Ride in my beautiful saloon: Dealer news

Showroom-1-Lotus-Carlton
Author

Lee Gale

• For some, the Lotus Carlton is as ’90s as watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air while slurping a Hooch. It first appeared in 1990 with a price as stiff as its suspension – £48,000 (that’s £115,000 today). Visit Corby’s Auto Union and you’ll fall in love with this Diablo-baiting saloon all over again. It has a 1991 model, above, in Imperial Green – the only colour ever offered – for £89,995.

• While the hard-of-earning planned bank jobs to afford a Lotus Carlton, in 1992 the Ford Escort RS Cosworth came along and jaws hit the ground once again. Just over 7000 were made. In Radiant Red, a late-production 1996 (P) ‘whale-tail’ recently sold for £150,000 at KGF Classics, Peterborough. It had two sedentary owners – covering a mere 217 miles from new.

Dick Lovett’s Mini and BMW showroom in Bath is shifting to a nearby state-of-the-art site in Portal Road, Melksham later this year. The company is looking for staff. Vacancies: careers.dicklovett.co.uk.

• And now for something really special… A 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 on the books at Simon Furlonger in Ashford, Kent has the distinction of being the first guida destra (right-hand drive) Miura ever built. It was exhibited at the 1967 London Motor Show and first owned by Norwich-based Thomas Cook of the travel company family. It’s priced just shy of £1.4m.

• An abandoned BMW dealership in Tarragona, Spain that closed its doors 10 years ago is the subject of a YouTube video, above, by German BMW enthusiast M539 Restorations. Within the space are E30s, an M5 E28, a V12 750i E32, a 1970s Alfa Romeo Alfetta, an NSU Ro 80 and more – in case you were looking for a new project. Lee Gale

 

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