[ with subtitles ] for more go to -- [ Ссылка ] -- Iconic Bond Car For Sale The Lotus Esprit shot to fame in the 1977 James Bond Film, The Spy Who Loved Me, staring Roger Moore and Barbara Bach. The screen role of the Esprit in this film did more for Esprit sales than anything else Lotus attempted to do. How the Esprit came to feature in the film is a story of chance. Donovan McLauchlan, Colin Chapman's PR man, had been tipped off that the Bond movie was scheduled for Pinwood studios. So during 1975 he took a pre-production Esprit to the studios, dropped a quid to the doorman and left the Esprit prototype right in the path of anyone trying to get in or out. This gave the car maximum exposure and it wasn't long before Cubby Broccoli and the production staff saw the car and were so impressed with it, they chose the Esprit as James Bonds car in the film.
Lotus spent £18,000 altogether on the film, loaning the Film Company 2 production Lotus Esprit's, 5 Esprit body shells and 2 Lotus personnel, during the Sardinian car chase - Roger Becker and McLauchlan. The body shells were used to make a 1:1 scale replica of the under-water Esprit, built by Perry Oceanographics. The Esprit submarine featured fins, front-mounted rocket launchers, mines, a periscope, a smoke screen and a surface to air missile. There was also and cement sprayer concealed behind the registration plates. The cost of converting the Esprit body shell into a submarine was $100,000,000 US dollars, this bill was picked up by the Film Company. The other body shells were used in various scene, including the shot of the Esprit driving off the pier, into the sea. That shell was powered by compressed air, equipped with a space-frame and a locked steering wheel.


The filmed was critical acclaimed at the time and grossed $187 million at the box office. Lotus sales increased dramatically, with a 3 year waiting list for Esprit's. The Lotus, that was featured in the car chases PPW 306R, survives today at the "Car of the Stars" Museum in Cumbria. The underwater Esprit "Wet Nellie" resides at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum. Lotus sold the remaining body shells to the public at the time, without saying they were from the Bond movie!

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