| 01.01.2015 – The Lotus Esprit is a sports car that was built in United Kingdom by Lotus from 1976 to 2004. It’s a prestige sports car that was concept cars introduced in 1972. They started producing the car in 1976 with the Lotus Esprit S1 (or Series 1).
It made a popular impact in the pop culture when it was introduced in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 featured in a long chase sequence, converting into a submarine. Now Hot Wheels has included this car in the 2014 line of diecast cars! (Please CLICK on the title for the full article) |
The Perry Oceanographic-built submarine known as "Wet Nellie" was driven by James Bond portrayed by Roger Moore in The Spy Who Love Me. It gave Lotus Esprit S1 the popularity as one of the iconic cars of Agent 007.
Its nickname “Wet Nellie” came from another Bond vehicle referenced known as “Little Nellie” a gyrocopter featured in “You Only Live Twice”. Little Nellie itself is named after British music hall legend Nellie Wallace.
The prop car that was converted into the submarine version of the Esprit S1 was sold to American business magnate Elon Musk at auction for £650,000 in September 2013 by RM Auctions at Battersea Park, London. Musk has plans to install a Tesla electric powertrain in the submarine S1 and make it transform into a road-going car.
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In reality the Esprit S1 distinguished itself from later Esprits by a shovel-style front air dam, Fiat X1/9 tail lights, lack of body-side ducting, and Wolfrace alloy wheels. Inside the car, the most obvious indication of an S1 Esprit is a one-piece instrument cluster with green-faced Veglia gauges.
Hot Wheels included the Lotus Esprit S1 in their 2015 line of diecast cars, which is in the sub line HW Workshop and HW Garage numbered 219 of 250. This follows up the more popular Bond car Ashton Martin DB5 that was also released in 2014.
Just like its real life car the diecast version have all the elements of the Esprit S1. But unfortunately it doesn’t convert into the submarine from the film. But the details on this car is something to look closely like the rear plate “PPW 306R” and an “Esprit” name at the upper side of the car.
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The taillights black borders are not clean but enough details to have its lights painted in red. The license plate can be seen clearly and the rims are the ones you see being used by the actual car.
The Lotus Esprit S1 aka “Wet Nellie” is easier to acquire versus the much popular Aston Martin DB5, which Hot Wheels also released in a red variant that’s part of the 2015 release. This Lotus Esprit S1 was sold in Australia retailed at $2.25 AU dollars.
Hot Wheels is distributed in the Philippines by Rich Prime and retailed for PhP 99.75 pesos. For more about their Hot Wheels products LIKE Richwell Club on Facebook!
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