Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

The Lotus Esprit was first shown to the world as a styling exercise by the famous Italian design studio of Giugiaro Design in 1974. The show car was so successful, and inquiries so great, that Lotus committed to taking the successor to the Europa into production. Glass-Fibre bodied, steel backbone chassis and Lotus' own 907 multi-valve engine mounted mid-ship with 4 wheel independent suspension were all features of these first Esprits.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

The original Esprit was lauded for its handling and is said to have the best steering of any Esprit. However, it was generally regarded as lacking power, especially in markets such as the United States where the engine was down-rated for emissions purposes. Lotus’ claim of 0-60 mph in 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 138 mph (222 km/h) may be thought of as optimistic - actual road test times indicated 0-60 mph in 8 seconds and a top speed of around 133 mph (214 km/h).
1977 S1 (modified into "submarine" mode), as seen in the film The Spy Who Loved Me


The S1 Esprit can be distinguished from later Esprits by a shovel-style front air dam, Fiat X1/9 tail lights, lack of body-side ducting, and Wolfrace alloy wheels. Inside the car, the most obvious indication of an S1 Esprit is a one-piece instrument cluster with green-faced Veglia gauges.


The car gained fame through its appearance in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) where it was featured in a long chase sequence, converting into a submarine.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

The Esprit was launched in October 1975 at the Paris motorshow, and went into production in June 1976, replacing the Europa in the Lotus model line-up. These first cars eventually became known as S1 (or Series 1) Esprits. With a steel backbone chassis and a fiberglass body, the Esprit was powered by the Lotus 907 4 cylinder engine, as previously used in the Jensen Healey. This engine displaced 2.0 L, produced 160 bhp (119 kW; 162 PS) in European trim (140 bhp (104 kW; 142 PS) in US/Federal trim), and was mounted longitudinally behind the passengers, as in its predecessor. The transaxle gearbox was a 5 speed unit, previously used in the Citroën SM and Maserati Merak; it featured inboard rear brakes, as was racing practice at the time. The Series 1 embodied Lotus’ performance through light weight mantra, weighing less than 1,000 kg (2,205 lb).

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

It was the introduction of the Lotus Essex (Turbo Esprit) in 1980 that brought the cars into the supercar league. There were 104 Essex branded cars built (with dry sums). There were big improvements in reliability and chassis design (better torsional rigidity) and revised rear suspension geometry (the drive shaft no longer doubled up as the top link but was suplimented by a transverse link). These improvements also followed through to the normally aspirated S3 model of 1981. The Lotus Turbo Esprit was powered by the improved 910 engine and featured an AiResearch Garrett T3 turbocharger, which helped increased the engine power to 210 bhp. This gave the car an overall top speed of 153 mph and 0 - 60 time of 5.4 seconds. In 1981, the Essex name was drop and it was renamed the Turbo Esprit, with conventional livery, optional leather seats and air conditioning and a cheaper stereo, which brought the price down and increased sales. In Febuary 1987, the Turbo Esprit HC was introduced with a high compression engine, more boost, improved carburetion, lubrication and cooling and the engine power was increased to 215 bhp.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

Whereas the Europa was aimed at the sports car market, the new Esprit was aimed towards the luxury supercar market; ie. Porsche and Ferrari. From 1975 to 1978, the Lotus Esprit S1 was produced. Power came from the 907 engine, also used in the Lotus Elite and Eclat. Although the car looked stunning and the handling was impressive, the car only managed a top speed of 126 mph. There were also problems with unreliability, dubious build quality, engine ventilation and electrical problems and the first owner of the cars, were often regarded as guinea pigs. The Lotus Esprit was developed and improved with the introduction of the S2 from 1978 to 1980. This car had improved engine ventilation, with the air intakes behind the rear windows and an integrated splitter under the front bumper. The S2.2 from 1980 -1981 had a larger 2.2 litre engine (912 series twin cam) and a galvanised chassis.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

The Lotus Esprit Cars has been one of the most successful and longest running supercars, produced from 1976 until 2004, and was developed and improved over time. The car was famously popularised by the James Bond films, The Spy who loved me and For your eyes only.


The Lotus Esprit began life in 1972 as a concept car (the "Silver Car"), which was displayed at the Turin Motor show. Sat next to the Maserati Boomerang, it stole the show. The original Esprit was design by Giorgetto Giugiaro's of Ital Design as a styling exercise. He had met Colin Chapman the year previously, from a chance meeting and Chapman commissioned the new Lotus and as a result, decided to put the car into production. The Lotus Esprit Cars (or Kiwi as it was initially known) was developed over 3 years and launched in September 1975, to replace the long running Lotus Europa (although Owner's had to wait till 1976 to collect their cars). Like its forebear, the Lotus Esprit Cars was a GRP-bodied, mid-engined sports car with a steel backbone chassis, but that's where the similarities end.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

Michael Kimberley took over as Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Company and its Group from May 2006. He currently chairs the Executive Committee of Lotus Group International Limited ("LGIL") established in February 2006, with Syed Zainal Abidin (Managing Director of Proton Holdings Berhad) and Badrul Feisal (non-executive director of Proton Holdings Berhad). LGIL is the holding company of Lotus Group Plc.


Kimberley retired as CEO on 17 July 2009 and was replaced as CEO by Dany T Bahar on 1 October 2009. Bahar was formerly Senior Vice President, Commercial & Brand for Ferrari SpA where he was responsible for worldwide road car sales and after sales business, overall road car and F1 marketing activities, licensing, and merchandising business.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

The company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of suspension—for other car manufacturers. The lesser known Powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the 4-cylinder Ecotec engine found in many of GM's Vauxhall, Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Saturn cars. Today, the current Lotus Elise and Exige models use the 1.8L VVTL-i I4 from Toyota's late Celica GT-S and the Matrix XRS.


The company is organised as Group Lotus, which is divided into Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

Chapman died of a heart attack in 1982 at the age of 54, having begun life an innkeeper's son and ended a multi-millionaire industrialist in post-war Britain. The cars maker built tens of thousands of successful racing and road cars and won the Formula One World Championship seven times. At the time of his death he was linked with the DeLorean scandal over the use of government subsidies for the production of the DeLorean DMC-12 for which Lotus had designed the chassis.


In 1986, the company was bought by General Motors. On 27 August, 1993, GM sold the company, for £30 million, to A.C.B.N. Holdings S.A. of Luxembourg, a company controlled by Italian businessman Romano Artioli, who also owned Bugatti Automobili SpA. In 1996, a majority share in Lotus was sold to Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton), a Malaysian car company listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

Picture Of Lotus Esprit Cars

The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineer Colin Chapman, a graduate of University College, London, in 1952. The first factory was in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London. Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited which focused on road cars and customer competition car production respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year.


The company moved to a purpose built factory at Cheshunt in 1959 and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham. This site is the former RAF Hethel base and the test track uses sections of the old runway.