Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed as mystery buyer of James Bond submarine car – and now he plans to make it work
Elon Musk, the billionaire tech inventor who co-founded Paypal, has admitted that he was the mystery telephone bidder who bought James Bond’s submarine car from ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ for £550,000 at auction in London last month. (see our post https://execsecurity.com/?p=571 )
But more intriguingly, the 42-year-old SpaceX and Tesla Motors chief now says he plans to make the classic Lotus Espirit work underwater.
“It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,” he said.
“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform. What I’m going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.”
The car conversion plan is the latest in a number of adventurous schemes that Musk is attempting.
In August he revealed his plans for a new mode of transport, The Hyperloop, which would transport travellers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in pods that can reach 800mph.
And in September he posted a job ad on Twitter for engineers to help the company develop autopilot technology for cars.
