Lotus Carlton ‘40 RA’: public enemy number one

By Ryan Standen

| 4 Sep 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Lotus Carlton ‘40 RA’: public enemy number one

Thump. A blow to the face knocked Richard Austin to the floor.

He regained his senses to the sound of crunching glassfibre and a blaring car alarm: three or four men were using a Ford Sierra Cosworth to bump his Lotus Carlton off his drive and on to the road.

He staggered back to the house and shouted to his wife: “Call the police – I’m going after them!” It was 5am, changeover time at the local police station.

Response would be slow, and the gang knew it.

Tracking down the infamous Lotus Carlton ‘40 RA’ with the help of the police

Richard jumped into his wife’s Renault Espace and gave chase.

He spotted his car nearby as the crooks wrangled with the electronics, trying to get the Carlton’s straight-six to turn over without the key.

If they did, it was game over: with two Garrett T25 turbos as accomplices and 377bhp at their disposal, they would have no trouble dispensing with the hulking Renault.

Suddenly, a Vauxhall Cavalier crested the hill in reverse, making a beeline for Richard.

Lotus Carlton 40 RA made headlines for its part in a series of ram-raids on stores in the West Midlands and Worcestershire

He scrambled for reverse, but it was too late: the Vauxhall struck the front of his car, rendering it useless.

“I heard them get the Carlton going and off they went,” he recalls.

One month earlier, in October 1993, Richard had entered a DVLA numberplate auction with his sights set on ‘40 RA’.

“I was actually 41 at the time, but I thought it was near enough,” he explains.

Back in the 1990s, the Rover SD1 would have choked on the rapidly disappearing Lotus Carlton’s exhaust fumes and tyre smoke

When the hammer fell he was the highest bidder, and 40 RA soon went on his Lotus Carlton.

“I loved it and used it as my day-to-day family car,” he recalls.

“It was completely out of the blue when it was stolen; there was no indication it had been targeted.”

Finished in the dark shade of Imperial Green, Lotus Carltons flew somewhat under the radar, but their extensive modifications – including bodywork fettled by Lotus, whose job it was to turn the standard Carlton GSi 3000 into a supercar-baiting saloon – meant that they fell short of true Q-car status.

The UK’s most notorious Lotus Carlton was owned by Richard Austin

Richard’s car was nabbed in the early hours of 25 November 1993 from his house in Wyre Piddle, Worcestershire.

Stirred by the Carlton’s alarm, he recalls peering, bleary-eyed, through his window: “I could see them fiddling with the car.

“You don’t really think in circumstances like that, you just react. ‘F*** off, you b******s,’ I shouted and went tearing downstairs.”

But his attempt to stop the violent crims resulted in a black eye and a smashed-up MPV.

The Lotus Carlton’s 377bhp twin-turbo ‘six’ was perfect for speedy getaways

A few years before 40 RA was stolen, it looked unlikely that Lotus Carltons would be allowed on Britain’s roads at all.

Getting the 176mph saloon into UK showrooms was an uphill battle for Vauxhall, which was sold the idea of a Lotus Cortina for the 1990s by Mike Kimberley, the boss at Hethel at the time.

On 16 November 1990, MPs met in the House of Commons to debate road safety: “These cars require the skill of Nigel Mansell to operate them safely,” said Sir Anthony Grant, questioning the need for 140mph-plus cars on public roads.

The Lotus Carlton’s staid cabin belies its rip-roaring performance

Another MP, Alex Carlile, went one step further: “Will the honourable gentleman join me in condemning the heavy publicity that has been given recently to a Vauxhall Carlton which is capable, apparently, of achieving 170mph?”

The world’s fastest four-door production car was becoming a PR nightmare.

Rather than celebrating this technological tour de force, its performance was being hounded by government and national press alike.

On the back of a critical Autocar review, the Daily Mail and the Association of Chief Police Officers launched a campaign to ban the car.

This 1984 Rover SD1 3500 is part of West Mercia Police’s fleet, but it’s not in active service today

Was this a ploy by the upper classes to gatekeep high-performance vehicles?

The likes of the 173mph Ferrari 348 and the 202mph Lamborghini Diablo had escaped such hostility.

In reality, the £48,000 Lotus Carlton was hardly a blue-collar hero, but there appeared to be a genuine fear of the supersaloon’s blend of unassuming looks and formidable top speed.

Media attention eventually faded, and Vauxhall counted its lucky stars while 286 right-hand-drive Lotus Carltons rolled off the production line at Hethel between 1989 and 1992 – 3.6-litre twin-turbo straight-six and all.

The Rover SD1’s cabin reflects 1980s traffic-policing technology

To the Association of Chief Police Officers’ disappointment, it wasn’t long before the Lotus Carlton graced Britain’s front pages again – and the organisation’s worst fears were realised.

‘Taunted by the world’s fastest ram-raiders’, read the Birmingham Post headline on 7 January 1994. Just six weeks after 40 RA was stolen from Richard, the gang’s 11th attack was in the news.

Since 25 November, the group had been busy terrorising newsagents, petrol stations and off-licences across the West Midlands and Worcestershire, making off with £20,000-worth of cigarettes and alcohol.

The torched remains of a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier, likely the one used to smash into Richard’s Espace, were found in December.

Former Bromsgrove CID detective Brian Osborne gets back in the saddle aboard B197 FUY (left); Brian (pictured on left) on the 40 RA case in January 1994 © BBC

The outlaws obviously preferred their new, Lotus-engineered getaway car, and with good reason: 40 RA was making mincemeat of the police.

“They were so brazen,” says Brian Osborne, a former detective at Bromsgrove CID.

“They even kept the 40 RA numberplate; there’s no question they enjoyed the idea of this ‘cops and robbers’ situation.”

Attacks in Redditch, Bromsgrove and Hagley – where the same shop was targeted twice – catapulted 40 RA into the spotlight.

Lotus Carlton 40 RA’s driver could dig into the car’s huge reserves of torque to escape

“We were hoping that, given all the media interest and the public’s awareness, this vehicle would be seen somewhere not committing an offence,” continues Brian. “That was naïve, I suppose; in reality it was probably hidden well away.

“One of the issues we faced was that these crimes were being committed in West Mercia, Warwickshire and the West Midlands.

“Some police forces had more of these offences than others.

“We had a spate of them in West Mercia, which is why we treated it with a great deal of seriousness. We ended up running the show among the three forces.”

Supercigs newsagent was targeted in the gang’s 11th heist on 6 January 1994 © BBC

That 11th heist was perhaps the boldest of all.

On 6 January 1994, two men used 40 RA to reverse into Supercigs newsagent in Rubery, directly opposite the police station.

An officer armed with a truncheon challenged them and smashed one of 40 RA’s side windows.

Even so, the brazen pair escaped, with stolen cigarettes apparently pouring from the car as it fled, but this trail of tobacco breadcrumbs sadly didn’t lead to the Carlton’s hideout.

Lotus Carlton 40 RA returns to Rubery in Birmingham, 30 years after the original car’s notorious crime spree

“They would disappear into the countryside, or they could go on to the motorway and escape at 160mph,” explains Brian.

Much of the media hype was focused on West Mercia’s inability to keep up with the car, although Brian admits that most pursuits were short-lived because of the gang’s death-or-glory tactics and the officers’ reluctance to engage in dangerous pursuits.

The Birmingham Post reported that 40 RA’s driver would deliberately tease officers by slowing down to allow the traffic cars to catch up, before summoning the Carlton’s huge reserves of torque to bolt from the scene.

“The helicopter was a last resort,” says Brian.

‘Lotus Carltons flew under the radar, but the bodywork modifications meant they fell short of true Q-car status’

Air support was a relatively new weapon in West Mercia Constabulary’s armoury, but having an eye in the sky gave the force a much-needed advantage.

“I reckon the helicopter was the reason the car was abandoned,” Brian suggests. “I think it spooked them.”

A week went by without any new raids and sightings of 40 RA dried up, until Skidmores Garage in West Bromwich heard of a submerged car obstructing barges in a canal near Knowle.

Recovery driver Craig Tipping jumped into the firm’s Leyland Clydesdale truck with his boss, Graham Cole, to investigate.

After being press-ganged into criminal servitude, Lotus Carlton 40 RA was eventually found dumped unceremoniously in a canal © BBC

“I was the young one, and obviously the gaffer wasn’t going to get his feet wet, so it was my job to jump across on to the car’s roof,” says Craig.

“I remember kneeling down in the water and ripping the numberplate off. ‘It’s 40 RA,’ I shouted.”

The Carlton was largely intact, but the stereo was missing.

“I took the car to the police forensic-science lab in Birmingham,” he explains. “When I went back to pick it up, they had covered it in an ultraviolet powder.”

West Mercia Police’s David Newbold and Jamie Willis helped get the force’s Rover SD1 back on the road

Craig brought the Lotus, complete with its new fluorescent paintjob in place of the original Imperial Green, back to Skidmores Garage, where it was collected and taken to a scrapyard.

After 11 smash-and-grabs, the six-week crime spree was over.

“The suspicion was that they would get another high-powered car,” recalls Brian, “but they didn’t. It’s almost as if they’d had their fun, they knew they were never going to get a car like that again and they had the spoils from their crimes.

“To this day, I’m not sure they were ever caught. We never got close.”

Lotus transformed the Vauxhall Carlton into a legendary supersaloon

Richard temporarily replaced 40 RA with a Renault Twingo – “I just saw one and thought it looked cute,” he says – before his insurance company set him up with another car: “It was nice, but never felt as good as my old one.”

In 2022, Richard decided it was time to reunite the 40 RA numberplate with a Lotus Carlton.

“I’d had it in mind for a long time and found this car on an auction site.

“It was on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It needed a fair bit of work, but I wasn’t expecting it to be a minter.”

West Mercia Constabulary’s fleet of Rovers, BMWs and Vauxhalls stood little chance against the Lotus Carlton

Thanks to some fettling by Lotus Carlton specialist Agamemnon, the reborn 40 RA is now in excellent shape.

The engine starts with a gruff snarl at our rendez-vous, just south of Birmingham.

It’s almost 30 years to the day since the original 40 RA was fished out of the canal in Knowle, 20 miles away, on 14 January 1994.

“It’s one of the cases that’s etched into my memory because of the interest and the fascination that surrounded it,” remembers Brian, who retired from the police in 1999.

Just 949 Lotus-tweaked Vauxhall Carltons and Omegas were built

“Every morning we would arrive at work and everyone would be asking if the car had been seen,” he recalls.

“It would have stood out on its own, but with 40 RA on it? Now come on, that’s cheeky.”

We are joined today by an ex-West Mercia Constabulary Rover SD1 3500, fresh from a 12-month rebuild (see below).

This 1984 car would have been long in the tooth by the time 40 RA was being pursued across the Midlands; instead, young guns such as the BMW 3 Series and Vauxhall Senator had joined the chase.

The Lotus Carlton has no driver aids, so caution must be exercised

Brian hops into the Carlton with Richard and son Rob Austin to get a taste of what he was up against.

“The car is such an advanced piece of kit and we didn’t have the technology to handle it,” says Brian.

But times change, and the gang would stand little chance against today’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras.

Thankfully, the 40 RA numberplate is no longer associated with its murky past, so we don’t need to worry about getting into trouble on the heavily monitored M5 motorway.

The fabled 40 RA numberplate on Richard’s Lotus Carlton

This is the Central Motorway Police Group’s stomping ground, where even its V8-powered Range Rovers were easily outgunned by 40 RA in 1994.

West Mercia Police fleet manager David Newbold and vehicle technician Jamie Willis follow in the SD1.

We stick to 60mph because the aged Rover’s twin SU carbs are in need of a rebuild.

It might not be a fair fight, but 40 RA – with its 24-valve ‘six’ fed by Rochester fuel injection – would run rings around it.

The Lotus Carlton was as adept at baiting the cops as it was Lamborghini Diablos

The Carlton’s ZF ’box, borrowed from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, required Lotus engineers to cut a new place for the gearlever.

You don’t need to trouble it much, though, because there’s plenty of power throughout the range, even before the turbos spool up.

The limited-slip differential and trick suspension help keep things in check.

Even so, with no traction control to watch over you, it’s a surprise the gang was never caught – both red-handed and red-faced.

Lotus Carlton 40 RA back at the scene of the crime

We peel off the motorway and head into Rubery.

Parked outside Gills News, formerly Supercigs, the Lotus and Rover pair gets a lot of attention.

A passer-by asks: “Is that the one that was stolen?” Another poses for a photo next to the fabled Carlton.

It must have caused a fair few headaches at Vauxhall PR at the time, but 40 RA now forms a big part of the Lotus Carlton legacy.

The original may be long gone, but it’s clear that the legend lives on.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: West Mercia Police; Blue Light Vehicle Preservation Group; The Vernon in Hanbury; BBC Midlands Today

West Mercia Police’s Rover SD1

West Mercia Police instigated this Rover SD1’s rebuild

B197 FUY first joined the West Mercia Constabulary fleet in 1984 (before its name changed to West Mercia Police in 2009).

The V8-powered Rover SD1 worked as a motorway patrol and driver-training car in the Midlands.

When fleet manager Dave Newbold joined the force in 2013, he was surprised to see an ’80s Rover still on the system.

“At the time there was a mileage replacement criteria of 120,000,” he says, “but the car had only done 106,000 miles, so it was never going to reach that.”

There’s no mistaking this ex-West Mercia Constabulary Rover for a standard SD1

“We made the decision that we couldn’t keep it on the fleet – it was far too old to be used operationally again,” he continues.

“We donated it to the Police Vehicle Enthusiasts’ Club.”

The Rover was in need of some work, but a lack of both time and funds got in the way.

Dave met club secretary Alan Matthews at the NEC Classic Motor Show a few years later and a plan was hatched to return the car to West Mercia Police’s workshop.

‘The Rover SD1 is as good as new, including its bucket-sized blue light and ear-drum-busting air horns’

“I jumped in the recovery truck in the early hours one morning and drove to South Wales to pick it up,” he recalls.

“We were surprised to discover that it was still as solid as a rock.”

The SD1 became a low-cost, after-hours project for the team, who replaced the suspension bushes, mended the exhaust, refurbished the fuel tank and undersealed the chassis.

Now the car is as good as new, including its bucket-sized blue light and ear-drum-busting air horns.

“Our local bodyshop, the Autocraft Accident Repair Centre in Telford, did all the repairs on it for nothing,” says Dave.

Similarly, Lakeside Group applied a fresh West Mercia Police livery at no cost.

Today, B197 FUY isn’t used for chasing down baddies, but you might spot it at a car show or a community engagement event.

Factfile

Lotus Carlton

Sold/number built 1989-’92/949 (including 663 Lotus Omegas)
Construction steel monocoque
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, dohc 3615cc 24-valve straight-six, twin intercooled Garrett turbochargers, Rochester fuel injection
Max power 377bhp @ 5500rpm
Max torque 419lb ft @ 4200rpm
Transmission six-speed manual, RWD via LSD
Suspension independent, at front by MacPherson struts, anti-roll bar rear multi-link, semi-trailing arms, progressive-rate coil springs, self-levelling; twin-tube dampers f/r
Steering power-assisted recirculating ball
Brakes dual-circuit vented discs, with servo and GM-Bosch ABS
Length 15ft 7½in (4763mm)
Width 6ft 4in (1930mm)
Height 4ft 8½in (1435mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 11½in (2730mm)
Weight 3726lb (1690kg)
Mpg 23
0-60mph 5.2 secs
Top speed 176mph
Price new £48,000
Price now £90,000*