Submersible James Bond Lotus Brings Nearly $1 Million at Auction RM Auctions of Blenheim, Ontario, sold a white 1977 Lotus Esprit S1 in London on Monday for the astronomical sum of $973,000. No, it's not a sign of the apocalypse that a fragile and unreliable 1970s British sports car sold for more than 40 times its usual market value. This was no usual Lotus Esprit, but a heavily modified and quite famous James Bond movie prop. Bond fans may remember the Esprit from the 1977 film "The Spy Who Loved Me" as the franchise's most distinctive hero car since the silver 1964 Aston Martin DB5 of "Goldfinger." Whereas the Aston Martin had low-tech modifications like machine guns and tire slashers, the Esprit could actually go underwater. And not in the financial manner that many Esprit owners - myself included - have found themselves underwater. The Lotus was an actual working submersible. And while my Esprit could at random times shoot oil out of its sump at high pressure and threaten to turn a shopping center parking lot into Prince William Sound, the Bond car could shoot missiles out the back to threaten marauding helicopters. As RM car specialist Peter Wallman pointed out from the auction block, the Esprit was from a time before the computerized special effects era - it actually had to do the outlandish things that the screenwriters concocted. In order for the Esprit drive off of a boat pier in Sardinia, then transform itself into a submarine and maneuver around under the surface of the Mediterranean, Perry Oceanographics of Riviera Beach, Fla., had to take a body shell supplied by Lotus Cars of Norfolk, England and turn it into a working submarine. Since sealing the car completely would have presented a nearly insurmountable challenge, Perry decided that the car would have to be a "wet" submersible, meaning that the passenger compartment filled with water when it was submerged. This gained the car the nickname "Wet Nellie." An ex-Navy SEAL, Don Griffin, acted as the on-screen pilot of the sub, wearing full scuba gear (a far cry from the dry, cushy interior Mr. Bond and his lady of the hour enjoyed in the film). According to the auction catalog, while underwater, the Esprit's handling was "crisply argonautic." Once the "The Spy Who Loved Me" left the theaters, the Lotus quickly fell into obscurity. According to RM, after being used to promote the film the Lotus was placed in a long-term storage unit with the rent prepaid for 10 years. Eventually, the rent became delinquent and the contents of the storage unit were sold in a blind auction. Other than a brief stint at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, it has rarely been seen. It's not the first time that a serious Bond car has been sold at auction. In 2010, also in London, RM sold the holy grail of Bond cars, the only known remaining example of one of the on-screen Aston Martin DB5s from "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball." That car sold for more than $4.6 million, more than four times what the Lotus brought. The reasons for the disparity aren't hard to fathom. As Bond cars go, the Aston had the advantage of actually being a car that drives. The Lotus can't be used as a car and the risks of using it as a submarine­ - though it was displayed in a faux underwater setting - are probably such that it will remain a largely contemplative object or perhaps the ultimate man cave trophy. And then there's the Roger Moore factor. Although Roger Moore has his fans, for many with the disposable income to purchase a bauble like a Bond movie car, Mr. Moore simply can't compare with Sean Connery.