While the rest of use ordinary mortals have to look down the back of the sofa for any loose change at the end of the month, at this point we obviously do start wondering, just what could an internet and rocket and electric car billionaire be lacking in his life? Well apparently it is a submarine car. SpaceX rocket leader Elon Musk has been revealed as the successful bidder for submarine car whose previous owner was 007. The underwater model of the Lotus Esprit did not have any working wheels – though in the James Bond adventure film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) – the best of actor Roger Moore’s 007 efforts – it was portayed as being able to drive into the sea (well actually crashing off a pier to plunge into it).
Musk who was a evidently a fan of the film, apparently has plans to convert it to electric power like his Telsa motor cars, and, in doing so, make sure that it can also run on land. The full sized model, which was found in a storage unit in New York, the contents of which were blind bought for $100, was auctioned for $866,000 in September.
Only now has it been revealed who the mystery buyer was. Presumably Elon Musk wants the submarine car to hunt out his Falcon 9R reusable rocket stages should any of them sink. By the way, the during filming the diver crew driving hte submarine famously had to deflect its hydroplanes fully upwards just to maintain a level “cruise”. A little more boyancy may be needed. One note of caution here: while Lotus eventually recovered its reputation for reliability, in the 1970s the Lotus brand was jested as standing for Lots Of Trouble – Usually Serious. And Elon definitely won’t want to spring a leak while being underwater.
Any such watery demise would of course let Elon’s heirs inherit. Of course, your correspondent’s attempt at trying to convince billionaire Elon that he is, in fact, his love child fell at the first fence when he realised he was older than Elon. In other words Elon might as well live – and improve spacefaring for the World. 🙂
While the above submarine car was nicknamed “Wet Nellie” by its film crew, that other Nellie in James Bond’s life, “Little Nellie” was famously the rocket and machine gun armed autogyro created by the former RAF bomber pilot Wing Commander Ken Wallis which appeared in the James Bond space adventure You Only Live Twice (1967). As such, we are sad to report the passing of Ken Wallis on 1 September who died at the ripe old age of 97.
