We adore anything Lotus. Light, agile, and built for pure driving enjoyment, they embody everything a real driver’s car should be. And when it comes to iconic Lotus models, few are as instantly recognisable as the Lotus Esprit Turbo, especially in gloss black with gold livery, a nod to the legendary John Player Special F1 cars.
The Esprit’s wedge-shaped silhouette is pure 70s and 80s cool, spanning 28 years of production from 1976 to 2004, yet fewer than 2,000 remain on UK roads today. From Bond films to bedroom posters, it’s a car that captured the imagination of petrolheads around the world.
Why the Turbo?
The Esprit Turbo took the original Giugiaro-designed Esprit and gave it the performance to match its exotic looks. With its 2.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, producing around 210bhp, it could hit 0-60mph in just over 5 seconds, serious performance for the time, and still properly quick today!
Lotus always did things their own way. While many manufacturers were slotting Rover V8s into their cars, Lotus engineered their own flat-plane crank V8 in later years, essentially two four-cylinder engines running together, creating a screaming, high-revving masterpiece instead of the usual V8 burble. But the Turbo Esprit, with its featherlight chassis and addictive boost, remains the perfect balance of classic Lotus philosophy and thrilling performance.
James Bond and the Esprit Legacy
No conversation about the Esprit is complete without mentioning The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The famous S1 Esprit was so well-engineered that stunt drivers struggled to get it to slide for dramatic chase scenes. In the end, Lotus test driver Roger Becker stepped in and nailed the shots, securing himself a seven-week film job in the process. Meanwhile, Roger Moore had his own gripes: the Esprits overheated on set, their batteries ran flat, and getting out of them in a tailored suit was anything but graceful.
None of that mattered. The film cemented the Esprit’s legendary status, and Lotus enjoyed a three-year waiting list off the back of its Bond connection alone.
We at RNG Classics have one of the most beautiful, engaging, and characterful British sports cars ever made—complete with pop-up headlights and a soundtrack of turbocharged bliss.
Whether you’re chasing a childhood dream or just want to feel what makes this car so special, this is your chance to drive a legend!!
