Elon Musk has bought the James Bond Lotus Submarine Car and plans to make it actually work

A Tesla Motors spokeswoman confirmed that the submarine, modeled after a Lotus sports car, had been bought by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk plans to take the movie prop and turn it into an actual car that transforms into a submarine, the very thing it was built to portray in the movie.

“I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform,” Musk said in a statement provided by Tesla. “What I’m going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.”

In the film, James Bond, played by Roger Moore, is seen driving a white Lotus Esprit off a pier and into the water. Once submerged, the car sinks toward the bottom before sprouting fins and propellers. Moore is shown piloting the sub with a passenger, played by Barbara Bach, inside a dry passenger compartment.

It’s a so-called wet submarine, meaning that it fills with water when submerged, so the driver has to wear a wetsuit and breathe air from a tank. (The dry passenger compartment shown in the movie was a set.) It has no steering wheel or other automobile controls and is instead controlled with levers. The fins on the outside are not retractable, but permanent.

Commenter ATX211 at Jalopnik sees the big picture.

Do you guys even understand what is happening!?! Now he is acquiring good guy gadgets. He has already developed his missiles to destroy the moon at SpaceX! He is obviously testing his fiery death time bombs in the Model S, and now he is buying Bond Gadgets!

If you see this guy wearing an Omega watch, we are all fucked. Like flying sharks fucked.

Background

The villain in the The Spy Who Loved Me was Karl Stromberg.

Stromberg’s obsession and passion is the ocean where he lives in his palace, named Atlantis, that could submerge itself underwater so as not to be seen or detected. Located off the coast of Sardinia, Italy, Atlantis has everything to support life above and below water for any length of time. In fact, Atlantis is more like a city, able to support dozens if not hundreds of people.

Stromberg also owns a huge tanker, named Liparus, that serves as his headquarters away from Atlantis. Aboard the tanker he has a small army of soldiers clad in orange jumpsuits.

Hugo Drax is the bond villain in Moonraker

Hugo Drax is the main antagonist in the James Bond film Moonraker. A billionaire living in California in a château that was imported from France. He owns Drax Industries, which constructs space shuttles. In addition, Drax supposedly owns the Eiffel Tower, but apparently couldn’t export it from France because they wouldn’t issue him an export permit.

SOURCES – CNN, Jalopnik, Tesla

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