Matt's Carlton GSI 24v

Matt Allcock · 23-01-2007, 21:29

For those of you whose interested, here's the history of my car:

Bought 2 years ago from a bloke who was part of the Autobahnstormers, who lived in Cardiff. He bought the car from a guy in Leeds, the plates have a car dealership in York on them, and according to the registration, the car was first registered in Nottingham.

I bought it with 149,000 miles on the clock, and it was totally standard. Fetched it back from Cardiff with a big grin on my face

and soon put my Omega 16" wheels on, lowered it, fitted Irmscher rear lights and got a powerflow exhaust made.

The modifications went on from there. First I got a set of 17" Omega Elite wheels:

Had £1600 worth of Zavoli sequential LPG injection system fitted:

Bought a scrap senator to break for bits:

Sent it to York on recommendation to a bodyshop to get rounded rear arches, Lotus Carlton rear spoiler and a full respray...

Before:

After:

Then started on a full engine rebuild...

The idea behind the rebuild was to build an engine that will last me another 195,000 miles (just like the old engine did), but this one needs a bit more power.

I took my time over the build, as I had the spare engine from the Senator. However, the bores were quite baggy and worn so I had the block rebored and bought new oversized pistons. The price was the same to put liners in and keep the old pistons, so I went for the safe option (I don't really trust liners). I also had the crank polished and new shells installed all round.

The head was also fully ported and rebuilt by Damico in Norfolk (part of a group buy with the Autobahnstormers), which included the injector manifold and inlet manifold being opened out to match the inlet ports on the head.

All the gaskets and oil seals etc were replaced, nothing was reused. Everything was cleaned and most things were powdercoated as close to the original car colur as possible.

Fitted Koni adjustable suspension and Eibach springs:

And finally, the latest modification, Silicone hoses. This also includes a view of the induction kit. I've boxed off the AFM and K&N cone filter using aluminium sheets, and added my own cold air feed through the inner wing, ducted through the hole where the foglight used to be.

There's not much more I can do to this car really, and the only thing to make it go faster now is to go down the weight saving route. However, I use the car for my work as well as the track, so I don't really wish to lose the luxuries and toys...

I also plan to be buying a Lotus Carlton or Lotus Omega soon too, for the weekends and shows.

Hope y'all enjoyed the read!

Dazzy130 · 23-01-2007, 21:34

Very nice mate, always loved the GSi Carltons

Steve! · 23-01-2007, 21:36

How much does a full engine rebuild cost'ish?

Also, in the first two photo's the car look well low because of those rear 'Straight' arches

ANDYRACER · 23-01-2007, 21:37

As said before, very cool car and i want one

Matt Allcock · 23-01-2007, 21:45

That engine rebuild cost me between £2000 and £2500 I reckon.

The old pics were low at the back because the springs were PI -35mm jobbies. They were way too low and when I put the standard ones back on it looked much better. The fronts were changed to PI's when I first got the car, then recently I have fitted the Eibach's all round.

Matt Allcock · 23-01-2007, 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by ANDYRACER

As said before, very cool car and i want one

Only cos you shat your pants when I took you out in the wet! LOL!

Sideways is the new way forwards, but as you have seen on sunday, it's not always the best thing to do in certain situations!

ANDYRACER · 23-01-2007, 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

Only cos you shat your pants when I took you out in the wet! LOL!

Sideways is the new way forwards, but as you have seen on sunday, it's not always the best thing to do in certain situations!

So

You owe me another go in the dry, grrr you had to break it

GDN16v · 23-01-2007, 21:53

Thats a nice cruiser,

Always look better witht the rounded arches!!

Steve! · 23-01-2007, 22:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

That engine rebuild cost me between £2000 and £2500 I reckon.

Oki then, Maybe I wont rebuild mine for fun!

Johnny A · 23-01-2007, 22:05

saw this on Total Carlton, very very nice chap

Matt Allcock · 23-01-2007, 22:25

How do Johhny!

hows your rep coming along? you got a thread for it somewhere on here?

doggart · 24-01-2007, 01:32

nice car always admired it when i went past but this is a weird coincidence
i used to live at number 19 me**** street. i had the red gte 16v
i thought i recognised the location of you on top of the car then i saw the bloke with the beard next to the engine. i was bought up in elworth !!
what happened to pvs ?

Jack · 24-01-2007, 01:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

Sideways is the new way forwards, but as you have seen on sunday, it's not always the best thing to do in certain situations!

Saw this car on sunday, it's seriously nice. I really want one.

I like how you've not gone silly with it. You've not stripped it out in an effort to save weight, it's just a nice big cruising machine.

Exactly my sort of car, I love it!

Gaz86 · 24-01-2007, 01:51

i saw that at pod too, bloody gorgeous

took me ages convincing my mate it wasnt a lotus (thick ****)

Matt Allcock · 24-01-2007, 02:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by doggart

nice car always admired it when i went past but this is a weird coincidence
i used to live at number 19 me**** street. i had the red gte 16v
i thought i recognised the location of you on top of the car then i saw the bloke with the beard next to the engine. i was bought up in elworth !!
what happened to pvs ?

Jeez, there's a small world for ya! How you doin fella?!

Wondred where that GTE went, it wasn't that long ago when you moved hey?

Yeah, the old man retired RVS when the government legislations got too silly. they wanted him to concrete the whole yard, and it was going to cost a fortune. In the end hewasn't making enough money to warrant stayin in business.

We use the premisis for our own stuff now, which is really handy for me!

Can't get over that - small world or what!

Matt Allcock · 24-01-2007, 02:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack

Saw this car on sunday, it's seriously nice. I really want one.

I like how you've not gone silly with it. You've not stripped it out in an effort to save weight, it's just a nice big cruising machine.

Exactly my sort of car, I love it!

Well I have taken the back seats out for certain track days, but TBH I didn't notice much difference, so I'm not arsed about doing that.

I use the car for my business and travel about 35,000 miles a year, so comfort and toys are a must - I have to have a decent stereo and I have to have nice seats etc...

It is still a work in progress, it always will be, and the aim of the game in the first place was never to go OTT with anything. Loads of people stick the LC bodykit on and wished they hadn't anyway (big big big job, and so many crap kits available) so I really didn't want to do that. If you go down the LC rep route then people are going to want to race you in EVO's and the like, and you ain't going to win. Then they'll brag about how their EVO whopped a Lotus Carlton the other day and it puts the whole LC name to shame. If you know what I mean. My car Isn't a lotus, and it never will be one, or as fast as one, so I don't really want to make it look like one. Plus, if you make a GSI look like a Lotus, 99.9% of people out there are not going to know the differences between a standard GSI and a real LC anyway, so they will believe that it is one. Hell, people ask me if mine is a Lotus all the time! "Nope, I wish" is what I say!

But I will have one in a few months, oh yes oh yes

doggart · 24-01-2007, 02:15

im great cheers. moved to holmes chapel when i got pi55ed of not having a garage. the gte getting keyed 3 days after i put it on the rd after converting it from an 8v was the final straw.

sorry to hear about rvs going .
was really handy for me as i lived on gibson crescent so could walk over when my cars broke down and i needed bits lol

Jack · 24-01-2007, 02:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

I use the car for my business and travel about 35,000 miles a year, so comfort and toys are a must - I have to have a decent stereo and I have to have nice seats etc...

Fair play.

It's quite easy to go OTT when doing something like this (Land Rover rebuild anyone?

), but it does help if you've got your head screwed on properly and every now and then you take a step back and think "will that really make £300 worth of difference to the car?" or whatever.

Matt Allcock · 24-01-2007, 02:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by doggart

im great cheers. moved to holmes chapel when i got pi55ed of not having a garage. the gte getting keyed 3 days after i put it on the rd after converting it from an 8v was the final straw.

That's strange that, I've only ever had 1 incident down our street in 5 years, with my old Carlton - some pissed up nob decided to walk over the car from front to back. It was parked on W**** street though, not M***** street (*'s added for security, You'll know where I'm on about

)

Quote:

Originally Posted by doggart

sorry to hear about rvs going .
was really handy for me as i lived on gibson crescent so could walk over when my cars broke down and i needed bits lol

Yeah, it just wasn't worth carrying on at the time. He said that if Ebay had come along at the right time then maybe he would still be trading, but the bottom had dropped out of the local market - even people from stoke were complainig it was too far to drive to....

Plus the fact that he always got asked or the same things every day and couldn't get enough of them:

Nova GTE/Astra GTE/Cavalier GSI front bumpers
XE/LET engines
Manta quad headlights
Monza manual gearboxes
Big alloys

etc etc - can't remember what else, it was such a long time ago!

Matt Allcock · 24-01-2007, 02:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack

Fair play.

It's quite easy to go OTT when doing something like this (Land Rover rebuild anyone?

), but it does help if you've got your head screwed on properly and every now and then you take a step back and think "will that really make £300 worth of difference to the car?" or whatever.

Trust me, I've done a lot of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, but still I've managed to spend about 10k on the car over about 3 years!

The good thing is, I can claim all of the maintenance back against my tax bill as it's a business vehicle, so whatever happens, I keep it on the road, no expense spared!

doggart · 24-01-2007, 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

That's strange that, I've only ever had 1 incident down our street in 5 years, with my old Carlton - some pissed up nob decided to walk over the car from front to back. It was parked on W**** street though, not M***** street (*'s added for security, You'll know where I'm on about

)

Yeah, it just wasn't worth carrying on at the time. He said that if Ebay had come along at the right time then maybe he would still be trading, but the bottom had dropped out of the local market - even people from stoke were complainig it was too far to drive to....

Plus the fact that he always got asked or the same things every day and couldn't get enough of them:

Nova GTE/Astra GTE/Cavalier GSI front bumpers
XE/LET engines
Manta quad headlights
Monza manual gearboxes
Big alloys

etc etc - can't remember what else, it was such a long time ago!

never fell out with anybody so must have just been some jealous or pi55ed up to55er. sold it and got a celica st205 gt-4 when i moved

biggest problem for rvs i suppose was ace vaux in stoke
and yes i know w**** street lol

Jack · 24-01-2007, 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

Trust me, I've done a lot of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, but still I've managed to spend about 10k on the car over about 3 years!

I'd pay twice that for your car. Honestly, I love it, it's the most mint Carlton I've ever seen.

I'd love a spin in it, if you don't mind having a nerdy diesel lover with a Safeway coat in your car.

I might come to the next Bahn stormers meet to have another look.

Matt Allcock · 24-01-2007, 03:08

And Ace vx are still going now..... they offer other services that just spares though.

Matt Allcock · 24-01-2007, 03:10

Jack, you're welcome to come along to the next meet, and I'll take you up the road in it no worries!

TBH though mate, I've spent as much as a Lotus is worth on that car, but I dare say it's a lot more reliable than a Lotus!

Jack · 24-01-2007, 03:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Allcock

Jack, you're welcome to come along to the next meet, and I'll take you up the road in it no worries!

TBH though mate, I've spent as much as a Lotus is worth on that car, but I dare say it's a lot more reliable than a Lotus!

Awesome!

There's a difference between buying a Lotus for £10k with it's own set of problems and weird bits here and there and spending £10k on making your own car exactly how you want it.