"The Spy Who Loved Me" (TSWLM) was Roger Moore's 3rd outing as 007 and the producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli was determined to make it a smash hit. The previous Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" released in 1974, had been a relative flop. It was the least successful Bond to date at the box office, especially in the US. This was mainly due to a weak plot (revolving around an assassin holding the world to ransom over solar power) and it was felt due to a lack of gadgets in the movie, especially a decent "Bond Car".
The plot for TSWLM was much more of an epic than the previous movie; this time the baddie (named "Stromberg") wished to precipitate a nuclear holocaust between the superpowers using captured Russian, British and US submarines armed with nuclear missiles. His motivation was to eradicate the "decadent" civilisation then extant on Earth and replace it with his own brand of underwater living. Highly practical of course, but this is James Bond! As the badguy was based underwater, a submersible car seemed just the ticket.
A story I heard was that Lotus decided to park one of it's brand new Esprit Series ones outside a restaurant frequented by the Bond production team, and had one of it's drivers get into the car once it had drawn a crowd and drive it away without a word. The next day the Bond team rang Lotus to ask them if they would like their new supercar to feature in the next Bond movie! Whether that's true or not, it is still a great story!
Several Esprits were used in the filming of the movie, some being regular road versions (used for the stunt driving and for close up work) while the car we see driving off the end of a pier and into the sea (after a thrilling chase in which Bond outwits several would be pursuers) was merely a shell with wheels that was shot off the end of the pier by an air cannon. Another shell was made with retractable wheels (which was filmed underwater to simulate the transformation from car to submarine), and finally there was the full submarine version complete with front and rear fins and a periscope! This was actually a functional submersible which was operated by a single man inside wearing scuba gear. It proved to be difficult to operate, as the aerodynamics of the Esprit, which were intended to produce downforce in the air (to keep the car pressed down on the road and hence improve it's roadholding) gave the submersible version a tendency to dive downwards while moving forward. Hence we see it scrape the sandy bottom of the sea a few times in the movie.
Gadgets on board included ground to air missiles under the rear hatch (used to blow a pursuing helicopter out of the sky), underwater mines which dropped out from underneath the car, powerful rear facing cement spraying guns behind the rear numberplate to blind chasing cars and explosive harpoons in a launcher which arose from the front of the car between the headlights. All in all a deadly package!
AUTOart have also released the submarine version of the car which looks great beside this "regular" version!
The Esprit series 1 was in reality quite a fragile glassfibre bodied car which took Lotus upmarket with the intention of challenging the Porsche 911 and the Ferrari 308 GTB in the marketplace. The series 1 had a 2 litre version of the Lotus 4 cylinder twin cam engine in a mid-engined configuration, driving the rear wheels, which produced 160bhp. Given the light weight of the car, this gave it brisk performance for it's day. The glassfibre body was mounted on a steel backbone chassis, and the car had all round disc brakes and independent suspension. Between 1976 and 1977, 718 series 1 Esprits were made before it was superseded by the series 2 version (which incorporated a number of small improvements).
This particular model is made by AUTOart as part of their James Bond collection. They also made the same series 1 Esprit in yellow and dark green, which are the same as the Bond version apart from the numberplates and of course the colour. In fact, this model does not have any "gadgets" on it at all, and is essentially a white series 1 Esprit with the appropriate numberplates on it.
It is a quality model with a detailed interior, and a flawless exterior. My only gripe is the bulky engine cover which is very difficult to remove. To do so requires opening the rear hatch and trying to prise it out from beneath the hatch hinges and the "glass" behind the drivers head. Brake detail is poor for an AUTOart, hence the low 6/10 mark. Overall it gets a rating of 7.5/10.
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