He was Moore, Sir Roger Moore who became famous the world over for playing James Bond between 1973 to 1985. Moore passed away today at the grand old age of 89 and we here at DCB Towers salute our favourite Bond. He effortlessly played the role with a suave comedic sophistication and his memory will live on with the seven movies he made as Bond… James Bond.

Our most potent car related memory of the Bond era under Moore has to be the Lotus Esprit S1 from the movie The Spy Who Loved Me.

Bond’s S1 was fully loaded with optional extras that unfortunately are not available to joe public except those who serve on her Majesty’s behalf.

Bond’s Esprit S1 came fully loaded with surface-to-air-missiles, a cement sprayer, mines and torpedoes, perhaps the best optional extra of them all was that this limited edition could also convert into a supercar submarine.

On its own the Esprit S1 was a serious piece of kit for the 1970’s, the 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder engine was tuned by Lotus to produce upto 160bhp.

Bond would have enjoyed a top speed of 135mph and a 0-60mph of 8.4 seconds, the average 21st Century supercar can do a 0-60mph in around 4 seconds.

So while the Esprit S1 could be outperformed by a modern day hot hatch it will always be the most quintessential of all the Bond cars combined.

As Moore defined Bond of his era so to did the Esprit S1 define the supercar of it’s era, which was shortlived as it was made between 1976 -1978.

It just goes to show how far the levels of engineering have developed since the Esprit S1 was launched back in 1976 it was as sophisticated then as a McLaren 720 is today.