Lotus Carlton Specialists ?

[dmcrobin]

Hi All

10 Years after first driving a Lotus Carlton I have finally bought one and hopefully pick it up tomorrow, have sent my cheque off to Autobahnstormers but thought i'd drop a post on here to see if anyone knows any speacialist places to looking after it in the Midlands (Leics/Notts/Northants) area other than the likely to be extortionate 'Official Lotus Carlton Dealers'

Will post some pics when I get it.

R

[LC860G]

dmcrobin said:

Hi All

10 Years after first driving a Lotus Carlton I have finally bought one and hopefully pick it up tomorrow, have sent my cheque off to Autobahnstormers but thought i'd drop a post on here to see if anyone knows any speacialist places to looking after it in the Midlands (Leics/Notts/Northants) area other than the likely to be extortionate 'Official Lotus Carlton Dealers'

Will post some pics when I get it.

R

To be honest, you are unlikely to find any. There aren't enough cars to make it worth anyone being a specialist - and that includes the offical dealers.

You've joined the Autobahnstormers so that is the first step. Next, get yourself registered on the forum there and ask away. They can provide most of what you need for general servicing etc. If you don't feel comfortable doing that yourself, then get the service kit from the club, then find a local garage that you trust to do the service. They aren't that much different to anything else once you've got the parts. You can also acquire a service manual that explain a lot of the more specific operations if you like.

Which car have you bought?

Phil

[dmcrobin]

Hi Phil

Thanks for your reply - great website you've got by the way, very useful.

I have bought car number 85, 1 owner from new and 8,000 original miles. It was bought by the owner of a Vauxhall Dealer new from Mann Egerton St Ives, Cambridge and has spent most of its life in their showroom.

They have looked after it all its life apart from the 1,000 mile and 1st year service and I am absolutely over the moon with it !

They have gone through it and given it a full service and I am struggling to keep out of it - and i've already washed it twice !

I've got a detailer coming to give it the full works on Thursday, i'll then no doubt leave it in the garage until the stop salting the damn roads !

[NotNormal]

Nice purchase sir

[B'stard Child]

What he ^ said

Still a heck of a car even after 16 years!!!

[meridian]

Congratulations, that is quite a find. For the record I've got 938d (German LHD Omega) and have owned it for 5 or 6 years. Don't use it much to be honest, probably have done around 1500 miles since I've owned it, but love it to bits. Personally, given their rarity (and as an owner of course !) I think they should be worth a lot more than they are but are probably still a reasonable long term investment. Quite frightening though how the parts availability is dwindling but a truly great car with huge performance even by today's standard.

Regards Meridian

[ajk]

Robin, not that local to you but worth giving Steve Williams in Maidenhead a call:
www.swlotus.com
He's got a Carlton (in amongst all his other Lotuses) so may well be able to help.

[B'stard Child]

meridian said:

Congratulations, that is quite a find. For the record I've got 938d (German LHD Omega) and have owned it for 5 or 6 years. Don't use it much to be honest, probably have done around 1500 miles since I've owned it, but love it to bits.

Hellfire - that's Domster's old car (PH user name) real name - Dom Colbeck - spent 8-12 mths at mine having the engine rebuilt after we found the head was cracked and then had to work out how the hell we dealt with that - haven't seen that car surface for several years - Dom only commented on another forum the other day that he wondered how it was.

PS Cracked head means it has a fully converted 24V Senator head on it now and head bolt to stud conversion - that was all breaking totally new ground at the time but pretty commonplace now!!!

Edited by B'stard Child on Tuesday 4th December 13:27

[meridian]

That's right, I bought the car from Dom a few years back and if I recall correctly he had just purchased a 964 RS. Please pass on my regards to him and tell him that Damon still has it. It's much as it was mechanically, although in much better shape cosmetically, as I treated it to some paintwork 2 or 3 years ago and it is genuinely really nice now. It's just a 'funster' and I don't get the chance to use it much. It comes out for MOT every year, and of course has it's oil changed annually, but essentially it sits in dry storage growing old gracefully.

Cheers, Damon aka Meridian

[domster]

Heheh, glad the car is still in the family.

Since then, I sold the 964RS as it was getting too expensive to track (kept going up in value!), helped start a Porsche servicing and tuning centre at Silverstone ( www.fearnsport.co.uk ) and have now got a bug eye Impreza for cheap thrills... may even put my old B10VVN Lotus Carlton plate on it as it should be doing 320-330 bhp after a full engine rebuild (from bottom end up!). What is it about me an engine rebuilds Must be the way I drive them

[V1PER]

VERY NICE LC.....

One of my all time favorite cars.....
Someone i know had six at one point inc the fully caged press car that did the top speed run in Italy

[NotNormal]

V1PER said:

Someone i know had six at one point inc the fully caged press car that did the top speed run in Italy

Got any pics sir, would be interested to see