Lotus Esprit

When the Lotus Esprit reached customers in 1976, it introduced Giorgetto Giugiaro's sharp-edged wedge to the road, a mid-engined shape built around a fibreglass body over a steel backbone chassis. It replaced the Europa as Lotus's mid-engined flagship and, produced in a small Norfolk factory, became the marque's longest-lived model. Giugiaro's original folded-paper lines defined the car for more than a decade before Peter Stevens softened them into a rounder, more aerodynamic form.

Under the skin the Esprit evolved constantly. Early cars used a four-cylinder engine, but a turbocharger transformed the car's character: the Essex Esprit Turbo of 1980 was the first factory-turbocharged version. The most potent chapter came with a bespoke twin-turbocharged V8, the Type 918, introduced in 1996 and rated at roughly 350 hp. Throughout, the Esprit retained its pop-up headlights, one of the last new cars to keep them.

The Esprit's reputation reached well beyond its performance figures. An S1 was converted into a submarine for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, cementing the car's place in popular culture. By the time the last example left the factory in 2004, about 10,675 Esprits had been built across four major body styles and a long line of engines, making it one of the defining British sports cars of its era.