Vauxhall Carlton
Encyclopedia
The Vauxhall Carlton was an executive car
Executive car
Executive car is a British term that refers to a car's size and is used to describe an automobile larger than a large family car. In official use, the term is adopted by EuroNCAP, a European organisation founded to test car safety.- History :...

 that was sold by Vauxhall
Vauxhall Motors
Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...

 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 from 1978 to 1994.

Mark I (1978–86)

The first Vauxhall Carlton was introduced in late 1978 as a replacement for the ageing VX1800/VX2000
Vauxhall Victor
The original Victor, launched on 28 February 1957, was dubbed the F series and saw a production run totalling over 390,000 units. The car was of unitary construction and featured a large glass area with heavily curved windscreen and rear window. Following then current American styling trends, the...

 saloons. Based on the Opel Rekord
Opel Rekord
The Opel Rekord was a large family car/executive car which was built in several generations by the German car manufacturer Opel.-Naming:The Rekord name evolved into the main name of the model; at first the name was used in close relationship with the Opel Olympia name, which pre-dated the Rekord...

, but with Vauxhall's typical "droop snoot" front end that featured no traditional grille, it was a traditional large saloon or estate with rear-wheel drive and a spacious, comfortable interior and was available in "L" trim only. Power came from a 2.0 litre carburettor petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....

 which gave reasonable performance, refinement and economy. There were some impressive options available, including central door locking, alloy wheels and electric windows, which in the late 1970s were relatively plush equipment on mainstream cars.

Relationship with other models

Lengthened, more powerful models, based on the Carlton and Rekord, were also available. Positioned directly above them was the Vauxhall Viceroy which also sold as the Opel Commodore
Opel Commodore
The Opel Commodore is an executive car produced by Opel. It is the six-cylinder variant of the Rekord with styling differences. The Commodore nameplate was used by Opel from 1967 to 1982. However, its lineage continues with the Australian Holden Commodore...

, and above that the Opel Senator
Opel Senator
The Opel Senator was a large automobile, two generations of which were sold in Europe by Opel, from 1978 until 1993. A saloon, its first incarnation was also available with a fastback coupé body as the Opel Monza and Vauxhall Royale Coupe....

 and Opel Monza (a coupé derivative) which also sold as the Vauxhall Royale and Vauxhall Royale Coupé, although the Opel versions, particularly of the coupé, were more common even in the UK.

Facelift

A facelift for the 1983 model year
Model year
The model year of a product is a number used worldwide, but with a high level of prominence in North America, to describe approximately when a product was produced, and indicates the coinciding base specification of that product....

 saw the disappearance of the droop snoot front, in favour of a more traditional (though still angled) grille shared with the equivalent Opel. This also marked the end of UK sale of the Opel Rekord as the Opel brand was being phased out in the UK. The 1983 facelift also saw the introduction of a wider engine range consisting of a 1.8 L carburettor, 2.0 L carburettor and 2.3 L diesel. A wider range of trim levels consisting of "L", "GL" and "CD" were also introduced at this time. A 2.0 L fuel injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....

 engine was introduced for the 1984 model year and was replaced by a 2.2 L fuel injection engine for 1985.

Mark II (1986–94)

Opel chose to name its 1986 replacement car in this segment Omega
Opel Omega
The Opel Omega was an executive car marketed by the German automaker Opel between 1986 and 2003 in two generations, both manufactured at Opel's Rüsselsheim, Germany plant. The first generation, the Omega A , superseded the Opel Rekord, was voted European Car of the Year for 1987, and was available...

 rather than Rekord. Vauxhall stayed with the Carlton name. On its launch at the end of 1986 the Vauxhall Carlton / Opel Omega saloon and estate range earned itself the accolade of European Car of the Year
European Car of the Year
The European Car of the Year award was established in 1964 by a collective of automobile magazines from different countries in Europe. The current organisers of the award are Auto , Autocar , Autopista , Autovisie , L'Automobile Magazine , Stern and Vi Bilägare .The voting jury consists of motoring...

.

Relationship with other models

Again there was a lengthened version of the Carlton (and Omega), this time known in both Opel and Vauxhall forms by the same name: Senator
Opel Senator
The Opel Senator was a large automobile, two generations of which were sold in Europe by Opel, from 1978 until 1993. A saloon, its first incarnation was also available with a fastback coupé body as the Opel Monza and Vauxhall Royale Coupe....

.

In the spring of 1994, Vauxhall scrapped the Carlton nameplate, but the name of its Opel equivalent, the Omega, lived on, as it was applied to the Carlton's replacement. At which point the Vauxhall equivalent adopted the name change (a drive towards uniformity was taking place throughout the range) and so the Carlton's replacement was sold as the Vauxhall Omega.

Mark II engine line-up

New to the Carlton's line-up with the Mark II were two straight-6
Straight-6
The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six-cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase...

 engines with 2.6 and 3.0 litres. Originally, these were 12-valve engines, but later models offered a 24-valve version of the 3 litre six, producing much more power and torque. As well, Vauxhall used the "Dual-Ram" intake manifold, which lets the car breathe as two separate three-cylinder engines below 4,000 rpm, but changes the intake manifold profile at 4000 rpm to increase the runner length, thus increasing total engine output.

Special Lotus version

In 1990, Vauxhall launched a high performance 377 bhp Lotus Carlton
Lotus Carlton
The Lotus Carlton was a Vauxhall Carlton saloon upgraded by Lotus Cars to be a 177 mph sports sedan with acceleration to equal contemporary supercars. Like all Lotus vehicles, it was given a type designation — Type 104 in this case...

 in collaboration with Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...

. (An Opel version was also produced as the Lotus Omega.) It was built with a 3615 cc six-cylinder twin-turbo engine (designated C36GET) capable of over 176 mi/h, making it officially (for the time) the fastest full four seater that had ever been made. It cost £48,000 — well over double the price of a standard Carlton. As a result, Vauxhall's original plans to sell about 1,000 in the UK ended in 440 UK cars being sold. For those with less money there was the 3000GSi 24v, with a top speed of 146 mi/h.

GSi 3000

Prior to the Lotus tuned version, the range topper was the GSi 3000 on which the Lotus Carlton was based. When introduced, at launch in 1986 it had 177 bhp giving it a top speed of 134 mi/h. In 1990, power was increased to 204 bhp increasing the top speed to 146 mi/h. It was also available with an Automatic gearbox lowering the top speed by a few miles an hour and increasing the 0-60 mph time by a second or two.

Guinness World Record

In June 1992 two teams from Horley Round Table, Surrey, UK, set a Guinness World Record time of 77 hours 34 minutes, driving a total 6,700 km across the then 12 EC countries in two Vauxhall Carlton 24V 3000 GSi's (J870 FFM and J751 DYC). The Carltons were provided by Vauxhall Motors and the record attempt was also supported by Mobil Oil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...

 and the Royal Automobile Club
Royal Automobile Club
The Royal Automobile Club is a private club and is not to be confused with RAC plc, a motorists' organisation, which it formerly owned.It has two club houses, one in London at 89-91 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, Surrey, next to the City of London Freemen's School...

.

External links

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