to turn an Esprit into a U-boat a good five years before Tom Cruise did the same thing to a Porsche 928 in “Risky Business.”
Orange color aside, the Lotus Esprit S1 is the second most famous Bond car. While less famous, the Mach 1 had a major role in “Diamonds are Forever,” while by comparison the Z3 had a minor role.
high and with arresting wedge styling from Giorgetto Giugiaro, it looked like just the thing to replace Bond’s hoary Aston Martin, which seemed so out of step in the disco-era 1970s.
moment, then the over-the-top, virtual sponsorship of “The Man With the Golden Gun” by American Motors was its zinc moment.
In “Golden Gun,” Bond steals a 1974 AMC Hornet hatchback and drives it through a Hong Kong AMC showroom window. If the notion of an AMC dealer in Hong Kong wasn’t strange enough, in one scene, the million-dollar-a-shot hit- man referenced in the title (played by the great Christopher Lee) makes an escape in a flying AMC Matador with Tattoo from "Fantasy Island" for a co-pilot. Needless to say, this particular plot device wasn’t found in the original Ian Fleming novel.
Moore wasn’t issued an official Bond car until the 1978 film “The Spy Who Loved Me.” And it is likely the best remembered of the "other" Bond cars chronicled here, particularly for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. The production version of the Lotus Esprit had been intro- duced just prior to filming. Waist
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GOLDENEYE FEATURED A THEN-NEW BMW Z3 IN LIGHT METALLIC BLUE WITH A TAN TOP. THE ACCOMPANYING MARKETING CAMPAIGN CAUSED A SIGNIFICANT Z3 SALES SPIKE
Like the DB5, the Esprit came “with modifications” from Q, the most famous of which turned the car into an actual submarine, something heretofore done only by Amphicars with leaky door seals. This being the days before computer animation, midget submarine builder Perry Submarines of Florida was retained
Bond put the Lotus’ submersible capabilities to good use while being strafed by villain Karl Stromberg’s helicopter pilot/henchwoman (played by Carolyn Munro). In the famous scene, Bond drives the Lotus off a pier (to the shock of his passenger, played by Barbara Bach). The wheels fold up into diving planes, propellers and a periscope deploy, and Bond takes care of the pesky helicopter with missiles fired from the hatch area of the Esprit. I remember thinking as a 14-year- old watching the film, “Wow, that’s hardcore. Bond offed a girl — and a smoking hot one at that.” C’est la guerre, I suppose, or plenty of fish in the sea if you’re Bond.
It wasn’t the Esprit’s only big moment in the film. There was a memorable mountain road chase in Sardinia that proved problematic for the filmmakers. Due to the Esprit’s particularly high handling limits, the stunt driver just wasn’t able to wring enough obvious speed and drama out for the cameras to satisfy direc- tor Lewis Gilbert. Not wanting to ar- tificially speed up the film, a factory Lotus test driver was brought in to suitably thrash the car for the scene.
A couple of later Esprit Turbos made brief appearances in the 1981 film “For Your Eyes Only.” Like so many other Bond cars, Corgi issued a model of the white Esprit in sub- marine mode, complete with plastic shooting missiles, which were lost by most kids within 10 minutes of removing the model from the box.
The rest of the Roger Moore era was relatively dull from a car stand- point, save for a decent chase scene in 1983’s “Octopussy” involving Bond in a “borrowed” Alfa Romeo GTV6 as he flees some German cops in BMW cars and motorcycles.
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