Lotus Carlton

So the question came up last night around the Aussie version of the Lotus Carlton.
This car

There is a reasonable wiki on it, so I won't belabour the point, other than to say it was an excellent car in it's day and remains an icon of it's era (1990 or so).

What's more, it's a pretty reasonable read around just how much was done to the donor car to make it the mad bit of kit that it was. Many thought that it just had a fancy engine added, not even close.
Read the Wiki, it's amazing just how much was done.

Specifications
Top speed - +176 mph (283 km/h)
Peak power - 377 bhp (281 kW; 382 PS) @ 5200 rpm
Acceleration - 0-60 mph (97 km/h) : 5.1 sec., 0-100 mph (160 km/h) : 11.1 sec.[9]
Peak torque - 419 lb·ft (568 N·m) @ 4200 rpm
Engine displacement - 3615 cc
Engine type - Twin turbocharged straight six-cylinder
Configuration - Front-engined, rear-wheel drive
Transmission - Six-speed ZF S6-40 manual
Weight - 3,666 lb (1,663 kg)
Production - 950 units

Tiff's review:

Australia tie in?
But is there an Aussie tie in to this car?
Yes is the simple answer, the LSD diff on it is from a Commodore V8 in fact,

But could you get something similar in Australia?
Short answer no, it's engineering excess at a time when it was OK to have bits fall off a car on a regular basis.

But...
Here's the conspiracy, check the first pic (of the Carlton):

Goodness

And then squint a bit and look at this:

Gracious

And that's the VR commodore (apparently), but that was produced in Australia after the Lotus Carlton. And you'll notice that the rear end is certainly different, but not by a massive amount.

If you start to search for VP Senator 5000i you start to see some very similar looking cars indeed actually, and they're from around 1992 - so right in the ball park.

Omega (eye) strain

But the true origins of the Carlton are for something that never appeared here, the Vauxhall Omega or Opel if you like bratwurst.

Here it is and the back end is somewhere closer:

My Eyes!

Thank god they did something to it.

So if you want something similar over here, I'd go with a VR (or if you're rich a VP Senator, they seem rarer), put a straight six in it and put a couple of turbos on it.

You might want to update your will too.

Afterward

I can tell you that searching for images, and perusing so many old Holdens, Vauxhalls and the likes I feel quite violated.. I need something nice to look at now...