PAST BLAST

JOHN BOWE BONDS WITH A LOTUS ESPRIT

James Bond fans will instantly recognise the wedge shape of this British classic. In the 1977 film TheSpyWhoLoved

Me, Bond’s Lotus Esprit turns into a submarine after he drives if off a pier escaping villains.

Amazingly that car was found in a storage container in the US in 1989. A contractor bought the unopened container at auction for US$100 and found the Esprit under a pile of blankets inside it. The significance of ‘Wet Nellie’ – the only working sub-car left after the film – had to be pointed out to him.

In 2013 Tesla electric car founder Elon Musk, a Bond fan since he was a kid, bought the Lotus for a cool US$900,000 and announced he would fit a Tesla drivetrain and attempt to turn it into a real submarine-car. Evidently Musk still has plans to build a submarine car.

This immaculate Series I Esprit