Lotus Carlton - the four-door supercar

General Motors, the owners of Vauxhall wanted to produce a showcase car, something that would highlight the skills of their engineering. So, they turned to the recently acquired Lotus team and gave them a standard Vauxhall Carlton, a four door salon road car, and asked them what they could do with it...

The result was a four door family saloon with a 3.6 litre engine, a six-speed gearbox, and a spoiler. Released in the UK as the Lotus Carlton and Europe as the Opel Lotus Omega, it had the same performance as a Ferrari.

Its top speed caused problems: one hundred and seventy miles an hour. Safety groups were outraged, and the police weren't too happy either. Since the car could outrun police interceptors, a lot of less-than-legit individuals bought or simply stole them. Vauxhall ended up having to omit the top speed from their advertising, and trying to downplay the fact that the car they had built was very, very, fast.

Ulitmately an outside factor was its downfall. Released in 1990, during the recession, very few people were buying new cars. As the insurance premiums climbed because they were popular targets for thieves, the demand dried up. Despite its excellent performance (and sheer cool factor) the Lotus Carlton was discontinued.

However, among motorheads, racing fans and those who like really fast cars, the Lotus Carlton is still considered a classic, and second hand cars are traded and well maintained.