In the late 80s a couple in Long Island, New York bought a storage unit's contents, sight unseen, for $100. What they found inside surprise them indeed. It was a 1976 Lotus Esprit sports car used in the filming of the James Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. Elon Musk just paid them a million dollars for it.
The couple didn't even know it was significant until a trucker, hired to haul it, told them it was a Bond car. An official James Bond movie organization authenticated it was the very same car used in the filming. It's funny, because the couple had never seen any James Bond movie in their lives. The couple fixed up a few cosmetic problems and displayed the car at shows around the country.
Bond enthusiast have a special place in their heart for that car. In the film, it drives off land and right into the sea where it transforms into a submarine. The wheels fold in, fins fold out, and it becomes the coolest underwater car ever. James Bond stuff.
The car bought from the storage unit did not actually transform into a submarine. It was a plain old sports car. If you want to call a 1976 Lotus Esprit (used in the filming of the movie for James Bond) a sports car.
When they sold the car at a Sotheby's auction in 2013, a mystery buyer purchased the car for $997,000. It has now been revealed, that the buyer was none other than billionaire and Tesla founder Elon musk.
It turns out that Musk had a long distance love affair with the car since he saw the movie. Now he plans on having his engineers transform the car into what it was in the movie. It will actually work as a car/submarine using Tesla technology if all goes as dreamed.
He admitted in a tweet that the car was part of his inspiration for his recently unveiled electric "Cybertruck" pickup.