Built from 1980-1987, the original Esprit Turbo was a best seller for Lotus through the 1980's. The addition of a turbocharger gave the Esprit the performance to match it's supercar looks. The wedge shape differed little from previous Esprit's apart from some extra air intakes and spoilers. Power output was impressive, with 210bhp being produced from a 2.2 litre mid mounted four cylinder engine (thanks to the turbo). The Esprit had a glassfibre bodyshell mounted on a steel backbone chassis. It also had all round independent suspension, endowing the car with brilliant handling.
Like it's predecessor, (the non-turbo S1 Esprit), the Turbo Esprit saw use as James Bond's wheels in the movie "For Your Eyes Only". Two Turbo Esprit's were used. The first was a white car, which blew itself up when a villain tried to break into it, leaving Bond with no wheels, and consequently forcing him to make his getaway in a yellow Citroen 2CV! Roger Moore then drove a metallic brown coloured Esprit (complete with ski rack) while in Cortina, Italy. Unusually for a Bond car, no gadgets were in evidence, and the car had a brief role in the movie.
The Turbo stayed in production up until 1987 (after 1658 had been made) when the entire Esprit range was replaced by a restyled updated Esprit.
AUTOart make this model of the original Turbo Esprit and it is a very fine model indeed. The fit and finish are very good (most unusual for a Lotus!) and certain parts such as the alloy wheels are very nicely done. Currently there are 4 Turbo Esprit's available from AUTOart. In addition to this black version, there is a white Turbo Esprit (not marketed as a Bond car, but it is identical to the one which blows up at the start of "For Your Eyes Only"), a blue "Essex" Turbo Esprit and a Bond version in metallic brown, complete with ski rack and skis! All 4 are currently in my collection (I like these models alot!).
This is a nicely made model, with great paint finish, and a detailed interior and undercarriage. The engine is very hard to see under a small hard to remove cover, but I suppose that would hold true for the real car too. Brake detail is quite poor on this model too, which is unusual for an AUTOart (although this is one of their first releases). Another problem is that the doors are almost impossible to open! You need strong and long fingernails to prise open either door. Only this black version along with the white car (the 2 original releases) have this problem, as the later Bond car and Essex blue car have open windows to facilitate opening the doors. Nevertheless, by my scale it gets 7/10 marks.
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