A summary of the present state of understanding about the radiolytically produced cation in pure, liquid CCl 4 is given. The various published spectral assignments to such cations are critically discussed. Together with new results in the ns- and sub-ns-time resolution the following is concluded: (1) The parent cation CCl 4 + is initially produced with G tot = 4.8±0.4 and has a lifetime of about 200 ps (up to ten times smaller if a resonance charge-transfer in CCl 4 should be involved). (2) The fragment cation CCl 3 + absorbs at 500nm with an absorptions coefficient of ε 500= 6000±1200M -1 cm -1. The initial yield is G it ( CCl 3 +)=2.5±0.5. The difference to the total ion yield is due to neutralization of CCl 4 + before its decay into CCl 3 + occured. (3) On ion recombination the CCl 3 + cation forms an ion pair (CCl 3 +‖Cl -) solv, which most likely corresponds to a solvent separated ion pair. (4) Due to the very short CCl 4 + lifetime, the CCl 3 +-absorption is a probe for the initial ion separations. It is concluded that it must correspond to an exponential distribution.