Not inconspicuous
Above all, secret agents try to be as inconspicuous as possible. Their movements are discreet, they drive boring cars, they attract no attention on the street… maybe they will even hop on a bus. But not so for the most famous secret agent of all times. James Bond always prefers to drive luxury sports models when he arrives at the Casino to announce to any villains in the vicinity that 007 is back in town.
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- The 1.1 ton British sports car was powered by a two-litre four-cylinder engine putting out 160 horsepower but it was able to reach a top speed of 210 kilometres an hour.
Esprit on the screen
In 1977 there were few automobiles as conspicuous as a Lotus Esprit. The producer of the Bond films, Albert R. Broccoli, had come across a prototype of the car parked on the lot at Pinewood Studios. Now this was no coincidence… Don McLauchlin, the marketing man at Lotus, had hoped that the wedge-shaped speedster would be ‘discovered’ and catapulted to movie stardom. And his hopes were fulfilled when a white Lotus Esprit made screen history in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Back in 1972 there had been the first concept car version to admire at the Turin Motor Show. The design bore the imprint of Giugiaro who at the time was responsible for several wedge-shaped Maseratis. And so the Esprit was shaped like a sharp-edged door-stopper and was about as flat as a car could be. The 1.1 ton British sports car was powered by a two-litre four-cylinder engine putting out 160 horsepower but it was able to reach a top speed of 210 kilometres an hour. The five-speed transmission was borrowed from the Citroen SM. The cockpit of the Esprit was above all narrow. “A Lotus without compromises for the driver and his companion of choice”… as it said in the Esprit brochure.
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- In 1977 there were few automobiles as conspicuous as a Lotus Esprit.
Coastal curves
With Roger Moore as James Bond his ‘companion’ answered to the name of Anya Amasova, a Russian agent played by the super-model Barbara Bach. The villain featured in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ was the megalomaniac shipping magnate Stromberg… Curd Jürgens in a role to be long remembered. Stromberg is intent on precipitating the world into nuclear conflict which he plans to survive in an underwater colony populated by a new mutant breed of humans. This is, of course, a plan which must be thwarted by Commander Bond and Major Amasova. In full speed flight from Stromberg’s thugs Bond drives the Lotus on a particularly sinuous stretch of the coast road in the Costa Smeralda on the island of Sardinia. It was, however, a Lotus test driver at the wheel and not Roger Moore.
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- In the depths of crystal-clear water… the ‘gotcha’ moment. Instead of sinking to the bottom of the , perishing in the service of Queen and country, Bond pressed a couple of buttons and turned the Esprit into a submarine.
Underwater exploits
Finally the Esprit shot off the pier into the sea. In order to film this highlight the stunt car was driven by a rocket and stabilized in its flight by steel cables. Then… in the depths of crystal-clear water… the ‘gotcha’ moment. Instead of sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean, the agent perishing in the service of Queen and country, Bond pressed a couple of buttons and turned the Esprit into a submarine. This Lotus not only had four adjustable propellers but also an arsenal of weaponry including rackets and torpedoes. The underwater scenes were filmed in the Bahamas where the film crew used not only scale models but also a full-sized stunt vehicle with a seep-sea diver at the controls.
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- True to form, Bond seduced the lovely Major Amasova when he had dealt with all of the threats to life, limb and Her Majesty’s Secret Service. But there were no fun and games indulged in on board the Lotus. The high middle tunnel must have seemed as tall as the Berlin Wall and did a good job of keeping the British and Soviet agents apart.. In any case, the cockpit of the Esprit was so cramped that any amatory dalliance would result in unsightly bruises.
No sex in the Esprit
True to form, Bond seduced the lovely Major Amasova when he had dealt with all of the threats to life, limb and Her Majesty’s Secret Service. But there were no fun and games indulged in on board the Lotus. The high middle tunnel must have seemed as tall as the Berlin Wall and did a good job of keeping the British and Soviet agents apart. In any case, the cockpit of the Esprit was so cramped that any amatory dalliance would result in unsightly bruises. In all respects the first Esprit was a bare-bones automobile with steering and brakes which demanded toughness from the driver.
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- A white Lotus Esprit made screen history in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Back in 1972 there had been the first concept car version to admire at the Turin Motor Show. The design bore the imprint of Giugiaro who at the time was responsible for several wedge-shaped Maseratis.
Bond boosts Esprit PR
This second generation of the Lotus Esprit was meant to triumph not only on the cinema screen but also on the streets and motorways of the island. Thanks to turbo-charging the car was significantly hotter, with 210 horsepower and a top speed of 240 kilometres an hour at the driver’s disposal. But the increased power and the enhanced comfort… leather seats as cuddly as the Michelin man himself… had a downside. The kerb weight of the car which had previously been a lesson in purism rose to almost 1,400 kilos. In the mid-nineties the turbo boosted straight four-cylinder mill with around 300 horsepower was replaced with eight-cylinder twin-turbo motor with over 350 horsepower. But the Lotus Esprit never sold well. There were those who claimed that without the PR gains from the association with the James Bond movies the model would have vanished much sooner.
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- Notwithstanding the fact that there were probably hundreds of automobiles better suited for such a journey, Bond drove his copper-coloured Esprit Turbo… specially fitted with ski-racks, to the winter sport resort Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The Esprit and the fan boys
Since the Esprit was such a hit with the fans of the Bond movies 007 was at the wheel of a Lotus on two further occasions, in the film ‘For Your Eyes Only’ in 1981. It goes without saying that the car involved the very latest model, the turbo version with 210 horsepower. Notwithstanding the fact that there were probably hundreds of automobiles better suited for such a journey, Bond drove his copper-coloured Esprit Turbo… specially fitted with ski-racks... to the winter sport resort Cortina d’Ampezzo. A second Turbo Esprit made a short appearance at the beginning of the movie. Then one of the villains… in his attempt to break into the Bond-mobile… makes the mistake of overlooking the warning sticker on the windshield of the secret agent’s car. The result is an explosion which ends the career of the car thief and of the car itself.
