Images provided by RM Auctions.
Of the eight white Lotus Esprits used in the filming of the 1977 James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me, none actually completely transformed from canyon-carving sports car to missile-launching submersible, as depicted in the film. One, however, was actually built as a (barely) functioning submarine, and that underwater prop will soon head to auction, potentially trading hands for the first time since it was unearthed in a storage locker in 1989.
Constructed by Perry Oceanographic, the Lotus-themed submarine was said to have cost producers over $100,000 to build. During the movie, Don Griffin, a retired Navy SEAL who served as Perry Oceanographic’s test pilot on all new underwater craft, piloted the submarine, which the filming crew affectionately dubbed “Wet Nellie.” The craft was a “wet” submarine, meaning that Griffin utilized SCUBA gear during the chase scene sequences. According to an article about the Bond Esprits at LotusEspritWorld, the Perry-built sub didn’t exactly work as the movie producers envisioned.
Initially there were reservations about the Esprit’s bodyshape. Something designed to give negative lift in a fluid called air isn’t easy to keep off the bottom when operated in seawater. Equally they didn’t like the movie designer’s dive-planes, but he insisted on them as part of the image. In practice, hydrodynamic downthrust on the Esprit’s swoopy nose and windscreen was adequately balanced out by setting the nose planes hard to rise and the tail planes hard to dive.
Petty fitted four electric submersible drive units to the Esprit’s retractable rear tray, each with steering vanes in the propeller stream. The vertical fins were locked off and acted purely as stabilisers while the car’s center section was packed with oil-filled battery units. To avoid pressurisation and sealing problems, the Esprit was in reality a wet submarine crewed by a pair of lung divers. With the windows barred, visibility was minimal, so a twin-mirror system was fitted to give the driver/diver a view of the bottom.
With no reverse thrust and thus no brakes, the 15-knot Lotus sub was an underwater bull in a china shop and the underwater film crew stood more chance of becoming traffic casualties in the clear waters of Nassau’s Coral Harbour than they did on dry land. The only way to slow the car was to switch off its motors and trust to the attendant divers to haul it in before a coral head loomed up. Meddings was convinced his creation was going to wreck itself in this way, but the underwater crew of seven Britons, three Americans and a Bahamian made sure that never happened. Motors off, the Esprit would settle to the bottom and it could be lifted from there by three divers.
Following the filming of the underwater scenes in the Bahamas, Wet Nellie was shipped to a storage locker in Long Island, New York, where it sat for over a decade. In 1989, the contents of the locker were sold at auction to recover delinquent rental fees. The car’s current owners were astonished to find the James Bond Lotus submarine hidden beneath a tarp, and subsequent research authenticated the car as Wet Nellie. Though it’s occasionally been displayed in the years since (including a showing at Los Angeles’s Petersen Automotive Museum), the unique craft has largely been out of the public eye since the movie was filmed.
Wet Nellie is not the only Lotus submarine car created for the movie; in fact, another Lotus Esprit was used to film the transition scenes from car to submarine, while Wet Nellie was reportedly used to film all the underwater sequences. Of the eight Esprits used in the film, six were body shells, while two were fully functional cars that Lotus provided. One of the latter sold at a Bonhams auction in 2008 for £111,500 (roughly $170,115). Another underwater Lotus, this one a static display, was offered for sale by Coys in 2007 with a pre-sale estimate of £30,000 to £40,000 ($45,800 to $61,000, results from that auction unavailable).
RM Auctions, which will offer Wet Nellie at its London auction with no reserve, estimates that the Lotus will achieve a selling price “in excess of £500,000″ ($762,850). While that’s substantially more money than the street-legal Lotus drew at auction, Wet Nellie did spend more time on screen, and remains among the most recognizable of James Bond vehicles. The price still pales in comparison to the £2.9 million ($4.6 million) that RM realized in 2010 for the Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Thunderball, but few would argue that the DB5 is the most iconic of James Bond’s vehicles.
RM’s London sale will take place September 8-9. For more information, visit RMAuctions.com.