A gorgeous 1978 Lotus Esprit S1 is up for sale

The Lotus Esprit S1 is a part of the history of British sports cars. Certainly some people have seen it in the film of James Bond, “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977, where it was also converted to a submarine.

Lotus produced only 718 first-generation Esprit, from 1976 to 1978, making the car extremely rare. The Esprit was equipped with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that in the European version produced 160 hp while in the American 140 hp.

The engine was combined with a 5-speed manual transmission borrowed from the Maserati Merak and Citroen SM. It had rear-wheel drive, a weight of just 1,000 kilos and it was able to reach 96 km/h from a standstill in 6.8 seconds, with its top speed being 222 km/h.

The Esprit that you see in the pictures is up for sale on eBay. It has been reconstructed,and it is painted in a silver color, wearing a stainless steel exhaust, new springs of Koni, new wheels and a new aluminum Griffin radiator. Its interior features Alcantara and the original steering wheel. It has traveled 33,030 miles and its sale price is $59,900.