Could this be the Turbo III's predecessor?

[CaptMoe]

Check out the engine specs for this rally car, which is obviously based on the Omni/Horizon platform:

http://www.groupbrally.com/talbot.shtml

And it was backed by Lotus. I wonder if any of those parts would interchange...

Moe

[Mopar318]

Thats not turbo?

[turbovanman²]

Wonder if you could even find one?

It was RWD, very cool. Reminds me of the Le Car Renault made RWD and moved the engine to the back for Rallying, the R5 I believe. My friend has one, I love driving it, :nod:

[CaptMoe]

Thats not turbo?

It's not mentioned in the specs but most Rallye cars were turbocharged. The article mentions the Renault 5 Turbo as the Talbot's target so I would think it was.

Pretty good power if it wasn't though: 234hp...with dual carbs!!!

[Mopar318]

It's not mentioned in the specs but most Rallye cars were turbocharged. The article mentions the Renault 5 Turbo as the Talbot's target so I would think it was.

Pretty good power if it wasn't though: 234hp...with dual carbs!!!

Yeah I seen that it had dual carbs, and 11:1 Compression. Probably was not turbocharged. But cool find!

[tryingbe]

Omni in RWD form...

I want...

[CaptMoe]

Pretty neat stuff if you follow the rootes-chrysler link.

Apparently that 2.2L 16v four was a complete Lotus design. They called it a Slant 4. I remember the Esprit used to have a 2.2L four cylinder and in turbo trim made close to 300hp. Must've been the same engine.

A RWD Omni/Horizon would've been nice and a direct competitor to the Chevette. I doubt there are any still around. Production ran from '77-'81 but it wasn't until '81 when the Ti model was made with the Lotus engine. Kind of like the Turbo III in the IROC. Weird...

[Garffus]

Yeah that is Talbots attempt at a group B rally car, they were just adapted RAC cars where the metro 6R4's, Renault 5 Turbo Maxi, Peugeot 205 T16, Ford RS200, Audi Quattro Sport were all multi million pound group B specific projects, so it never made the jump from RAC to B.

You could buy Sunbeam Lotus's in the late 70s early 80s, which had the Lotus slant four... they were very popular with privateer rallyers and much more famous in europe, my neighbour still races them. Its NOT an omni, nothing like it in fact, its an old Talbot rwd platform.

The Horizon (the new design that came from the Talbot/Sunbeam/Rootes merger by Chrysler to create Chrysler Europe) was slated and after a year or two production Chrysler pulled out of Europe and sold it in the states... the Omni was born. A new company - Peugeot, picked up the pieces and designed a whole new car the 205, which saved them from near guaranteed bankruptcy (the T16 was developed a year or two later and enjoyed moderate success in group B)

There is absolutely no connection whatsoever between a Lotus Sunbeam and a Chrysler/Talbot horizon'/ k platform.

Although, this IS where Chrysler established 'connections' within Lotus, from back in the rootes days.

Its funny, chrysler took over three European companies that did not work in the same field, spoke different languages and generally did not get on, fell flat on their face with several failed platforms including the, not successful, but selling at least! Horizon. then pulled the plug on the whole lot and took the Horizon home with them where they decided if we didn't like them, lets see how Americans do, and based an ENTIRE range of cars on them!

The worst bit... i own one!.. oh no hold on.. Two!

Ive never wanted to say it before, but who cares. Europe took one look at the Horizon and said, that stinks!, what a POS! and no one bought them, but the thing is, we had several fwd platforms already in production that had gone through two/three development phases and 'the other two' had good high selling cars like the (Ford Europe) Escort, (GMs Europe investment) Vauxhalls, the Cavalier, Astra, Nova etc. Chrysler had to catch up, they had some good ideas, but put English engineers with French designers and stuff... oh ho' hi ho' ye' stupido English they said and we said, F**k off you stupid french twat and sell some onions!

How was it ever going to work?

Anyhow, you stuck a 2.2 in them and sold millions!

[omni_840]

^^^ Thanks for the info

[omni_840]

Omni in RWD form...

I want...

Me too:D

[CaptMoe]

Great stuff Garffus.
Thanks...