As a twenty-something back in 1990, Simon Bailey dreamed of owning a Lotus Carlton, Vauxhall’s 176mph supersaloon that raised questions in the Commons and rattled the likes of BMW and Mercedes.
A quarter of a century later, he has realised his ambition, although the car on his driveway is not a Vauxhall but its Opel equivalent, the Lotus Omega. It’s a left-hand-drive example from Germany, imported three years ago.
Simon saw it advertised when, during a conversation with a mate, he was showing him how expensive Lotus Carltons are. “They were £70,000, £80,000,” recalls Simon. “There was even one with low mileage for £105,000.
“Then I saw this Opel version for £40,000. I couldn’t believe it. It was a 1992 J-reg with 75,000 miles and advertised with problems. But even so, I didn’t think I could go wrong.”
Simon contacted the seller and arranged to see the car. The problems turned out to be a spot of corrosion on the sills and in the rear-wheel arch liners, albeit serious enough to fail the MOT, and the engine was smoking at idle. Simon has worked in the accident repair trade for 25 years, so a bit of rust and some smoke didn’t put him off. He bought the car.
Once home, Simon discovered the engine had been fitted with a replacement head gasket but for the wrong model (an Omega 3000 GSi rather than a Lotus Omega).
He swapped it for the correct one and had AutobahnStormers, a club dedicated to larger rear-wheel-drive Vauxhalls and Opels, give the engine a full refresh. In the process, it was discovered that the bell housing had cracked (a common fault) and so was repaired.
Even after all that work, however, the engine still smoked. “I couldn’t understand it,” says Simon. “Other owners told me that if you remove the two catalytic converters the car smokes, which seemed strange to me.
I checked and, sure enough, they had been removed. I’d arranged to go on a trip to Lotus’s Hethel factory with some other owners. During the tour, one of them overheard me telling someone about the smoking problem.
He said it would be because my car had no catalytic converters but that he had a pair at home, just down the road, that he could let me have. That same afternoon I fitted them – and no more smoke problems!”.
With its sills replaced, the wheel arches repaired and its engine no longer smoking, Simon was now free to enjoy his Lotus Omega. “It’s brilliant to drive, although by today’s standards the performance would be classed as average,” he says.
“The 3.6-litre straight six engine produces 377bhp, and the two, small T25 Garrett turbos are very responsive, but the car weighs just over two tonnes. The gearing is also incredibly long. That said, in third or fourth gear and with some pace behind it, it just goes.”
Simon plans to take the car back home to Germany as part of a European tour that will also take in a lap of the Nürburgring. Otherwise, he’s just happy his dream of owning a Lotus Carlton, albeit in Omega guise, has at last been realised.
“I feel like it was fate that I should find it,” he says, “and I feel privileged to own it.”
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