This great looking wedge shaped sportscar is not actually marketed by AUTOart as a Bond car, but I'm including it as a 007 movie car for the following reason. The main "Bond" car for the 12th cinematic outing for 007, in the movie "For Your Eyes Only", was a bronze metallic Esprit Turbo which happened to have two pairs of skis on the rear deck. The version with skis has been released by AUTOart as an "official" Bond release, and it is also in my collection. Towards the beginning of the movie however, Bond (played by Roger Moore) is seen driving a white Esprit Turbo just like the one represented by this model. It has a brief starring moment when a henchman tries to break into the parked Lotus by breaking a side window with his rifle butt. He neglected to take note of the "Protected by Burglar Alarm" sticker in the window, which as this particular car is a product of Q-Branch was unwise! When the window was broken the car went up in a ball of flame! Better that then let a mere henchman make off with Bonds wheels! The stage was then set for a great set piece where Bond and his woman get away in her car which happens to be a yellow Citroen 2CV!
This model is made to AUTOarts usual high standards and has a nice interior, with opening doors, bonnet and rear hatch (with a removable cover to reveal the engine). I have all four Turbo Esprits currently made by AUTOart (as of April 2004) including a black Turbo, the aforementioned Bond version with skis and a blue "Essex" version.
One minor fault I find with this model is that the doors are practically impossible to open, which is a shame as they look good with the side windows in the up position. The black Turbo shares this problem, but the other two Turbos released by AUTOart have their windows in the down position, hence it is easy to open the doors. Overall it gets 7.5/10 marks from me.
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