How A $1,000,000 James Bond Car Went From A $100 Storage Unit And Into Elon Musk’s Possession

Written by: Dylan Michael

Introduction

By the mid 1970s, the James Bond movie franchise was one of the most lucrative in the world. One of the things most synonymous with these movies is James Bond’s cars. So, naturally, by the time the 1977 installment “The Spy Who Loved Me” was in production,  many car manufacturers wanted their products featured. There was great competition for the company that would supply Bond's car. Don McLaughlin, Public Relations Manager of Lotus, realized that the best way to win this coveted position was to make the producers chase after him, rather than going begging to them. One day he turned up at Pinewood driving a brand new unreleased Lotus Esprit, with all identifying names covered up. He parked it outside the Bond set, knowing that the producers would see it when they broke for lunch. Once the car had attracted a crowd, all clamoring to know what the car was, McLaughlin nonchalantly got in the car and drove away without answering any questions. As he had expected, the producers were desperate to discover what the car was, and producer Albert R. Broccoli later chose it for this movie. Thus, eight Lotus Esprit cars were shipped to the set to appear in the film. Twelve years after the release of “The Spy Who Loved Me”, seven of those vehicles were still accounted for, leaving one mysteriously lost. What happened?

How One Man’s Unpaid Storage Debts Led To Another Finding Massive Fortune

In 1989, twenty one years before A&E’s “Storage Wars” first aired on television, a humble contractor in Long Island was soon to discover something arguably bigger than anything seen on that program.  He decided to purchase a storage unit for $100 without knowing its contents. Upon opening it up alongside his brother, they saw what they describe as "a giant lump" covered in blankets, and underneath that was a white car with no wheels and a dented roof. Having never seen a Bond movie before, the pair assumed it was just junk at first. The contractor then loaded the vehicle onto the back of his truck with the intention of repairing it. On his drive home, he received a call over a CB radio. The voice on the other end told him what he was hauling was a Bond car. Having no idea what that meant, he decided to rent a copy of “The Spy Who Loved Me” and give it a viewing with his wife. It was then he realized what he had.

Authenticating James Bond’s Car and Sending It To Auction

After getting the Lotus Esprit authenticated by the original builders, the couple put it up for auction in 2013 at RM Sotheby’s. It was sold to a secret buyer for $997,000. That buyer was Elon Musk. “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. 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,” Musk told Jalopnik in a statement in 2013.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you are currently renting out a storage unit containing priceless items like iconic movie props and don’t want it to go into the possession of a billionaire…pay your storage bills. If you are currently renting one of our units and need to pay your storage, pay online at this website, over the phone at 815-874-7552 or at one of our kiosks.