''Billionaire tech entrepreneur and investor Elon Musk has bought James Bond's iconic Lotus Esprit vehicle from The Spy Who Loved Me, with the intention of making its movie transformation from car to submarine a reality.
The car was bought for US$ 997,000 at an auction in Londonin September, but the buyer's identity wasn't made public at the time. Automotive blog Jalopnik reported that Musk was the buyer last night.
"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," said Musk in a statement. "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."
That may well be a tongue-in-cheek comment, but Musk's determination to tackle daunting technological challenges is undoubted. Besides Tesla, Musk founded payments firm PayPal and space exploration firm SpaceX".
Source: theguardian
