Elon Musk Spends $866K On James Bond Lotus Sub Car For Tesla Engine Retrofit
This guy, Elon Musk. He’s eccentric in all the right ways, such as when he dreams up moonshot-style ideas, throws money at the projects, and insists that he can pull them off in absurdly brief timelines. His latest rich-guy romp pertains to the iconic Lotus Esprit that James Bond drove in The Spy Who Loved Me, which doubled in the film as a submarine when 007 drove it off a pier.
Musk, founder of Tesla motors, snapped up the carmarine (submarcar?) for $866,000 at an auction. The identity of the buyer was unknown until Jalopnik learned about it from a “credible source”.
Credit: Jalopnik
This is best part: Although the car is currently just a beat-up old movie prop, Musk is planning on actually turning it into a working submersible and retrofit it with Tesla parts.
Credit: Flickr/Karen Roe
"It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in 'The Spy Who Loved Me' drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,” said Musk through his PR channels. “I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."
If we had virtually unlimited amounts of money and owned a car-making company, this is probably exactly what we would do, too.
Musk, founder of Tesla motors, snapped up the carmarine (submarcar?) for $866,000 at an auction. The identity of the buyer was unknown until Jalopnik learned about it from a “credible source”.
Credit: Jalopnik
This is best part: Although the car is currently just a beat-up old movie prop, Musk is planning on actually turning it into a working submersible and retrofit it with Tesla parts.
Credit: Flickr/Karen Roe
"It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in 'The Spy Who Loved Me' drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,” said Musk through his PR channels. “I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."
If we had virtually unlimited amounts of money and owned a car-making company, this is probably exactly what we would do, too.
