The second Lotus game shifted focus to arcade-oriented gameplay. Being the first of the series released for a game console (for Sega Mega Drive under the title Lotus Turbo Challenge), the fuel limit and difficulty levels were dropped, and the lap-based levels were replaced with course-based time trials, (not unlike arcade games such as Out Run), with the player required to complete each course within a specified time to qualify for the next one.
In addition to the Esprit Turbo SE, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 also featured the Lotus Elan SE, hence 'Esprit' being dropped from the title. There was no choice of car however; it varied depending on the scenery of the level (the hard-top Esprit was used for the snow and thunderstorm levels, for example, while the Elan SE appeared in the desert and forest levels).
In an improvement over its predecessor, Lotus 2's single-player mode used all of the game screen instead of half, and opponent cars appeared in a variety of colors (opponent cars in the original game were all white). However, music was absent from racing altogether; the player instead hears the car's engine sound.
Lotus 2 was developed for the Amiga and then converted for the other platforms. It was considered as a technically most impressing game in its own genre. The Mega Drive port lacked the smoothly running graphics of the original version.
Barry Leitch's intro music for Lotus 2 is often found on playlists of retro computer music webradio stations; it contains a sampled voice at around the 12-second mark (played through the left channel only) which says "you will not copy this game".The sample is played very quietly during the first few bars, and can be easily accessed in any MOD tracker program. The hi-hat and voice sample at the very beginning of the main theme is taken from Yello's Oh Yeah, a song that became famous as the theme for another sports car (a Ferrari 250 GT California) in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Lotus 2 used a password system to access different races (once the player qualified for a particular race, the password was revealed); the password DUX accessed a hidden game, and the password TURPENTINE removed the race time limits. The Mega Drive version also contained a hidden Centipede-like game called Pod, which can be accessed by entering the player's name as POD PLEASE.
There is a touch of humour on level six (the motorway level) of the Amiga version: if the player manages to successfully drive under the trailer of one of the lorries that cross the road, the in-game announcer shouts "Yeehaa!" This sound was used as a taunt on the Mega Drive port.
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