Tag Archives: Esprit

Wetter Than an Otter’s Pocket

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We all know that James Bond can seduce any woman in less time than it takes to read this sentence. Yup, if you’re a girl (What? We have female readers! Probably…), you’d already be, well.. you know.

Cue László Torma, and this magnificent Speed Champions Lotus Esprit S1, the star the 1977 Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Of course in the aforementioned movie, Bond’s Lotus was fitted with a few optional extras courtesy of Q-Branch / the Pinewood special effects department, which meant that his Esprit could get rather more aquatic than most.

A car submarine chase of utter ridiculousness was the obligatory result, in which Bond seemed to spend as much time no-doubt-successfully seducing his female passenger as he did trying to evade the generic goons sent in pursuit.

Eventually 007’s Lotus sprung an inevitable leak (because even non-aquatic Esprits would do that), but by then he’d already defeated his adversaries and secured certain relations with his glamorous fellow submariner.

With building instructions available and the ability to become (well, be rebuilt as) a submarine, we’re looking forward to the effect László’s Lotus Esprit will have on the females here in TLCB Office. You can give it ago yourself via the link above, plus you watch the real car submarine in the iconic movie scene here.

Wet Nellie

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The second most famous Bond Car of all time is actually the best. Discuss. This is ‘Wet Nellie’, the Lotus Esprit S1 from 1977’s ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, that ‘transformed’ – by the push of a button – into a submarine. And nothing in the world is cooler than that.

Suggested by a reader, this is Paul Nicholson‘s fantastic recreation of the aquatic sports car, and not only does it look absolutely spot-on, it transforms too, with the wheels tucking in to reveal submarining fins, and the rear fins and propellers also folding out from within. Of course it wouldn’t be a classic Bond Car without some evasive weaponry too, and Paul’s Esprit duly replicates the front missile launcher, mine layer, and the rear missiles (that really fire) used by Roger Moore to escape Karl Stromberg’s henchmen.

It all adds up to something that would make a superb official LEGO set, and whilst LEGO don’t have a Lotus license, they do have a 007 one, with Paul’s model constructed in a matching scale to the 10262 Aston Martin DB5 ‘Goldfinger’ set. Plus how cool would it be to add Lotus to LEGO’s ever growing list of vehicle manufacturer partners?

There’s much more to see of Paul’s incredible creation at his Flickr photostream, where you can ask him to add it to LEGO Ideas where it would surely get 10,000 votes so we can all buy it one day. For what it’s worth TLCB would be at the front of the queue. Get wet via the link above.

Super Seventies

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LEGO’s new 8-wide Speed Champions sets are generating a lot of interest in the online Lego community. Firstly because they’re rather good, and secondly because of those windscreen pieces. Suitable for all manner of cars, we’ve seen them pop up (and look perfect for) several real-world replicas as yet unlicensed by LEGO, including a Lamborghini Countach and Maserati Boomerang.

Today we have two more classic supercars that look made for the new part, Jonathan Elliott‘s superb DeTomaso Pantera (above) and RGB900‘s angular Lotus Esprit (below). Each captures their real world counterpart brilliantly and there’s more to see of both builds via the links in the text above.

Floatus

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Lego Lotus Esprit Submarine James Bond

James Bond might be a dark and moody character these days (as he was in the books too), but there was a time when spying was a little more… extravagant.

The height of 007 ridiculousness was the late ’70s, when Bond went into space, spent more time on one-liners than actually secret agenting, and – in 1977’s ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ – drove a sports car underwater.

It was a ludicrous scene, but one that cemented both Bond and Lotus into vehicular film royalty. Bond’s Lotus Esprit S1, modified by Q-branch, featured some rather ingenious optional extras, and – as Q always somehow seemed to manage – they were exactly what was required for the mission. What luck eh?

This brilliant recreation of the iconic movie car/submarine was suggested to us by a reader and comes from Luis Pena of Flickr. Luis’ ‘Wet Nellie’ as it was called (stop sniggering at the back!) includes all the cunning features of Q’s finest creation and there’s more to see on Flickr. Dive in via the link above.

For Your Eyes Only

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Lego Lotus Esprit James Bond 007

The James Bond movie franchise is back to its very best at the moment, being dark, slightly brutal and a bit lonely. Which is exactly as it should be.

In the late ’70s to early ’80s though, the movies were an altogether different proposition, and had become almost a parody of themselves. The one bright spot in this ’70s ridiculousness was Bond’s car; the glorious Lotus Esprit Turbo.

There’s no way the British secret service would have ever selected Lotus as a provider of government vehicles of course, seeing as Bond would have spent more time fixing his Esprit than going anywhere in it, but it made for a very cool movie car. Especially when it was fitted with a few nautical modifications from Q-Branch.

This lovely mini-figure recreation of the iconic ’80s sports car complete with 007 himself comes from TLCB regular ER0L and you can join him on a secret mission on Flickr by clicking the link above.

Wedge

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Lego Lotus Esprit

The Lego Car Blog veteran Senator Chinchilla is back, with one of the office’s favourite cars, the brilliant Lotus Esprit. The Lotus though, came from one of the least appetising eras of automotive design. In the late ’70s cars were designed with rulers, and only rulers, interiors were made entirely from nasty grey plastic, and reliability – until the Japanese arrived at least – hovered somewhere between crap and really crap.

Somehow though, Lotus took all this and created one of the most desirable cars ever made. Penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro and his ruler the Series 1 Esprit launched in 1976, featuring a small 160bhp 4-cylinder engine attached to a Citroen gearbox. Not a recipe for speed then, but it looked fantastic and drove brilliantly. And if you were James Bond you could even tick ‘amphibious’ on the options list.

Four years and two series later the Esprit finally got the power it deserved, through the addition of the newfangled turbocharger, and a legend was born. Senator’s Lego model of the S1 is where it all started though, and you can see all the photos of his excellent recreation via Flickr at the link above.