One of the best-known automotive gadgets in the James Bond 007 cinematic universe is the submersible Lotus Esprit. The original Aston Martin DB5, which featured guns, tire-shredding knock-off hubs, bullet-proofing, and an ejector seat, was such a difficult thing to follow up that Roger Moore’s Bond really needed a memorable hero car for The Spy Who Loved Me.
And the freshly unveiled Lotus Esprit S1 was just the ticket. All wedge shape with a flat windshield and ground-hugging design, it was a real head-turner even in stock form in the late 1970s. For the iconic scene where it jumps off the end of a pier, hides its wheels inside its bodywork, and transforms into a torpedo-shooting submarine, Lotus provided seven bodyshells on top of the two driving cars that featured in the preceding helicopter chase. One of these was built into a functional submarine car, which reportedly was piloted by two stuntmen in scuba gear. That car was auctioned by RM Sotheby’s in 2013 and was said to have been bought by Elon Musk for $866,000.
Spacer
The history of the rest of the bodyshells is spotty at best. One is said to have been destroyed during filming, but the shells used to show off the hidden wheels and the periscope are lost in time. Despite the scenes being set in Italy, the filming of these underwater stunts took place in the Bahamas; a scrap metal company supplied the cranes to lift the equipment and props in and out of the water. For his trouble, the scrap metal company boss was gifted two Esprit shells, one of which is the car being auctioned in Monaco this month.
Having sat outside at the scrapyard for over a decade, the Esprit was bought by an Italian collector in 1988. With help from Lotus, including photographs and technical information, the shell was rebuilt into the specification in which it stands today, complete with the steering fins and propellers that it likely originally lacked. Coys auctioned it in Monaco in 2007, and it was bought by a Finnish entrepreneur, Jorma Lillbacka, who also owns the PowerPark fairground in Southern Ostrobothnia.
Mäkelä Auto Tuning, a well-known rally car restoration business that sourced the car from Monaco, also restored the car at that point and built a movable display stand for it. The Lotus went on display at Lillbacka’s shopping mall near PowerPark, where it remained for years. I managed to take a photo of it in 2015, and because this was 2015, I slapped all of the world’s Instagram filters on it.
Now, the Esprit is again back in Monaco, and again up for auction. MAT has done more recent work on it to bring it to showroom condition; inside, it’s the bare Esprit bodyshell that shows its movie prop history, with no interior or engine. Weighing around 800lbs, it’s lighter than a complete Lotus but likely still takes a careful push to wheel around any garage, shopping mall or living room.
That brings us to the question: what car would you display in your living room, as a static object?
I’ve often said the DeLorean is the sort of car that might be best on display instead of being daily driven, thanks to its various build quality challenges and meager power output, but the tangentially related Lotus Esprit is certainly a good alternative. This particular Esprit is expected to bring 200,000 to 300,000 Euros, or up to $345k; there are cheaper plastic-bodied cars you can bolt on a stand and admire from your couch.
Top graphic images: DepositPhotos.com; RM Sotheby’s
An actual 1993 IROC Dodge Daytona race car would suit me.
At this point I only have a wheel and tire displayed from the one Davey Allison drove at Talladega 1993.
The damaged wheel from where he scraped the wall at 175 mph sort of appeals to me much more than a stock undamaged one would. But I am weird.
BTW it’s so cool that the tire still smells after 33 years.
Wish I could have afforded to buy the whole car after IROC started to sell them off though. YMMV
1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder
So choice. If you have the means…
Maybe something like an Auburn Boattail Speedster.
Or an Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.
Wouldn’t turn down a Ferrari 250, but I feel like if I am going to display this in my living room it needs to be a bit more interesting than a Ferrari. Everyone knows Ferrari.
I am more a engine coffee table over an entire car. Can you imagine trying to move it vacuum the carpet? The maid would be such a pill on those days. Unless I guess the maid is Berta she could lift it one handed. But if a car I must pick I’d do a wrangler. Lots of flat surfaces and a tailgate to increase seating space.
The “Roger Moore” tag is suspiciously bereft of articles. GET ON IT
One of my favorite matchbox cars is my Volvo P1800. Not the least for being in white.
I have over 100 cars displayed in our living room. Given that it’s an 1100 square foot condo, they jus happen to be 1/43rd scale models.
What are some high points?
Most of them are white models from Brooklin in England, heavy models of 1940s through early 1960s American cars. I have a nice collection of Ferraris from the same era, and almost all of the Porsche 908/3 models from Best.
At first I thought this was a silly question, then I realized that car seats are very adjustable and there are plenty of places to mount speakers (especially on a static display).
Also, you have a natural place for a steering wheel and a pedal box is already installed!
I would buy a front-end totaled xB and install the most adjustable seats available. I’d put in a full sound system and replace the windshield with a display screen. Decent sim driving wheel and pedals in place of originals.
Then I’d have a little movie or sim racing pod and I would be able to close the doors so the dogs would have to leave me alone for however long I was in there.
I’m grabbing the tape measure and searching copart tonight.
I would paint a wall to resemble the banked wall at the M-B test track in Stuttgart and mount a W123 high up on the curve.
Easy – mine. And what I mean by that is I’d love to live in a garage or hanger or whatever where I could just drive my cars right up to my living area.
There’s a great, fairly lost 70s show called Vega$, Robert Urich as a suave private investigator who not only has an appropriate car (first gen T-bird) but lives in such a arrangement…he drives it right up to his swanky if loud living room set. So cool.
I prefer the Dirk Pitt arrangement where he has the swanky apartment and an entire display of cars that would make up an Autopians wet dream.
With enough money you could raise the Titanic.
Ooh I’d forgotten about Pitt’s collection – great cite!
Cussler’s Widow is quietly selling off his collection. A few were at the Concourse in Scottsdale a couple years ago.
While I would say an F40 or first-gen Acura NSX, the real answer is a 1996 Impala SS in dark cherry metallic or a 1987 Buick GNX.
My living room currently contains:
Fiat “Mefistofele” aero-engine powered racing car
Bugatti Type 35b
Porsche 934
Caterham 7 BDR
Ford GT40 mk2
Alfa Romeo 8c Monza
All of these being 1/12 scale, they fit nicely in a steel display cabinet in the corner.
Holden Efijy concept car.
The Renault Argos concept, sleek, small, probably good for home theatering.
That Esprit mockup is how Tesla employees snooping on customer cars’ cameras ID’d Elon’s garage!: https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-images-recorded-by-customer-cars-2023-04-06/
I used to hang the 944’s spare door in my living room as wall art, but my new landlord is (understandably) more strict about hanging stuff on the walls. I have mixed feelings about an undriveable car, though. Maybe a little one that still runs? Simone Giertz’s cheese car would be a good one. No exhaust fumes, still driveable, and also a silly little thing. That yellow-orange even matches one of my chairs!
A red Countach hanging upside down over the dinner table, as a chandelier
Have you been to Quaker Steak & Lube in Sharon, PA? The whole place is like that. Tables under a lift with a hot rod on it, Corvette on one wall, engine stands all over the place, and pretty good wings.
https://thelube.com/locations/pennsylvania/sharon-the-original/
None. I never want to own another car that doesn’t get driven regularly.
Thank you!!! I was going through comments to find something compelling, but but this was going to be my reply
Lancia Stratos, Lancia 37, Lotus 29, Porsche 904, Dino 246, Mustang 428, even a Britten V1000, or the Honda RC166 (250cc 6 cylinder Grand Prix motorcycle)..
Why own something just to look at it? (of course the Lotus would be track only, but but that’s a far cry from being furniture)
288 or Viper
Kellison J6 Panther.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRZOjJbRAw9aZdYV0g5Cz0wGGKWOgA27FhZZn_MwBQCVd9TwPTSqeZ0x5g&s=10
If I could get it out, my z28 purchased new by my mother.
Levi’s edition Gremlin
Jag E-type of course.
You misspelled “Jaaaaaaaaag.”
You could serve a veritable feast on the hood!
FERRARI 250 GTO
Go for the top!
One of the Esprit submarine cars is part of a traveling exhibit of Bond movie cars. I saw it last year at The Automobile Gallery in Green Bay, WI – a fine little car museum.
https://theautomobilegallery.org/
There’s only one car that completely suits my personality well enough to display in my living room:
Bumper.
I will take no questions on this topic.
A bumper car by itself is criminal. At a minimum there must be two, for all to be right in the bumper car universe.
I can’t imagine the chaos that would ensue if things weren’t right in bumper car universe.
The only thing more fun than Bumper Cars is Bumper Boats.
Maybe in the bathroom?
We’re gonna need a bigger tub.
When you are right you are right. Art requires a correct juxtaposition
If I had a bigger living room, Citroën DS and/or Jaguar E-Type (cliché, I know) and/or Ferrari 250 GT Lusso. But given my current living room, I’d go with a Citroën 2CV Charleston. The removable seats would be handy for extra seating during parties.