You may not be licensed to kill, but that doesn't mean can't find you a car to drive, and a beauty to seduce, so you can make believe, poseur.

How much would you pay for a set of Toyota AE86 Corolla tail lamps? $100? $50? $19.99? Well, what if we told you that you could get a matched set, both left and right sides, for only $19,500? Not only that, but they come attached to a 1988 Turbo with only 17K on the clock.

That's right, the same type of Giugiaro-designed, mid-engine exotic that a smirking Roger Moore drove out of the sea in The Spy Who Loved Me and then again on a ski holiday in For Your Eyes Only. Well, not quite, this '88 is dressed in the Peter Stevens re-tailored duds of the Esprit's later years, sort of a Timothy Dalton to the first generation's Moore. And while the Dalton-era U.S. cars were fuel injected, both the carbs and the villain in that earlier Moore film went by the name of Stromberg.

Along with the styling changes over the years, the motivational leaker 907 twin-cam sprouted a turbocharger, and grew to 2.2 litres in 1980 for a Bond ass-moving 215 bhp, and 150 mph top speed. Lotus continued to tweak the all-aluminum four in the Esprit until it was eventually replaced by the company's V8 in 1996.

One thousand, fifty eight Esprits were built in 1988, making it the highest production year in the model's run. While non-federalized cars received a new 5-speed out of the Renault 25 that year, those delivered to the U.S. continued with the sturdy Citroën box. Improvements that we did get in '88 included a larger, better ventilated cockpit, and an available removable roof panel.

For the $19,500 asking price, our red rocket has that roof option, as well as later 18" wheels and tires for some wheel arch-filling goodness. It also comes with no fewer than four different magazines with articles about the Esprit, in order to seal the deal. And those low, low miles, if accurate, mean this Lotus is as close to new as you're likely to find. The ankle-tattooed and sunglass-ed model demonstrates just how low these sports cars are, and she does look happy to help rid the seller of the car, so you might want to take her aside and see if you can seduce her into telling you his evil plan, just make sure you subdue any henchmen that may be around first.

So would you plunk down five Benjamins shy of twenty grand for this Hethel Hell-raiser? Or, for that kind of scratch, is a four-cylinder exotic something you'd rather not Bond with?

You decide!

()

or go if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click to send a me a tip.