Summer 1983
As a twelve-year-old boy, I went to the cinema with my father to see Octopussy; my first James Bond film. I barely knew who or what James Bond was, but my friends had made it clear that it was something impressive.
People talked about things like a car that could go underwater and falling out of a plane without a parachute… As a young teenager in an era without internet, AI or smartphones — still with one foot in the Donald Duck era — all of that made me incredibly curious!
So you can imagine that the Bond virus infected me within the first five minutes of the film: a plane emerging from a horse trailer, piloted by a man who stylishly and fearlessly completed his mission in the most spectacular way. WOW!
This was also the time when video rental shops were on the rise (Gen-Z, look it up 😉) and the world was still in a three-way battle: Video2000, Betamax or VHS — which one would conquer the world? Every film was rented and each one made a deep impression on a boy who had just entered the grown-up world.
One film in particular made an extra impression: For Your Eyes Only. As a huge skiing fan, I watched the snow chase open-mouthed so many times that the videotape started showing glitches from wear. A ski chase that in my opinion remains unmatched to this day!
And then there was that car!
The Lotus Esprit has a timeless look anyway, but of course it fitted the style of that era perfectly. This man could do anything, did everything, enjoyed everything and… also drove around in a car like that! Of course the Aston Martin was fantastic, but those films were already some twenty years old and a white sports car appeals more to a young teenager’s imagination.
The dream of owning a car like that was born. A dream, because I never truly dared to believe it would actually come true.
The Lotus Esprit always stayed in my mind, and how pleasantly surprised was I when it prominently reappeared years later in the films Pretty Woman (1990) en Basic Instinct (1992)!
From dream to reality
In January 2024 I visited Bauke (Tocus) Kooistra in Friesland, the Netherlands; also known as Mr. Esprit.🙂 Everyone in the Lotus world knows him; he lives for the Esprit! If you’re looking for a Lotus, spare parts or have a question, Bauke is your man!
I was impressed by his collection of cars, including a white and a copper-coloured Esprit, resembling the film cars from For Your Eyes Only!
Later he also acquired a beautiful white Lotus Esprit S1 with the same distinctive interior as the S1 from The Spy Who Loved Me!
I gave Bauke the ‘assignment’ to look out for a ‘good’ white Esprit. Within a few months he had found one in England!
With Bauke’s approval I bought the car and we transported it to the Netherlands. It was a great few days!
In the Netherlands the Esprit was delivered to Ibalo (www.ibalo.nl) in Goor. This was the home of another ‘Mr. Lotus’, Wim Schouten. Wim is the kind of engineer who can point out, replace and fix just about every technical detail in a Lotus with his eyes closed! Wim later started his own business (www.wimschoutentechniek.nl) and made sure my Esprit was technically inspected, received Dutch registration and was fitted with air conditioning. Especially that last one was no easy task!
Since the passage of time had clearly left its mark on the interior, I decided to have the entire interior renewed. For this I ended up at Meneer Sam (www.meneersam.nl) in Apeldoorn. Sam is an enthusiastic man with a beautiful artisan workshop.
Now that the car had a new interior and was technically ‘healthy’, it was time for the replica details. I spent many, many hours recreating the number plate (OPW 654W) and the iconic red ‘Burglar Protected’ sticker. The sticker in particular was a lot of work, because a non-existent typeface was used for the film… It was based on an existing typeface, but modified.
An extensive search for the right font turned up nothing. With a lot of patience and attention to detail I managed to create a 98% identical sticker based on just a few film frames in which the sticker is visible. Because I now owned an Esprit myself, I could estimate the dimensions fairly accurately by measuring the immediate surroundings of the sticker (mirror, indicator stalk) and using those to determine the sticker’s size.
Roughly the same process applied to the number plates. On AliExpress I found transparent acrylic plates with the dimensions of British number plates. I had the design printed on vinyl. The advantage of vinyl is that you can reposition the sticker, unlike permanent adhesive ones.
By studying the film footage so closely and in such detail, I noticed something else that I believe very few people have spotted. On the windscreen of the car, next to the wiper, there was yet another sticker! After analysis by AI it became clear this was a road tax disc. Well, once you’re at it you might as well go for every detail!😉 Greg Powell (www.poplargreg.com) responded immediately to my question whether he could supply such a disc. After zooming in on a number of film frames and doing some research, I was able to determine the correct details that needed to be on the road tax disc!
To finish it all off, the car went to Friesland for a few weeks, where Bauke fitted a working roof-mounted radio (Panasonic RM610), matching front wheels and Goodyear tyre stickers. Back in the day, the brand name was displayed prominently in white letters on the tyres, but since Goodyear stopped producing these tyres some years ago, Goodyear stickers are the only option to match the film look.
The only thing left to do was a website with information about the film, the Lotus Esprit, Bond’s Esprit and my Esprit replica project…