Background
The Esprit went through a number of important model revisions throughout its life, which is hardly surprising given its longevity; first introduced in 1976, it finally snuffed it in 2004 by which time it was a very different car to the one the public had gazed at in wonder 28 years before.
It started life with just 160bhp from its two-litre, mid-mounted engine. Designed by Giugiaro following a meeting in 1971 with Colin Chapman himself, the Esprit took several styling cues from the Maserati Boomerang concept car.
A simple car at heart, it comprises a glassfibre body on a steel backbone chassis. Inboard rear disc brakes add a touch of racing heritage and its gearbox was shared with the Citroen SM and Maserati Merak. Simple it might have been but it also ended up tipping the scales at under a tonne – and handled as brilliantly as every Lotus should.
Unassisted steering and coilovers at each corner kept things nice and pure, but the genius was, as is almost always the case with Hethel-fettled cars, in the way it was tuned and set-up. It was an absolute delight to drive - but the fine handling and more-than-acceptable ride served to underline just how underpowered it was.
The Series 2, or S2, cars offered tweaked styling and (eventually) a 2.2-litre engine with the same power output but 20lb/ft more torque, which made them usefully, but only marginally, quicker than the early S2 and S1 cars.
The Essex Turbo Esprit, named after the Essex Overseas Petroleum Corporation rather than the county, was born in 1980. Boasting 210bhp and 200lb/ft of torque underneath blue, red and chrome livery, the Esprit finally went as well as it handled. A top speed of 150mph and a 0-60mph time of just over six seconds added a good 20mph to the top speed and slashed two seconds off the acceleration time.
The S3 and Turbo Esprit arrived in April 1981 but styling aside the new models offered the same power as the S2 until the HC (for high compression) arrived in 1986. The HC cars saw power rise to 170bhp and 160lb/ft of torque for the normally aspirated engine and to 215bhp and 220lb/ft of torque for the turbocharged version.
The refreshed S4 arrived in 1993 proving that small changes could bring about a remarkable transformation. The Esprit, by now almost twenty years old, now looked fresh enough to compete with much younger machinery.
The V8-powered Esprit arrived there years later. With an all-aluminium V8 engine and 350bhp on tap, the Esprit could now top 175mph. It had metamorphosed from a relatively staid sportscar into a tarmac-ripping supercar.
Just over 10,000 units were built over the years and because that fiberglass body means they don’t rust a surprising number still exist, a state of affairs helped no doubt by its status as not only a Bond car, but two of the most iconic Bond cars of them all.
