Modern Lotus Carlton could birth twin-turbo Commodore
7 Aug, 2008
35 Comments 
Lotus is planning a successor to its cult-classic Carlton special edition model, according to Mike Kimberley, Lotus Group CEO.
The original Lotus Carlton was a project commissioned by General Motors, who at the time owned both Lotus and Vauxhall.
Beginning with the standard Vauxhall Carlton, Lotus boosted its engine displacement from 3.0-litres to 3.6-litres, with twin Garret T25 turbochargers added for good measure.
The result was over 280kW and a zero to 100km/h time of just 5.2 seconds - over a second faster than its German rivals at the time.
This modern interpretation of this performance classic has the potential to sow some new Australian roots, with the VXR8 included in a list of cars speculated to form the base of the next Lotus Carlton.
To follow in the footsteps of the original, imagine a Lotus-tuned twin-turbo edition of the VE Commodore - its every Holden fans wet dream.
However other sources suggest the Vauxhall Insignia will become the platform for the new model - let’s hope they are wrong.
Source: Autocar
Location: Home / Lotus, GM, Holden, Holden VE Commodore, Car News / ...
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August 7th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Ooh great - My money is on it being based on a 4wd version of the insignia platform rather than the commie plate.
If it was a 2wd drive they could put skinny tyres on the front massive amount of torque and set to to compete with a certain market leading car.
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August 7th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Holden have had plans to release a Twin Turbo V6 commodore for a couploe of years now… ever since the TT-36 Toran Concept car. Which I expect could infact become the new more Compact Commodore After the VF.
Given that the “Torana” is virtually assured of getting the green light [GM CEO has plans for it to become the new Pontiac G6] plus the liklihood that it will be built on the same platform as the new Vectra/Insignia which can accept RWD AWD and even FWD the new Twin Turbo Commodore couls also be available with AWD - which could possibly be yet another first for noto nly Holden but an Australian Built Family Sedan.
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August 7th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Magna AWD was a good car
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August 7th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Is it me or does the side profile of the original Charlton looks a lot like a VK commodore?
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August 8th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Glen - actually VN commodore mate, both this and the VN commie where built off the same basic platform, although they are very very different cars underneath
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August 8th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Thanks Richo, I knew it looked similar to a Commodore of some desciption maybe with the squarer front and rear made me think VK
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August 8th, 2008 at 1:14 am
And the front doors are interchangeable with VN, too.
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Ah there lies the rub of sharing floor pans. Apparently the crucial dimensions of the A and B pillars are not able to be moved and this restricts possiblitlies for door positioning so i’m told. Gosh how interesting was that?
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August 8th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Vauxhall have already released a supercharged 500 horsepower monster of the last Monaro. Sadly, we never saw it here.
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August 8th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Tom - actually we did mate, the 500hp kit is form walkinshaw performance here in australia and i have heard you can get it fitted through HSV dealers
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August 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
The VK Commodore is based on the Carlton as the Lotus Carlton was built around 1991/92. The Vauxhall/Opel Omaga was released in 1994 with the equivalent VN Commodore released in 1997. Vauxhall/Opel killed off the Omega in 2003 - with Holden continuing with it for another 3 years until the VE. 280kW from a 3.6 Twin Turbo - pretty good for 1991 considering the SV Clubsport V8 could only manage 180kW. Who says the Brits can’t build cars.
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August 8th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
MR2,
Mate you dates are all wrong.
VK Commodore 84-86
Lotus Carlton: 90-92
Carlton/Omega Series 1: 78-86, Series 11: 86-94
VN: 88-91.
Quote “Production of the Lotus Carlton began in 1990, four years after the original Carlton went on sale”
That dates the Lotus Carlton either VL or VN, and the photo above doesn’t give much away, but I think the door handles look VN.
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August 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Bret, spot on with dates, but definitely VN based/equivalent.
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August 8th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Here’s an interesting question:
Did the Euro guys do an Omega/Carlton that formed the basis of the VL (like all of the other models) or was VL an Aussie only model?
I didn’t find a VL looking equivalent for the Omega/Carlton.
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Bret, the VL dated right back to the original VB commodore in 1979, which ofcourse was also based on an opel design. However holden where forced to make significant changes to the opel design as it just wasn’t strong enough for aussie conditions. The famous story goes that holden engineers tested the opel equivilant in australia to learn what they needed to do to turn it into what became the VB commodore, they incredibly managed to snap the opel in half at the a-pillar during outback testing! Needless to say SIGNIFICANT chassis strengthening and general durability improvements where required.
The commodore and the equivilant opel always ran different drivetrain and suspension, it was really only ever the basic bodyshell that was shared. Also with the VN commodore holden had to widen the track of the original opel design in order to not only improve interior room, but also to fit in the new V6. Holden where originally planning on carrying over the VL’s nissan derived straight six but a rising japanese yen caused the GM heavies to demand holden to use the fairly ordinary oldsmobile (i think?) derived V6. Everyone remembers how lumpy the old VN motor was right? Well it would have been even worse if holden did what GM ordered them to do and just put the US version of the engine straight in the car, instead holden spent millions trying to make the lump of lead smoother, and even after all their efforts she was still a lumpy bastard! It wasn’t untill the VS commodore and the “ecotec” update did the motor start smoothing out a bit. Although it still sounded like a chainsaw, always did even in the VY
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
back to the VB commodore story where holden snapped an opel omega in half (i think they where called omega’s?) the opel engineers in germany refused to believe it was possible to do that so they had the broken car shipped to germany to inspect it. Needless to say that the replacement opel omega (which later formed the VN commodore) was a much much stronger car thanks to the lessons learnt!
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
just found out the VB commodore was based on the 1977 opel rekford, that was the car that holden engineers snapped in half! then the first opel omega in 1986 became the holden commodore in 1988. Incredibly the first omega won european car of the year in 1987! Who would have thought considering it formed the basis of the VN commodore which is comonly acknowledged as the worst of the commodores!
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
actually, sorry, the opel rekford formed the basis of the OPEL commodore, which was the more luxurious version of the rekford. THAT is the car holden snapped in half and that is the car they used to make the HOLDEN commodore. Thats also ofcourse where the commodore name came from. Holden originally where just going to “australianise” but in the end had to fairly comprehensively re-engineer it
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Richo,
yeah knew all that, but each Commodore has an Opel style as an originator, but I can’t find the one that the VL was copied from.
And your “breaking in half” story goes well beyond the original test mule. All Commodores pre VE can suffer from a stretched floor if towing (and not always by doing the wrong thing either)
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August 8th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
i was wrong again lol, the first VB was based on the opel rekford with an opel senator front on it. Opel thought that was such a shit hot idea that they copied it and stole the commodore name at the same time. So there ya go
Yep the old opel design definetly wasn’t a strong one Bret, despite holdens best efforts.
The VL design was still based on the VB commodore, shared the same chassis and everything, but the actual styling was done in house by holden. Up until that point the styling had been more or less carry over from opel. Holden also thoroughly redesigned the opel omega when creating the VN commodore and same again when designing the VT commodore. Compare the 1986 opel omega to an 1988 VN commodore and you will see that holden actually did an excellent job as the omega was a very boxy design. The VT commodore was also a huge improvement in styling over the 1996 opel omega, although the family resembelence is much strong in this model, holden clearly improved on what was a fairly “all over the place” design which the opel was.
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August 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Richo, getting a kit fitted to a car, and selling a car as a factory 500hp missile is a different story.
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August 8th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Tom, all Vauxhall did was take the HSV Coupe and smack on the walkinshaw supercharger kit and throw in a warranty. Incedently walkinshaw performance provide a warranty to cover the loss of the standard HSV warranty anyway. It’s exactly the same mate, the only difference is that Vauxhall made it “official”
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August 8th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
incedently HSV never did it “officially” like Vaxhall did because they where concerned about drivetrain longevity. They didn’t belive the manual gearbox could handle the torque loadings in the longer term
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August 8th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Come on CarAdvice…
Did the Carlton spawn a TT Commodore at the time? No, it didn’t.
So, what would make you think this time around that they would re-engineer the entire car for a foreign turbo powerplant when they could just bolt on a huffer or two to their existing engine, ala Ford style with their twin cam 4-litre and de-compressed atmo xr6 engine for the xr6 turbo.
They wouldn’t even need the help of Lotus with so many, local Aussie tuners already selling aftermarket kits.
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August 8th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thats true Richo, we all know you can get 500+ hp easily out of LS engines. It just seems more special when Holden do it from the factory.
I mean, get a LS3, cam it, maffless tune, you’re already there.
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August 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Yep Tom your right, GM powertrain have always massively de-tuned the LS1, LS2 and now LS3 V8 basically to improve economy. Thats why these engines are so easy to get power out of. Take a VT series 2 with 220kw. Add an exhaust, bigger intake, larger throttle body and do a maffless ECU tune as you say, you will easily get over 300kw, and a very reliable 300kw aswell because you haven’t actually changed any of the internal parts… the engines where always designed to produce the big power
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August 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
If they use the Commodore platform, Ford are screwed because when the v6 arrives they will lose the cachet of the inline six. Then where are the unique selling points?
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August 8th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
i doubt holden will ever market a turbo 6 in australia again. Holden has always based their performance car heritage around V8s and i really doubt that will ever change. The only thing i can see changing is holden perhaps moving to smaller more efficient V8’s sometime in the future. GM have decided against doing a replacement for the northstar V8 in the states and instead are looking for a partner to develop a new DOHC smaller capacity V8 engine with, and there are strong rumors that the partner may be BMW. So its not beyond the realms of possiblity that in the future holden may run a smaller capacity DOHC BMW developed V8. Maybe around 4.4 or 4.6l capacity
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August 8th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Richo,
Word has it GM and Ford are looking at sharing engine development
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August 9th, 2008 at 1:42 am
heard that fred, dunno if it was for V8’s though was it?
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August 10th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
wheelnut,
an aussie AWD family sedan has already been done.
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August 10th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Thanks Andrew - Yeah I remember; the Magna AWD is one of them which is why Tom Phillips wanted to have a go at making the 380 AWD as well as RWD - but Tokyo said No
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August 10th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
you got a bit carried away there didnt you???
ha ha ha ha ha
i know how excited you get when you talk about the possibility of the upcoming “Torana” platform
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August 10th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Please Holden - It sounds great, but make it a TT Torana not Commodore!
Torana (relatively large midsize) is the car for the future where as the very large commodore is the car of the past.
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August 10th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Dave,
if they kill the commodore name,
with it will go a lot if its loyalists.
the Torana name wont be that great of a name to attract the family buyers.
Torana is a bogan name, and very few consumers would be able to see past it
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