Fifty years after its sensational launch at the Paris Motor Show, the enduring appeal of this wedge-shaped supercar has made it Lotus’ longest-running production car.

This early Esprit Turbo was used by Lotus founder Colin Chapman as his last company car before his untimely death. It was adapted specially for him with lower suspension, modified brakes, power steering, BBS Mahle lattice alloy wheels and even a pollen filter in the cabin to help alleviate his hayfever!

The car was used by Lotus to promote the new S3 and Turbo Esprit in 1981 and was famously driven by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, with Chapman by her side, during a local business tour. Reportedly she was “tempted to drive away in it”.

Originally designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the initial radical wedge shape that made the car so popular eventually became softer as the decades progressed. In 1987 Peter Stevens made the Esprit more aerodynamic, during 1993 Julian Thomson refreshed the look to make it smoother and the final iteration of the car by Russell Carr in 2002 made the styling more fluid which moved it further away from Giugiaro’s bold lines of the 1970s.