Lotus Esprit Turbo - and what even James Bond didn't know about his company car

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Lotus Esprit Turbo - and what even James Bond didn't know about his company car

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Created on January 7, 2016

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

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Barbara Donovan

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - Silver is a good thing

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - Giugiaro's masterpiece

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - the turbo version corresponds visually to the S3

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - improved chassis

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - 0 to 100 km/h in around 6 seconds

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - the rear wing and front spoiler increased downforce

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - the forced Esprit was around 240 km/h fast

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - with powerful bumpers

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - angular and flat

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - the handbrake is by the door

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - lots of leather but no stereo system in the headliner

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - km and miles speedometer

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - the turbocharger was made by Garret

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - longitudinally mounted four-cylinder engine

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - Chassis badge

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - Folding headlights in the style of the time

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - characterized the fastest Esprit of the time

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1983) - nobody is left in ignorance

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Lotus Esprit (1977) - the production version was very close in design to Giugiaro's Konept car

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$Lotus Esprit (1977) - The Series 1 had Wolfrace rims - Illustration from the 1977 brochure$

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Lotus Esprit (1977) - View of the first series from diagonally behind - Illustration from the 1977 brochure

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Lotus Esprit (1977) - Film recording The Spy who loved me - Lotus Esprit S1 under water

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Lotus Esprit (1977) - 'Underwater Lotus' in the James Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me'

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Lotus Esprit S2 (1979) - Colin Chapman with his sports car in front of the company plane

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Lotus Esprit S2 (1979) - barely curved lines on the Esprit

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Lotus Esprit S2.2 (1981) - the S2.2 was only built 90 times and already had the galvanized chassis that the S3 then had

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Lotus Esprit Essex Turbo (1980) - still wedge-shaped, but with significantly stronger bumpers

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Lotus Esprit Essex Turbo (1980) - with large rear spoiler

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Lotus Esprit Essex Turbo (1980) - significantly higher quality interior with lots of leather

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Lotus Esprit Essex Turbo (1980) - galvanized and improved chassis

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Lotus Esprit Turbo - the displacement of the Lotus engines was increased from 2 to 2.2 liters

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Lotus Esprit Essex Turbo (1980) - Novelty with large spoilers - Geneva Motor Show 1980

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1981) - with Playmate and James Bond license plate

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1981) - from the James Bond movie "Four your eyes only"

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1981) - from the James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only"

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Lotus Esprit S3 Turbo (1981) - Roger Moore drove this car through Cortina d'Ampezzo in his role as James Bond in the 1981 film "On a Deadly Mission"

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1981) - white like the Esprit in the 1981 James Bond movie

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Lotus Esprit Turbo (1981) - Transparency drawing

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Lotus Esprit S3 Turbo (1986) - the S2 and S2.2 were followed by the S3, which was also available as a Turbo

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Summary

The Lotus Esprit is one of the best-known models from the English small series manufacturer, not least because of its appearances in James Bond films. Lotus presented the Esprit Turbo in 1980 and, consequently, Bond used it as his company car in the 1981 film "For your eyes only". Significantly faster and more comfortable than its predecessors, the Esprit Turbo was a real competitor for Porsche, Ferrari and Maserati. This report tells the story of the Lotus Esprit Turbo of the 1980s and shows it in historical and contemporary pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

From the S1 to the S2
Continuous further development
With the support of the F1 sponsor
The new engine
Luxurious interior
Super sports car
Successful model
And James Bond?
Further information

Estimated reading time: 7min

Preview (beginning of the article)

A new sports car could not have been staged more impressively than the Lotus Esprit S1 in the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me". The scene where the plastic car transforms into a submarine remains unforgettable. That was hard to beat, which is probably why the decision was made in the follow-up film "Moonraker" (1979) to dispense with cars altogether and instead use a gondola as a hovercraft or a space shuttle. In 1981, however, the Lotus Esprit was back on the big screen as a turbo model with a clearly visible rear spoiler and skis strapped on, among other things. The Lotus S1, which had already been shown for the first time in Turin in 1972, was finally presented as a production car at the Paris Motor Show and caused quite a stir with its wedge-shaped design, which was the brainchild of Giorgetto Giugaro. The appearance in the James Bond film made the S1, which was produced just 714 times up to 1977 with the two-liter four-valve engine familiar from the Jensen Healey, famous worldwide.

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