Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to turn the iconic James Bond submarine car prop into a real, working deal.
So it seems Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was a bit miffed when he learned that Agent 007 James Bond’s iconic submarine car, for which he recently plunked down a cool $920,167 at a London auction, didn’t really work underwater at all. Turns out it was just a cool, but non-functional prop that had the entire movie watching world fooled.
“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform,” Musk said in a Tesla release.
Well, what did you expect for such a paltry sum?
Seriously, though. Musk has a plan for the custom white Lotus Esprit built specifically for the 1977 film, The Spy Who Loved Me by Florida’s Perry Oceanographic -and, of course, the expendable cash to make it happen.
“What I’m going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.”
You read that right – Musk is working a plan to turn this ultra-cool set prop into a real, working submarine car that’s as operational underwater as it is on the road. Its star turn was in a scene wherein Bond, played by Roger Moore and accompanied by Barbara Bach’s Major Anya Amasova, drives it off a pier and into the water. It sinks to the bottom, sprouts fins and propellers and launches a rocket upward, destroying the helicopter that at heretofore been chasing it from the air.
The actual vehicle was a wet submarine, which means that if it had actually been submerged, it would have filled with water and Agent 007 would have had to don a wetsuit and air tank. Ergo, the interior car scenes were actually shot on a high-and-dry Hollywood set.
After production wrapped, the Lotus Esprit spent several decades buried under blankets in a Long Island, NY storage unit – until the renters defaulted on the payments. As per most rental storage unit contracts, the contents went up for auction and for a ridiculously small fee, one unsuspecting couple lucked up on a piece of cinematic history.
Now, thanks to an eccentric billionaire’s fascination with Bond flicks and cool cars, that cinematic fantasy may soon become reality. What do you think? Would you drive a working submarine car? Post your thoughts on the E3 Spark Plugs Facebook Fan Page.
