci (3.6 liters), plus new pistons for a lower compression to allow the fitting of twin Garret T25 turbos. The turbos were intercooled and helped propel the car to just shy of 180mph (290km/h), with an acceleration that left most exotic machines behind. Just 950 were produced; 510 were left-hand drive, called Lotus Omegas.

Lotus Carlton/Omega Specifications