007 History
007 History
This is the Esprit,distinguished by sharp angles and a wedge shape, that
was popularised by the James Bond films "The Spy Who Loved Me"
and "For Your Eyes Only"
Full car scenes, inc underwater (wmv 3.8
mb)
The builders of the Esprit submarine were.... Ocean Technology Associates, founded in 1984 by Charles M. Staehle, changed the corporate name to Submersible Systems Technology in 1991 after acquiring the submarine design and construction division of Perry Technologies click here
Both the Esprit with the ski racks and the submarine Esprit conversion have
been listed on eBay -
The road-going bronze car, pictured on the right (minus the skis) was
sold for $210,000.... making it world's most expensive Lotus
Esprit
The original submarine Esprit, shown below with the internal buoyancy tank
and external electric propulsion, did not exceed the reserve price -
however, this isn't perhaps surprising, as I emailed the American who
listed it and ascertained that the reserve was $1,000,000 and that they
had already been offered this amount by a museum...... So is this the
most expensive Esprit, or was that just sales patter, I
wonder???
Ok - this isn't an eBay shot... it's from somewhere in my flat
These are my own photos from a visit to Beaulieu Museum to see one of the
other "submarine Esprits" used for shots in The Spy Who Loved Me... maybe
this one's too big to put in a tank in my bathroom :)
Top Gear on Bond Esprit :) (wmv 750
kb)
It's the most popular car from the big screen
Despite Lady Penelope’s pink Rolls-Royce from Thunderbirds dominating recent headlines, a recent survey has revealed it is James Bond’s classic Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me, which is the nation’s most desirable screen vehicle.
Over 1,000 people voted for their favourite screen vehicle in the Yahoo! Search survey and the white Lotus Esprit car was the clear favourite securing almost a third of the vote followed by David Hasslehoff’s car Kit from Knight Rider (17%).
Patrick Oqvist from Yahoo! Search commented: "Although there’s loads of classic film vehicles out there, our search for the favourite has shown James Bond’s modified Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me a worthy winner. With rear firing mud sprayers, an underwater kit that changes the car into a fully operative submarine, surface-to-air missiles, underwater smoke screens and torpedoes the most desirable screen vehicle has to be Bond’s."
The full results were as follows:
1 - Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who loved Me (29%)
2 - Kit from Knight Rider TV film (17%)
3 - De Lorean from Back To The Future
4 - Batmobile from Batman (10%)
5 - Mini from The Italian Job (9%)
6 -Gran Torino from Starsky & Hutch (6%)
7 - A-Team Van from The A-Team TV film (5%)
8 - Danny Zucko’s Greased Lightning from Grease (2%)
9 - Herbie from Herbie Goes Bananas (2%)
10 - Reliant Robin from Only Fools & Horses TV films
(2%)
