LONDON: The “submarine car” used in James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me is up for sale in London yesterday, 24 years after it was “discovered” in a US storage unit.
The white Lotus Esprit, which transformed into a submarine during a sequence in the 1977 movie starring Roger Moore as 007, is estimated to sell for up to £950,000 ($1.48m).
Known as “Wet Nellie” on the set of the film, the fully operational submarine car was among the contents of a storage unit in Long Island, New York which was bought by a couple in a “blind” public auction in 1989.
Although six Esprit body shells were used in filming, only one was converted into a “submarine car”, RM Auctions said.
The car was placed in a pre-paid storage unit for 10 years after filming. The contents of storage unit were sold sight unseen in 1989 when rental payments for the unit fell into delinquency.
The auction house previously sold the Aston Martin DB5 used by Sean Connery as James Bond in the Goldfinger and Thunderball movies for £2.9m in 2010.
Reuters
