Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the Lotus Esprit prop from the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me and now plans to transform it into a real submersible car powered by a Tesla electric powerplant.
Musk secured the car with a winning bid of $1,022,962 at an auction in London last month.
The eccentric CEO, who is also the chief executive of rocket manufacturer SpaceX, claimed he always wanted to make the car do what it did in the movie.
“It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me drive his Lotus Esprit of the pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,” Musk told USA Today.
“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform. I’m going to upgrade it with a Tesla powertrain and try to make it transform for real,” he said.
It is unclear how far Musk will take the idea, as the Lotus in the movie not only offered a completely dry cockpit while moving underwater – but was somewhat controversially equipped with surface-to-air missile capability.
