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 The Lotus Carlton was an extraordinary project that was born out of the enthusiasm of some senior executives at General Motors (Bob Eaton, president of GM Europe) and Lotus (Mike Kimberly, MD of Lotus). Lotus was acquired by GM in 1986 some time after Colin Chapman died, and this amazing project was started in 1988. The original concept was to create a compound-charged (turbo-charged and super-charged) Senator. For whatever reason this idea evolved into the Lotus Carlton, which to this day is, still, the fastest production saloon car in the world. Only 950 cars were produced, although the original plan was to produce 1100 (440 for the UK and the rest for Europe). Of the 950 produced, only 250 came to the UK in RHD layout although there are an increasing number of LHD cars appearing in the UK badged as Lotus Omegas (the Opel equivalent). The Lotus Carlton hit the streets in September 1990 and was available until early 1994. Despite the phenomenal performance of these cars, sales were slow with a hefty price tag of £48000.

Beds Automatic Transmissions was Instructed to produce the first Lotus Carlton Automatic by an enthusiast, which we duly obliged using a GM4L30E.

First we planned to find a suitable TCU and wire in the inputs for the controller. After achieving that goal the automatic transmission was left as a standard unit in which we set out to destroy. After destroying the unit in about an hour the transmission was removed and the weak points resolved.

After speaking to the new owner approximately 10 years on the vehicle is still on road and still going strong.

Specialists in all makes of automatic transmission

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