Esprit

Colin Chapman, the founding father of Lotus Cars Ltd. and the Formula 1 team, asked Giugiaro to develop an aerodynamic supercar with a two-shell fiberglass body, intended for standard production by the Norwich automotive company using aeronautics-inspired technology.

The design of the two external half-shells, which overlap like a nut midway along the waistline, presents the special plastic processing technology adopted in the Lotus navy division. In terms of design, this project benefited from the positive input of the Maserati Boomerang. Again, the wedge shape and the tilt of the windshield are excessive at 18 degrees for a model intended for the production of thousands of vehicles.

Like lightning, the Esprit enlivened the automotive scene and when, just a little while later, it faced the sea with James Bond behind the wheel (Roger Moore in “A Spy Who Loved Me”) even the least-prepared audience was forced to get to know the Lotus brand.

Powered by a four-cylinder twin-cam engine displacing 1973 cc (160 bhp at 4900 rpm), the car was first presented at the 1972 Turin Motor Show and went into production in June 1976 with a declared weight of 900 kg and a maximum speed of 222 kph. In various versions and a series of updates, the Esprit was produced from 1976 to 2004 in a total of 10,675 examples.