This mid-engine, Giugiaro-penned wedge marked Lotus’s move into turbocharged flagship territory. Introduced for 1980, it built on the established Esprit line but added forced induction and a revised 2.2-litre four-cylinder layout, giving the car a much stronger performance identity and helping it stand apart from the naturally aspirated versions that shared the broader Esprit family. In period, it became one of the most recognizable British supercars of the era and gained extra fame through its appearances in popular film culture, which only strengthened its enthusiast following.
The original turbocharged form remained in production through the classic wedge era, with Lotus refining the package over time rather than replacing it outright. A key late update arrived in 1987 with the high-compression Turbo HC, which represented the final evolution of the original shape before the design was comprehensively reworked later that same year. That 1987 facelift did not continue the original nameplate as a separate long-running new generation in the same form; instead, it marked the end of the classic first production run. As a result, this nameplate is best understood as a single continuous 1980s production period that closed in 1987, before the broader Esprit story moved on to later, reshaped turbo versions.