When James Bond drove a Lotus Esprit off a pier into the ocean in The Spy Who Loved Me, 12-year old me lost his shit. "Did he just kill that Lotus?!" No. No he didn't. In fact, it transformed into a submarine. Seeing that blew my mind more than LSD, not that I know how LSD works. And now I can own it. I'm freaking out.
The Lotus sub, which I will not let any of you near once I buy it, is going to auction in England in September. I'm not sure why it'll still be auctioned since I called dibs. Maybe dibs are only legally binding in America and have no relevance in England? I guess we'll never know.
The car being auctioned was known as Wet Nellie on set, and that's because this is the only Esprit that was actually built into a real submarine by Perry Oceanographic in Florida. This is the Lotus that had the most screen time in The Spy Who Loved Me when it went underwater with Bond and Russian Agent Anya Amasova, aka Agent XXX, aka Ringo Starr's smokin' hot wife Barbara Bach.
RM Auctions says that the car has been authenticated a number of times, though I think the fact that it's a real Lotus submarine is authentication enough.
So yeah, RM Auctions. September 8th and 9th. This will be sold to the highest bidder, which will be me. I'll then promptly drive it into the Thames, where I'll motor to my underwater base that I'm using to take over the world, or, at the very least, the eastern seaboard.
(Hat Tip to Damian!)