Picture Of

Lotus Esprit Cars

The Lotus Esprit Cars was unveiled as the Silver Car concept at the Turin motor show in November 1972. Based on a Europa twin-cam chassis, it was developed to the point where the first Lotus Esprit Cars prototype was displayed at the 1973 Geneva salon. It was another three years before the first customer cars were delivered in 1976. Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro had wanted to call the car Kiwi, but Lotus Cars management was intent on a name beginning with the letter E, as is Lotus Cars tradition. A tawl through the dictionary came up with Lotus Esprit Cars, which it felt summed up the car's sprightliness.

The Lotus Esprit Cars S1 was produced from 1975 to 1978 in which time only 714 made it off the production line. Many of these were for overseas which makes this car very rare indeed.

Made famous in the 1977 James Bond film 'the Spy Who Loved Me'. Roger Moore drove the Lotus Esprit Cars in to the sea, where it then turned into a submarine. This one piece of Hollywood history turn the Lotus Esprit Cars into a schoolboy's fantancy.

This is a colour picture of the original Lotus Esprit Cars S1 tartan interior. Most Lotus Esprit Cars S1 have been retrimmed with non-original materials and the tartan look of the few first few Lotus Esprit Cars is very rare. For those looking to re-trim back to the original colours. This is how it should look. Finding the materials is another matter.