Channel 3 Reviews

I LOVED this game. I had an Esprit back in the day, partially due to this game and partially due to the Esprit being the "sister car" to the DeLorean DMC-12, as the DeLorean was based on the Esprit and engineered by Lotus at Hethel. They're sisters but not quite twins. Park them side by side and you'll see the similarities, same low, swept-back stance, both designed by Giugiaro, the DeLorean is wider, Esprit typically had a smaller engine at that time, nestled in the middle of the car rather than the rear.

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge was a cool game, fun to play, and one of the first racing games I can think of that was both 1.) officially licensed and branded with a car brand (Lotus) as opposed to games like Out Run which were not officially licensed through Ferrari and never used the Ferrari brand, and 2.) challenged the player with more detailed and somewhat more realistic driving physics, instrumentation, cockpit layout and gear shift. I remember playing this game and thinking it was like a flight simulator for driving. Really a neat game.

Fun Fact: The 1989 Lotus Esprit SE was the "movie car" that Richard Gere famously drove throughout the film Pretty Woman. Neither Ferrari nor Porsche wanted to be associated with Pretty Woman because one of the leads was a prostitute, so they prohibited the film from using their cars. 

Lotus didn’t mind.

 

I always thought that car was really nice.