Lotus Esprit
Gadgets: 10/10 Speed: 7/10 Pulling power: 7/10 Skids: 8/10 Stunts: 8/10 Star status: 8/10 Total: 48
BOND FILMS REFLECT ERAS. NOT JUST THE GEOPOLITICAL ONES unfolding during production, but also the one that was the backdrop to your first 007 viewing experience. And if you happen to be a child of the Seventies, then Roger Moore’s your man, and the Lotus Esprit is the car. Elon Musk is such a fanboy he paid almost $1m for one of the prop cars at an auction in 2013. When asked in a 2019 Tesla shareholder’s meeting whether he’d consider creating an aquatic car, he replied, “Funny you should mention that… we do have a design for a submarine car like the one from The Spy Who Loved Me...”
Honestly, what’s not to love? Giorgetto Giugiaro designed it, Colin Chapman engineered it, James Bond turned it into a submersible. Just as millions of us owned the Corgi DB5, and squandered countless hours searching for the tiny ejected man, how many of PPW 306R’s missiles must have been sucked up by the world’s vacuum cleaners? The Esprit only ended up in TSWLM thanks to the chutzpah of Lotus PR man Don McLauchlan, who parked a de-badged prototype outside the Bond production office in Pinewood in 1976, confident it would pique their interest. It worked, and a deal was soon done on a handshake. The company supplied two cars, seven bodyshells, various spare parts, and the services of test driver Roger Becker. McLauchlan estimated the total cost to be around £17,500 (about £105k in today’s money, a bargain). Florida-based Perry Oceanographics was hired to create the underwater Esprit – dubbed Wet Nellie – which used four propellors for forward motion, and was powered by batteries contained in a watertight compartment. Diving and climbing were controlled by ballast tanks, the Lotus’s wedge profile stabilised by articulated fins. Inside were all the gubbins necessary for the sub’s operator – a former Navy SEAL called Don Griffin – to control the craft. He laid on a platform and did the job in full scuba gear.
Driving a non-aquatic Esprit S1 now is a revelation. Chapman may have taken his “simplify and add lightness” ethos to extremes, but even with just a 160bhp, 2.0-litre 4cyl engine behind your head, this is a masterclass in low-polar moment, ultra-responsive dynamics. Its steering and ride are sublime, its willingness to change direction bewitching. And it really goes, sounding fruitier than any four-pot I can currently think of as it does so. People moan about the Morris Marina doorhandles and shonky panel gaps, but once you’re ensconced, the none-more-Seventies interior graphics and curved instrument binnacle are an entertainment in their own right. What an inspirational, forward-thinking car.