Elon Musk, the real-life Tony Stark of our times, has quite the extensive résumé: Founder of PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors; billionaire investor of projects and businesses such as SolarCity and the preservation of Nikola Tesla’s lab; inventor of the Hyperloop rapid mass transit concept; 007 cosplayer…
Yes, you read that right: Musk is a huge fan of the man who loves his martinis shaken and his women to have double entendre naming schemes. So much so, in fact, that he now has one of Bond’s most awesome vehicles ever conceived.
In a double exclusive with our friends over at Jalopnik, the secret buyer of the Lotus Esprit Mk I-cum-submarine from the 1977 Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” was Musk himself, who paid nearly $900,000 for the privilege of owning one of the most famous vehicles in the history of film, beating out another bidder in a duel worthy of a Bond film (or so we would hope). The star car — or, rather, the star submarine — was originally lost in storage limbo, then discovered, spruced up, and put up for auction by Canadian auction house RM Auctions in early September of this year.
Alas, Musk was a bit disappointed that all the Esprit did was look pretty and float, but since this is Musk we’re talking about (via Tesla’s PR department)…
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. 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 his SpaceX can successfully dock with the International Space Station, and his Tesla can make EVs cool (the first was based off the Lotus Elise, no less), then Musk can make this impossible dream possible. We look forward to seeing his car arrive at San Diego Comic Con 2014 via Pacific Beach in all of its glory.
Photo credit: RM Auctions/Sotheby’s
You know, I’d say why bother restomodding the original instead of building a new one, but screw it. It’s Elon Musk and he’s going to build a Tesla Lotus Bond Transformer Submarine. Rock on!
hey, if anyone can, he can. He’s got the engineers to design it and the money to pay for the mods.
Who else do we know with a penchant for double-entendre female names? I’ve got it here somewhere…..
Well played…
There’s has to be a fitting reference to Charles Montgomery Burns’ Spruce Moose that applies to this venture…
So what’s his current girlfriends name? Holly Goodhead?
Strawberry Backdoors.
Honey Rider.
As much as I get disgusted with the reports of wretched excess by the uber-wealthy, e.g. Kanye and Kim’s gold plated toilets, I have to admit that this sounds like a cool way to blow a couple million bucks.
I think he’ll find that it will be easier and cheaper to use the original as a model and build a functional replica.
What was the black one they used with a ski rack in place of the rear louvres? Or am I imagining this?
I remember that black one too, I don’t remember which movie it was from though. I do not think it was the same car as the submarine version but I could be wrong. IIRC those ski racks were a factory option too.
…that was for your eyes only, and it was a maroon turbo esprit…actually, james bond drove two esprits in that film: in an earlier scene, his white turbo esprit self-destructed when a thief attempted to bypass its security system, so the maroon replacement showed up later in the alps…
Thank you M… so maybe now Q can weigh in on those ski racks?? :)
I wonder if it was anyone but Elon Musk doing this whether the modifications would destroy the artifact’s value.
Ronnie,
I am sure it is not pressure rated and that his engineers will tell him it is easier to make something in the same shape that is.
Personally, I think Musk is setting his sights too low here. He should go for a fully functional Aston Martin with the cloaking device. Now THAT’s something you could sell for a few bucks.
>> fully functional Aston Martin with the cloaking device
Even better, buy the Delorean from Back to the Future and give us a working Mr. Fusion.
Good point. It will be extremely interesting to see how this plays out, i.e., if Musk’s modifications turn what, in its original form, was a valuable movie prop into a worthless pile of scrap. As mentioned elsewhere, it would make more sense for Musk to not hack into the original, but use it as a template for a built-from-scratch project. I can’t imagine it costing much more doing it in that manner, plus he retains the value of the original by not hacking into it. There would be potential to put it next to whatever he comes up with as a carnival exhibition.
Two thoughts occur to me.
1) Cheaper to re-make (though, as owner of the original, no-one will come after him for copying),
2) Hell Elon! Put wheels under it and motor in it. It was always a car that was beautiful in its balanced proportions and simplicity. I think it would look awesome as an EV!
Next up: a fully functional Mach 5.
Yeah! Tata will buy it and put the turbines from the Jag CX concept into it.
Why doesn’t this guy get a reality television show? As a father with two sons, successful entrepreneurs like these are who I’d want my children watching and hopefully emulating.
It’s ok, reality tv has you covered, the duck dynasty guys are entrepreneurs
Elon Musk may have founded many companies, but Tesla Motors was not one of them. Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were the founders.
Just making a Lotus weather tight will be the death of him.
Not that difficult. Top Gear UK managed it with a Lotus and made it an effective–if short lived–submarine. It just didn’t have all the built-in features of a “transformer” that the Bond car carried. THAT’s what Musk plans.
What? When did TG UK do this? I’ve an excellent memory, and have seen all the episodes, and don’t recall this.
Was shown on BBCA about two months ago. Richard Hammond was driving.
I believe it was their special on Bond cars.
…Which would explain why I haven’t seen it. I don’t keep up on their (non-seasonal) specials, they’re normally awful.