The couple paid $ 100 for an abandoned car: after 30 years, Elon Musk bought it from them for $ 1 million - ForumDaily
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The couple paid $ 100 for an abandoned car: after 30 years, Elon Musk bought it from them for $ 1 million

In 1989, a couple from Long Island, New York, paid approximately $100 for the contents of a storage locker. It was a blind auction—neither they nor the seller had any idea what was inside. There was an abandoned car with an amazing history.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Movieclips

When the couple opened the storage unit in the warehouse, they were in for a surprise: under old blankets, there was a 1976 Lotus Esprit sports car used in the filming of the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. In the film, a sports car turns into a submarine and launches missiles underwater, writes CNBC.

Years later, Elon Musk purchased this find from a couple for $ 997 000.

They never saw a bond movie

The sports car - one of eight used in the filming of Roger Moore's film and the only one used in the underwater scenes - was placed in storage after filming and remained there in oblivion for more than 10 years until the warehouse was opened by a couple from New York ( they wished to remain anonymous).

"They didn't really know what it was at first," said Doug Redenius, co-founder of the Ian Fleming Foundation, which verified the car's authenticity. “They had never seen a Bond film before and had no idea how valuable their find was.”

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The new owner was planning to fix a dent on the roof of a sports car and make other improvements. But after the husband and wife loaded the car into the truck and headed home, truckers contacted them on the radio to inform them that they were transporting a James Bond car.

“My husband later rented the movie on VHS and watched what he actually bought,” Redenius told NBC.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Movieclips

What does Elon Musk have to do with it

After the couple “cosmetically restored” the car, over the next 20 years, they showed it in the form of an exhibit, and then decided to put it up for auction in the 2013 year.

Redenius said he heard about the car's existence years after the couple began showing it and tracked them down. He authenticated the car with the original designers and put the couple in touch with RM Sotheby's, telling them before the auction that "if [the car] sells what we hope it does, that money will enable you to live very comfortably for the rest of your life."

The car was sold at RM Sotheby's auction in 2013 to a secret buyer. Later it turned out that Ilon Musk became the new owner, and he reportedly paid $ 997 000 for the car.

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Musk said he grew up on Bond movies.

“As a child in South Africa, it was amazing to watch James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me launch his Lotus Esprit off the pier, press a button and turn the car into a submarine. I was disappointed to find out that she can't actually transform. I plan to upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it truly transformative,” Musk said in a blog post in 2013.

For the filming of the film, a marine engineering firm turned the car into a functional submarine worth more than 100 000 dollars (equivalent to almost 425 000 dollars today).

The car, nicknamed Wet Nelly, was used for underwater scenes, so in 2013 it was sold without wheels, only with "articulated fins." The car could not travel on land and worked like a submarine with ballast to be able to dive under water. The vehicle also had a box of four propellers at the rear of the hull, allowing it to move underwater while powered by electric motors in a pressurized compartment.

Underwater scenes were filmed by a retired US Navy veteran, dressed in a full set of snorkeling equipment with an oxygen tank, because, according to Sotheby's, the car's interior was filled with water.

Musk recently said the car served as inspiration for Tesla's new Cybertruck.

The 1976 Lotus Esprit submarine isn't the most expensive James Bond car ever to come to auction. In August, an Aston Martin DB5 used to promote the 1965 Bond film Thunderball was sold at auction for $6,4 million to an anonymous buyer.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Britney Spears forehead, city and chewing gum: the strangest auction items

In Florida, a baby was put up for sale for $500, and an older sister was given as a gift.

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